Why check the phone type before texting?
A text to a landline is never read, and a mistyped number can’t be delivered. Checking first keeps your texts, and your team’s time, for people who can answer.
You can’t tell from the digits. People move numbers between landline and mobile carriers, so most US numbers look alike, and the carrier’s own data is the way to know the line type.
Business numbers matter too. A toll-free number, a number with an extension, or a switchboard that sits on several rows of your list reaches a company phone system, so those get a tag of their own, Office.
What do the five phone types mean?
Each number gets one plain word, written into the Phone type column so you can filter your list on it.
- Mobile: a personal mobile line, including app-based numbers people text from. These are the people you want to reach.
- Landline: a fixed home or office line. Campaign texts skip it.
- Office: a company phone system, such as a toll-free number, a number with an extension, a number shared by several rows, a desk VoIP line or a work phone on a business carrier.
- Invalid: a number that is empty, mistyped, breaks North American numbering rules, or that the carrier lookup cannot find. Campaign texts skip it.
- Unknown: the free rules couldn’t place it and the carrier lookup is off. Turn the lookup on to settle these.
Which phone checks are free?
Every check that needs only the digits. They run first, on every number, and use no texts.
- Empty or malformed numbers are tagged Invalid.
- A number whose area code or exchange starts with 0 or 1, or whose area code is an N11 code, can’t exist in North America and is tagged Invalid.
- Toll-free prefixes such as 800, 833 and 888 are tagged Office.
- A number carrying an extension, or the same number on several rows of the same list, is tagged Office.
Everything else is a plain local number, and for those the free rules answer Unknown.
When does the carrier lookup run, and what does it cost?
Only on numbers the free rules leave Unknown, and only when Carrier lookup is on for the column. Each number looked up uses 1 text, which is 5¢ down to 2.5¢ depending on your bucket.
The lookup returns the line type and the carrier, and the tag follows from both. A mobile on a business phone carrier, for example, is tagged Office.
You can also turn on Line status, which adds a column filled with Active, Reachable, Unreachable, Inactive or Unknown. It uses 1 more text a number, and only numbers that came back Mobile are checked. If the carrier lookup is busy or down, the texts held for it go back to your balance.
The pricing page lists every bucket of texts.
What happens to landlines when a campaign sends?
The text step is skipped. The lead’s record notes that the number is not textable, and the lead moves on to the next step with no text used.
The sender reads the Phone type tag for the lead’s own number at every text step, so a tag added after you push still counts. Numbers tagged Office or Unknown are sent as normal, so to text mobiles only, filter your list on Mobile before you push.
With Auto-update on, new rows are checked as they arrive, and a push column can send each one to its campaign once its phone type lands. Numbers outside the US and Canada are skipped at send time too, free.
Does a phone type check cover consent?
No. It tells you what kind of line a number is, and nothing about whether the person agreed to hear from you.
Every campaign text still needs a consent record or the campaign-wide confirmation. Our opt-in wording examples show how to collect and record consent, and the texting rules page lists every check Textually runs.