Messaging Channels
Choose which channels your community uses to reach prospects and advocates, under Settings → Messaging Channels.
The channels
- SMS — on for every community. It’s the live channel for reminders and conversations and can’t be turned off yet.
- Email — off by default; this is the one you control. Turn it on to let prospects sign in and receive messages by email. Leave it off until you’re ready.
- WhatsApp — listed but not yet available (coming soon).
- Web — always on. Prospects can always reply from your community site, so it can’t be turned off.
Why Email is gated
Email sign-in had quietly started letting people create prospect accounts with only an email address and no phone number. Because email messaging isn’t fully supported yet, those prospects couldn’t receive reminders.
Prospect email sign-in is now gated behind this setting: until you enable the Email channel, prospects sign in with their phone number as before. Advocate sign-in is unchanged — advocates still log in with email.
What changes when you enable a channel
The two-step send-message form adapts to the channels you’ve enabled:
- SMS only — prospects go straight to entering a phone number.
- Email only — prospects go straight to entering an email address.
- Both — prospects choose between text message and email.
No action is required — every community keeps SMS enabled. Enable Email only when you want it. To see what’s actually being delivered, check the Messaging Activity Log.