Setting up a phone line to receive texts | Community
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RickU
Newcomer
April 10, 2026
Question

Setting up a phone line to receive texts

  • April 10, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 102 views

We want to use one of our Zoom phone lines as a dedicated line for receiving text (SMS) messages.  The idea is that families we support (we’re a charity) could send a text to that line and one of our volunteers would call them back or respond by text using their own phones (not the Zoom phone).  I have acquired the Zoom phone number, but am having trouble figuring out how to set it up to receive SMS messages.  Everything I see in the Phone section of the Zoom Web Portal seems oriented around setting up SMS campaigns, which seem to be for outgoing text messages.  In this case we just want to use it to receive texts.  Zoom Help has been no help.  Can anyone tell me what to do so we can start receiving texts on that phone line?  Thanks!

    1 reply

    Vinnie
    Community Champion | Customer
    Vinnie
    Community Champion | Customer
    April 13, 2026

    Hello ​@RickU 

    You don't have to do anything to receive SMS messages on a Zoom Phone number to the Zoom Phone user that has that number, as long as that telephone number supports SMS service; you can quickly check if the number support SMS by going to the Zoom admin portal, then

    “ADMIN > Number Management > Phone Numbers” and check the column “Capability”  for the number in question; you will see something like below; if you hover you mouse over each icon it will tell you what it means each one; in this case it shows Inbound calls, Outbound calls, SMS, Emergency calls and Faxing are supported.

    You can see the messages in the Zoom Phone client (App) of the person with the number and according to Zoom documentation, the SMS Campaign is only needed for Sending SMS.

     

    If you want multiple people to receive that SMS then the easiest way to to get the Zoom Power Pack license so you can allocate that number receiving SMS to a Call Queue and other features; I think Zoom is renaming that license to Zoom Phone Engagement Pack (or something around that).

    If buying the license is not an option, the Zoom Phone person monitoring that number receiving the SMS can manually copy the information for a Zoom Chat where all the volunteers are part of and follow whatever process you have defined for it.,

    I am not sure what your plan is but that license will allow you to do many other things, provide you with detailed activity report, etc. So will allow to use Zoom Phone to reply directly (Auditing, Metrics, etc.) which it might come handy for compliance which I assume you might need to have to stay in Charity Status, etc. For this Outbound SMS you will have to register a Campaign...but it is very easy so I would do it anyway even if you don't needed. 

    I hope this helps,

    Vinnie

    R
    Newcomer
    RickUAuthor
    Newcomer
    April 13, 2026

    Thank you, Vinnie!  I appreciate your help.  Following your instructions, I was able to see that SMS is turned off for that number.  Unfortunately, it seems like you DO have to create a 10DLC Campaign in order to turn on SMS at all:

     

     

    The challenge is both that this will take up to 4 weeks (according to the disclaimer on the form) and that nearly all of the questions assume we will be sending texts, when all we want to do is receive them.  (Example: What verbal script will we use to get customer’s permission to send texts, etc.)  Just typing “N/A” doesn’t work.  Is there in fact a way to set up a Zoom phone number to receive texts without creating a 10DLC campaign?  Unfortunately, I was very clear with the salesperson at Zoom that this is what I wanted to do with the line, but she probably just heard “SMS” and thought, “Oh ya, we can do that.”  

     

    Thanks again for your help.  

      Vinnie
      Community Champion | Customer
      Vinnie
      Community Champion | Customer
      April 13, 2026

      ​Happy to help @RickU

      It is unlikely it will take all 4 weeks; in the beginning because of the high volume it was the case, but in your case I think it should be simple and fairly fast (less than I week I would adventure to say).

      Create a “Brand” first, as it should be a pre-requisite (5 easy questions), and then you can use that “Brand” to create your “Campaign”

      ADMIN > Number Management > SMS Setup

      Just keep it simple and you shouldn't have any issues.

       

      Setting up Zoom SMS with 10DLC Compliance for conversational messaging:

      https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0058283

       

      Vinnie

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