Engage with customers through text messages

Sending and receiving text messages through SMS is an effective way for sellers to reach out to potential customers. It's fast, convenient, and allows for quick responses. Sellers use SMS to stay in touch with their customers, by responding to questions or concerns, and providing updates and information on products and services.

Dynamics 365 Sales enables your sellers to send and receive SMS from customers through the text message feature. Also, sellers can refer to their past communication in context without leaving the application or losing their view of their customers' details. To ensure professional and secure communication, the application always prioritizes business phone numbers over personal ones when sending automated SMS.

In the sequences, SMS can be included as a step to send reminders or updates about key events.

Note

The text message feature is only supported in web browsers.

How can I use the text message feature?

Depending on your role, you can use the text message feature as described in the list:

• System administrator or similar role:

  • Configure the SMS provider in your organization for sellers to use. More information: Configure SMS provider
  • Assign or remove phone numbers of users. More information: Edit phone numbers
  • Add the text message option to custom forms. More information: Add text message option to custom forms

• Sales manager, seller, or any other similar role:

  • Choose a service provider to send and receive SMS. More information: Understand the conversation pane
  • Add text message and automated text message as steps in a sequence. More information: Send a text message and Send an automated text message
  • Create and add SMS templates. More information: Personalize text messages through templates
  • Send SMS from the Sales accelerator workspace or the Up next widget. More information: Send a text message to customers
  • Access past SMS interactions in context with relevant sales records such as lead and opportunity. More information: Manage text message conversations

In which regions is the text message feature available?

The text message feature is available in the following regions:

• Asia Pacific (APAC)
• Canada (CAN)
• Europe (EUR)
• France (FRA)
• Great Britain (GBR)
• India (IND)
• Japan (JPN)
• North America (NAM)
• Oceania (OCE)
• South America (SAM)
• Switzerland (CHE)
• United Arab Emirates (UAE)

Note

Currently, the text message feature is not available in the following datacenters— Germany, China, South Africa, Korea, Norway, and Government Community Cloud (GCC), including USG, Department of Defense (DoD).

Permissions required

Verify that the users who need to use the text message feature have the following permissions.

Note

If you’ve already enabled Sales accelerator and provided access to the required security roles, no additional permissions are required for the SMS feature. To provide permissions in Sales accelerator, see Sales accelerator first-run setup.

For salesperson or similar role:

Tab name	Entity name	Access level	Privileges required
Core Records	- Activity - Note	User	- Create - Write - Delete - Append
Core Records	- Activity - Note	Business Unit	Read
Core Records	Lead	Business Unit	- Create - Read
Custom Entities	Channel Instance	User	Append To
Custom Entities	- Channel Instance - Channel Instance Account - Channel Definition - SalesOmnichannel Message - Transcript	Business Unit	Read
Custom Entities	- Environment variable definition - Consuming Application	Organization	Read
Custom Entities	Model-driven App User Setting	Organization	- Create - Read - Write - Append
Custom Entities	Notification	User	Read
Custom Entities	SalesOmnichannel Message	User	- Create - Write - Delete - Append - Assign
Custom Entities	Setting definition	Organization	- Read - Append
Custom Entities	Text message template	Business Unit	- Create - Write - Read - Delete
Custom Entities	Transcript	User	- Create - Write - Delete - Append - Append To

For sales manager, sequence manager, or similar role:

The following roles are required along with the roles defined in the salesperson section:

Tab name	Entity name	Access level	Privileges required
Custom Entities	Channel Instance	Business Unit	- Assign - Write
Custom Entities	- Channel Definition locale - Telesign channel instance account - Twilio channel instance account	Business Unit	Read
Custom Entities	- Telesign channel instance - Twilio channel instance	Business Unit	- Read - Write - Assign

See also

Configure SMS provider
Edit phone numbers