Phone numbers for SMS and voice

An agent answers texts and calls on a phone number. Subcontext provides the numbers through Twilio, its telephone provider. You choose the numbers, and sometimes give the regulator your business details.

Getting a number#

Numbers are set up for your organisation by Subcontext. Email hello@subcontext.com with how many you need, the kind (for example a UK mobile number, which can text and take calls) and what they're for.

Once a number is yours, attach it in the dashboard. Open the agent, its Channels tab, Configure on SMS or voice, then pick from the available numbers under Phone number and press Attach.

• One number, several channels. A number that can text and take calls can serve the same agent's SMS and voice channels at once, and WhatsApp too (see WhatsApp). Release takes it off one channel without affecting the others.
• One firm per number. A number in use by your agents can't be used by anyone else's.
• Costs. Number rental, texts and call minutes appear on your Usage page.

Keeping your existing number#

Subcontext can't take over (port) a number you already have from another provider. If customers already know a number, ask your current phone provider to forward calls on it to your Subcontext number. Texts to the old number can't be forwarded this way, so give customers the new number for texting.

Phone number compliance#

Some numbers can only be used once the regulator's checks on your business are done. In the UK this applies to mobile numbers, because the operator has to know which business is behind each one. Twilio collects and reviews these details as a regulatory bundle.

While you're on a trial, texts and calls use Subcontext's shared numbers, so there's nothing to register. When you start a paid subscription, your organisation gets its own phone account and needs a bundle of its own. Phone number compliance then appears in the dashboard's settings, and numbers can't be attached to SMS or voice until it's approved. An owner or manager fills in the form on that page once, and it goes straight to Twilio.

What to have ready#

Twilio sets the questions on the form. They usually cover:

• your business's legal name, type and registration details;
• your business address;
• a contact person at the business, with their email address and phone number;
• possibly a document proving the business or its address.

Review#

A label beside the page's title shows where you are:

Owners and managers can be told when it changes, with the Phone number compliance updates notification.

What people see#

• Texts come from the number attached to the agent's SMS channel. There's no custom sender name. People see the number, so tell customers to save it.
• Calls to the number are answered by the agent. Say early in the agent's greeting that the caller is talking to an AI assistant.
• Calls from Subcontext show one of your own numbers that has a voice channel switched on, so calling back reaches your agent. An outbound call can't be placed from a number nobody would answer.

Test both directions yourself before you give the number out.

Opt-outs#

Subcontext handles the standard opt-out keywords on both SMS and WhatsApp. A keyword only counts when it's the whole message (upper or lower case):

What a STOP withdraws is your firm's choice, in the Rulebook under Consent: Everything on that channel (the default) or Only marketing on that channel. Keyword messages never reach your AI agent. A STOP inside a longer message ("please stop texting me") goes to the agent like any other message.