Two-way texting

Two-way texting lets you have real SMS conversations with clients from your Arketa inbox — not from your personal phone. All messages are tied to the client's profile and thread alongside their booking and purchase history.

Set up your texting number

1. Go to Settings → Phone Number and click Set up now

2. Enter your preferred area code and select an available phone number

3. Under Incoming calls, choose what happens when someone calls your texting number:

   • Forward to a phone number — calls route to your studio or personal phone (your Arketa number shows as the caller ID)
   • Send to voicemail — callers hear your Voicemail greeting, which you can record, upload, or set with text-to-speech
   • Answer in dashboard — available when calling is turned on for your account. See Phone line

Send a message

From any client's profile or the Inbox:

1. Open the client's conversation thread
2. Type your message and send

Messages send as SMS from your Arketa phone number.

What a text costs

Texts you send from the Inbox use your monthly SMS credits, the same pool as broadcasts and automations. One text is not always one credit:

• Length: carriers split texts into segments of 160 characters. An emoji, a curly apostrophe (’), or an em dash drops each segment to 67 characters.
• Your number's country: each segment costs 1 credit from a US number, 3 from a Canadian number, and 5 from a UK number.
• Pictures: a text with an image is sent as an MMS, which costs more than a plain text.

For example, a 500-character text with a curly apostrophe is 8 segments. From a Canadian number, that's 24 credits.

See How SMS credits are counted for the full breakdown.

Inbox features

Quick replies — Pre-written responses you can send with one click. Great for FAQs, booking confirmations, or common questions. To set one up:

• In the Inbox, open a thread, tap the ⚡ icon, and click +
• Or go to Settings → Communications → Quick Replies and click Create new

Emojis — Add emoji to messages directly in the compose field.

Images — Attach and send images in conversations.

AI drafts — Use built-in AI to draft responses. The AI suggests a reply based on the conversation context — edit before sending.

Group messaging

Group messaging lets you send one thread to several clients at once, straight from the dashboard Inbox or the Business App. The dashboard Inbox mirrors the Business App, so group messaging works the same way in both places.

Create a group chat in the dashboard

Create a group chat in the Business App

Use the same flow from the app's Inbox. Because the dashboard Inbox and Business App mirror each other, the steps are identical — tap +, choose New Group Chat, add participants, then name the chat and add a photo.

What clients see

Clients receive your messages as regular SMS texts. They can reply, and their response appears in your Arketa Inbox — all in one thread per client.