Making calls and sending SMS messages to customers is easier with Aptly. Using a Twilio phone line, you are able to make a call or send an SMS without leaving Aptly while protecting your personal privacy. Aptly also tracks and records your phone calls.
In this article, you will learn:
- How Phone Calls Work in Aptly
- How to Make a Phone Call in Aptly
- How to Send an SMS
How Phone Calls Work in Aptly
When you make a call through Aptly's inbox, you are able to hide your personal phone number while still using your own device. You're able to separate your personal phone calls from work phone calls without needing multiple devices.
Since Aptly is integrated with Twilio, all of your settings and account information are found in Aptly Settings under Personal Phone Numbers or Shared Phone Numbers.
With Shared Phone Numbers, Aptly and Twilio allow you to have multiple phone lines for different departments in your company. You can add team members to each phone line and the phone numbers will appear as inboxes in your inbox folders menu. Another idea is to have a separate phone number for each lead source like Zillow, Zumper, Apartments.com, etc. This allows you to track calls specifically from each of these sources.
When making calls in Aptly, the dialer will call your physical phone in order to connect you to your company's Twilio phone number. The person you are calling will see the FROM phone number (Twilio phone number) in their caller ID, keeping your personal phone number (Agent Number) private.
How to Make a Phone Call in Aptly
When making a call in Aptly, you’ll need two things to complete the call:
- A working phone line (personal cell phone, land line, web-based phone number)
- From the Inbox, click on the circle icon with a white arrow and select the phone 📞 icon.
- Search for the contact in the search 🔍 bar at the top. Select the contact.
- Choose the phone number inbox that you're calling from.
- The Agent Number is the phone that the dialer will call to connect you to the callee. This is also called the Ring To number in the Phone Settings.
- Select the Agent's phone number that will connect you to the caller. The default number is the provided number in the phone number settings. To manually enter any phone number that you'd like to connect to, select Custom Number from the dropdown. Aptly will call the Agent Number and connect the caller to the callee.
- Hit the Phone 📞 Icon at the bottom of the phone screen to make the call.
This interactive image below explains more about the phone popup screen and how to make a phone call.
How to Send an SMS Message
Sending an SMS in Aptly is simple once you have your phone number set up and registered with Twilio. You can access the SMS Composer Window right from your Aptly Inbox.
In the Conversation Preview, there is a circle with a white arrow. Clicking on the icon will open up your composer window options: Email, SMS, or Phone Call. Choose the SMS icon to open the SMS composer window.
If you would like to send Bulk SMS messages, we will cover that in a separate article. It will be linked at the bottom under Related Articles.
More information about each feature of the SMS Composer Window can be accessed in this interactive image. Click or hover over each red icon to learn more about the SMS Composer Window and how to compose your SMS Message.