Every customer-facing SMS template — day-before reminders, on-my-way texts, review requests, overdue invoice reminders — needs two things to fire:

  1. The Messaging addon is active on your subscription.
  2. Your business has been A2P 10DLC registered and approved.

Until both are in place, SMS templates show as Locked or Pending on the Automations page and don't send anything.

Step 1 — turn on the Messaging addon

  1. Settings → Billing (owner-only).
  2. Under Addons, find Messaging.
  3. Click Enable and complete Stripe checkout.

Messaging is $39/mo. It also unlocks the Messages inbox and enables inbound SMS. This addon is separate from Voice and AI Receptionist.

Once Messaging is active, SMS templates flip from Locked to Pending A2P — you're not done yet.

Step 2 — register for A2P 10DLC

A2P 10DLC is what US mobile carriers (Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T) require for any business texting from a local number. Unregistered messages get filtered or blocked.

  1. Go to Settings → Phone → Messaging setup (or click Complete setup on any Pending template).
  2. Fill in the A2P form:
    • Legal business name
    • Business type (LLC, Corporation, Sole Proprietorship, etc. — S-Corporation is a tax election, not an entity type; pick your registered form)
    • Business address
    • Website / online presence
    • Sample messages you'll send
  3. Submit.

Review takes 1–5 business days on average. You'll see the status change from Pending → Approved on the page.

Once approved, every SMS template that shows Pending flips to Ready. Turn on the ones you want.

Step 3 — turn on the templates

Automations. Each SMS template shows a toggle:

SMS template states — Ready, Pending, Locked

  • Ready (green) — flip it on.
  • Pending — either checkout or A2P isn't complete yet. The CTA tells you which.
  • Locked — Messaging addon isn't active.

Toggling a template flips the underlying automation from Draft to Published. It starts firing on the next matching event.

Special case — the review-request SMS

The Review request template needs one extra thing: a Google review URL in Settings → Business. Without it, the template stays locked (no point texting a link that goes nowhere).

What about outbound-only SMS from a page?

Sending an ad-hoc SMS from a customer's page also needs the Messaging addon + A2P. If you can send a manual SMS from /messages, you can turn on SMS automations too — the underlying requirement is the same.