Send and receive SMS and WhatsApp in x-bees

Send and receive text messages from the same conversation as your calls, on numbers that run over CLASSOUND.

Send and receive text messages from the same conversation as your calls, on numbers that run over CLASSOUND.

Three things have to be in place

1. The user is on x-bees Standard or higher.
2. The number sends over CLASSOUND. Numbers on Multi Carrier Trunks cannot send messages. You do not buy CLASSOUND separately for this: it comes with x-bees.
3. An administrator has set that specific number up in WMS as the SMS number of a service. Until that is done, the option to start an SMS conversation is not there at all.

Start an SMS conversation

1. Click + in the top panel and choose Create SMS conversation.
2. Enter the recipient's number or contact name.
3. Pick the service to send from. Only services with an SMS number set up in WMS appear in the list, and the choice is final: the service cannot be changed once the conversation exists.
4. Click Create conversation, then type and send as you would in a chat.

If a conversation already exists for that number and service, you are added to it rather than starting a second one. That is deliberate: one customer number, one thread, whoever is handling it.

Getting replies back

Messages going out and replies coming back are two different capabilities. Replies need CLASSOUND Pro, and they work on numbers in these countries only:

Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.

MMS is narrower still: two-way MMS runs on United States and Canadian numbers only, and the destination has to be in international format.

The name recipients see has to be registered

Most countries want the sender ID registered before they will carry your messages, and the ones that do not are becoming the exception. Two countries have set a date: from 15 September 2026 Spanish operators block every SMS, MMS and RCS message from an unregistered alphanumeric sender, and from 1 October 2026 Austria delivers only registered ones. Numeric senders are unaffected in both.

An unregistered message does not bounce; it never arrives. So if you send to either country, sort the registration out before the send rather than after the silence.

Limits worth knowing

• 670 characters per message in the input field.
• One recipient per conversation. You cannot send one SMS to several people from a single SMS conversation.
• The bundle is shared. On Pro each subscription carries 200 messages a month, and SMS, MMS and WhatsApp all draw on the same pot. Usage shows in the statistics, which is a better place to find a heavy month than the invoice.
• SMS and WhatsApp to the same number share a thread. A customer who texts you and then messages you on WhatsApp appears in one conversation, not two.
• Nobody is left holding it. If everyone leaves an SMS conversation and the customer writes again, the service members are added back, so the reply is not lost.
• An hour of silence escalates. If a message to a service goes unanswered for sixty minutes, the call group manager is added to the conversation and emailed about it. That manager is whoever is named in the Missed calls manager field of the call group in WMS, which is worth checking before you rely on it.

Why this beats a personal mobile

• The thread survives the person. A colleague can pick up where you left off.
• Calls and messages sit together rather than in two places.
• The customer sees your company number, not someone's private mobile.

Guests and SMS

External people cannot be added to an SMS conversation the way they can to a normal one. SMS is between you and one number.

If nothing sends

Check the plan, then check whether that number is set up for messaging. Having CLASSOUND does not mean every number can send.

See also

• Register a sender ID for SMS
• Why does WhatsApp not work in x-bees?
• What CLASSOUND is and when you need it