FATHOM

FATHOM

A deep-dive into all things ORCA.
From core concepts to advanced settings.

Plugins

Texts & WhatsApp

When your account has its own messaging number, every contact gets a Messages panel on their page. Type a message, press Send, and it goes to their phone from your number. When they reply, the reply lands in the same thread, usually within ten seconds or so.

Every message, in and out, is also logged as a communication against the contact, so it sits alongside emails, calls and meetings in their history.

Setting It Up

Messaging runs through Twilio, using a number that belongs to your account. The ORCA team sets this up: which number, whether WhatsApp is switched on, and where replies should go. Get in touch through Feedback to have it switched on.

Until it's set up, the Messages panel doesn't appear.

Your own number

Every account texts only from its own number, and only hears from it. Nothing is shared between accounts. The number (and the WhatsApp number, if you have one) is set by the ORCA team. You can see what yours is in Settings > General, under Time zone and phone numbers, which says "Texts go from ..." with your number, or "Texting is off: no number set."

If an account has no number, ORCA sends nothing rather than borrowing someone else's. A message to a number that doesn't belong to any account is logged by ORCA and filed nowhere.

Time zone and country code

The same part of Settings > General has two settings you can change yourself, then click Save:

  • Time zone: where your account works. Clock times, night-before texts, due dates and the times shown on records all follow it. A UK account stays on UK time.
  • Country code: used for numbers typed without one. A number typed with a leading 0 is texted and matched as +44 (or your code) without the 0. One typed with its own + or 00 is left alone.

Set the country code correctly and "07700 900123" and "+44 7700 900123" are the same person, which matters when a reply comes in.

Sending a Message

Open the contact and find the Messages panel.

  1. If WhatsApp is switched on for your account, choose Text or WhatsApp above the box.
  2. Type the message. The box shows who it's going to.
  3. Press Send, or Cmd+Enter (Ctrl+Enter on Windows).

Under the box, ORCA shows which number it's sending from. A message can be up to 1,600 characters, which is about ten texts' worth; long texts are split and joined back together on their phone.

If the contact has no mobile number, the panel asks you to add one first.

The Thread

Messages you send sit on the right, coloured by type: teal for a text, green for WhatsApp. Their replies sit on the left. Each one shows whether it was a text or WhatsApp, and when.

Under your own messages, ORCA shows how far they got: Sending, Sent, Delivered and, for WhatsApp, Read. If one didn't get through, it says so in plain words, for example that the number can't take texts, that they've replied STOP to your number, or that the phone is off.

The thread checks for new messages every ten seconds while the page is open.

WhatsApp's 24-Hour Rule

WhatsApp only lets a business send a free-form message within 24 hours of the contact's last message to you. Outside that window, the message won't be delivered and ORCA tells you why. Send a text instead, or wait for them to get in touch.

While an account is still on Twilio's WhatsApp test number, each contact has to send a join code to that number once before they can receive anything. ORCA shows the code under the box when that applies.

Texts Sent to Your Number

Texts that arrive at your number are matched to a contact by their mobile or telephone number, however it was typed in ORCA, and logged as a communication against them. A text from a number ORCA doesn't recognise is still logged, without a contact, so nothing goes missing. See Communications.

Texts from the Site Clock

Staff texts from the Site Clock, such as the night-before text, go from the same number as everything else on your account. When an engineer replies, the reply is matched on the mobile number in their user profile and sits in a thread under that text on the Site Clock page, rather than being lost among the contacts' messages.

Filing a message on a job

If a text or WhatsApp has a job number in it, ORCA files it on that job, pictures and all, when it comes from your staff or from a contact on that job. An engineer's photo with no number goes on the job they're clocked on to. See Messages on a Record.

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