Once a phone number is configured for SMS (see Configuring SMS Settings), incoming texts are automatically turned into Help Desk tickets. This article covers how those tickets are created, how replies work, and what your agents and customers each see.
How an SMS ticket gets created
When a customer texts your configured number:
- Contact identification — HappyFox matches the sender's number to a contact:
- If the number matches exactly one contact, the ticket is associated with that contact.
- If the number matches more than one contact, the Default Contact setting on that phone number (Newest or Oldest) decides which one is used.
- If the number doesn't match any contact, a new contact is created automatically with that number, using "Unknown" as the contact name.
- Category routing — the ticket is created in the category configured for that phone number.
- Ticket creation vs. update — if the contact has no existing SMS ticket, a new one is created. If a ticket already exists, HappyFox checks its status:
- Pending — the new message is added to the thread as an update. The ticket status doesn't change.
- Closed — behavior depends on how re-open is configured for the account:
- Do nothing — the new message is appended to the closed ticket without reopening it.
- Re-open — if the ticket was closed within the configured number-of-days window, it's reopened, the selected status is applied to it, and the message is appended. Otherwise, a new ticket is created.
- Create ticket — a new ticket is created every time.
Every SMS ticket carries a mobile icon with a checkmark inside it, so agents can quickly identify it in ticket lists and views.
Ticket template
- Subject: SMS conversation with {Contact Name} ({contact number})
- Body: the content of the customer's text message
Each subsequent message from the customer is added to the ticket as a new update — the same way an email reply appends to an email ticket.
SMS metadata on each update
Every update on an SMS ticket shows the following metadata:
- Type — Inbound or Outbound
- Sent From — the originating number
- Sent To — the destination number
- Delivery State — the delivery status of the message (Delivered / Undelivered). This only applies to outbound messages sent from HappyFox.
Replying to an SMS ticket
The reply editor on an SMS ticket is intentionally stripped down, since it's sending an actual text message rather than a rich email reply:
- 160-character limit — enforced with a live counter (e.g. 138 / 160) as the agent types. Text beyond the limit is blocked.
- Plain text only — the editor supports plain text, along with Canned Actions and Insert KB Link, since standard SMS doesn't support rich formatting.
- No CC / BCC — these fields are removed, since SMS only has a single sender and recipient.
- Send SMS button — the reply button reads Send SMS instead of the usual Add Reply, as a clear signal that clicking it sends a real text to the customer.
What customers see in the Support Center
Customers can view their SMS ticket conversations in the Support Center, but they can't reply from there — the reply/response field is hidden on SMS tickets. Customers reply the same way they started the conversation: by texting the number.