Conversations

A conversation gathers every message exchanged with one number, in order, like the thread of a messaging app on a phone. The Conversations screen is your shared SMS inbox: several people can read and answer from their own browser, and each sees the others' changes live.

Typical uses: answering customers who reply to a campaign, a support line on a real mobile number, following up an order confirmation that raised a question.

How a conversation is born

There is exactly one conversation per number. It is created the first time a message is sent to that number or received from it, whatever the way (quick send, campaign, API, automatic reply). A message from a number you already talked to joins the existing thread.

A service that writes from a short code or a name (a bank, a payment service, 8080) is not recorded by default: those senders are refused, and named in the journal so you can see them. To follow one, record it in Settings, Reception, where the services already seen on your SIM cards are offered as a list to pick from (see Settings). Such a conversation reads like any other, but nothing can be sent back to it.

A conversation is not a contact. It exists as soon as a message is exchanged, even with a number that is not in your directory. You can create the contact from the conversation in one click (see The contact panel).

The list

The left column lists the conversations, pinned first, then the most recently active. Each shows the number or the contact's name, the last message, its time, and the number of unread messages.

Above it, a single line: the search field, and a Filters button carrying the number of filters in use. The filters open in a panel, and each one in use comes back as a chip under the search field. Click a chip to drop that filter alone, or Clear all filters to start over.

Opening a thread always shows it, whatever the filters: a thread opened from the Unread only or Archived list appears on the right and loses its unread badge, exactly as it would from the full list. If a thread has been deleted since a link to it was shared, the right panel says so and offers to go back to the list.

The list and the unread counters update live, without reloading: a message received while you are on the screen appears at once.

Read and sort a thread

Click a conversation to open it. Opening it marks it as read for everyone. Scroll up, or click Load older history, to go further back.

Above the thread:

Under each message you see its time and, for an outbound message, its status. A failed message shows its reason and a Retry button (see Sending messages).

Delete a message

Each message carries a menu (the three dots beside it, shown on hover and always on a phone) with Delete. Deleting is permanent and covers this gateway: the message leaves the conversation, the history, the searches and the exports. The other messages of the thread stay, the thread keeps its place, and its unread counter is recomputed.

The copy kept by the phone is not touched. Android only lets the phone's default SMS application erase an SMS, and Selfhostsms is not one: it sends and receives without that role, and asking for it would take the messaging of your phone away from the app you actually use. If you also want the SMS gone from the handset, erase it there, in its Messages app.

Three things a deletion cannot do: bring back a message deleted by mistake, take back an SMS already delivered to your correspondent, and erase the copy the phone keeps. Deleting a message that is still queued cancels it first, so it never leaves.

Deleting publishes the message.deleted webhook event, and every deletion is written to the journal.

Labels and assignment

Threads can carry labels (for example "invoice", "complaint") and be assigned to a user. The list shows the first labels of each thread and the header shows "Assigned to" its user; the Label and Assigned to me filters use them.

In the current version, labels are applied by the automation rules or through the API, and assignment through the API (PATCH /conversations/{conversationId}, fields labels and assignedTo). The dashboard shows them and filters on them, but does not edit them yet.

Reply

Type your message at the bottom of the thread and click Send. The composer offers:

Why the reply keeps the same SIM. The gateway remembers which phone and SIM last received a message from this correspondent. On Automatic, the reply leaves from that SIM whenever it can send, so your customer always sees you answer from the number they wrote to; a reply from another number would look like a stranger, or be ignored. The routing rules do not change the SIM of an existing conversation. The first option of Sending device names that phone: "Automatic, Office phone first".

When the conversation's phone is offline. On Automatic, the reply does not wait for it: another available phone sends it at once, following your routing. Your customer then sees it come from another number, which beats a reply that never arrives. As soon as the conversation's phone is back, the next replies leave from its number again.

Forcing a phone. Choose a phone in Sending device only when the reply must leave from it and from no other. Choosing the conversation's phone also selects its SIM. A forced phone is an order, not a preference: while it is offline, the reply stays Queued, is retried, and fails if the phone does not come back before its attempts run out. The choice applies to the thread you are in; the next thread opens on Automatic again.

Unsent text is kept as a draft for each thread, in your browser: you can switch threads and come back to it. Replies are never held by the night pause of campaigns.

The contact panel

The panel on the right shows who you are talking to (open it with Open contact details):

• Unknown number: the number is not in your directory. Create the contact adds it in one click; you can then complete it in Contacts.
• Internal notes: free text for your team, visible here only and never sent to anyone.
• Groups, with Add to a group.
• Labels and Custom fields of the contact.
• Opt out / Opt back in: stops or allows every send to this number. See Contacts and groups.
• Export thread as CSV: downloads the messages of the thread loaded on screen. Load the older history first for a complete export.

A correspondent who answers STOP is opted out automatically, and nothing more can be sent to them until they are opted back in.

Options

In PATCH /conversations/{conversationId}, a field left out is not changed, and a field set to null is cleared: that is how you unassign a thread without touching the rest.

API

Troubleshooting