Phone & SMS

Stoked uses SMS relay to connect prospects and advocates through text messaging, all routed through your community’s dedicated phone number.

How SMS Relay Works

When your community has SMS enabled, Stoked assigns a dedicated phone number to your community. This number acts as a relay point between prospects and advocates.

Here is the general flow:

A prospect visits your community site and sends a message to an advocate.
Stoked verifies the prospect’s phone number by sending a one-time verification code via SMS.
Once verified, Stoked delivers an SMS notification to the advocate with the prospect’s message.
The advocate replies by texting back to your community’s phone number.
Stoked relays the advocate’s reply to the prospect via SMS.
The conversation continues through the relay, with each party texting your community number.

Both the advocate and the prospect text the same community phone number. Stoked keeps track of active conversations and routes each message to the correct recipient automatically.

SMS relay is one channel for conversations. Communities without SMS can still use Stoked - conversations happen through the web interface instead.

Phone Number Assignment

Your community’s SMS phone number is provisioned and assigned by the Stoked team during onboarding. You do not need to purchase or configure a phone number yourself.

If you need a phone number assigned or changed, contact support at stoked-help@stokedhq.com.

Phone Number Verification

Before a prospect can participate in an SMS conversation, Stoked verifies their phone number. The prospect receives a short verification code via text and enters it on the community site. This prevents spam and ensures messages reach real phone numbers.

Stoked also validates that phone numbers are capable of receiving SMS. Landline numbers are automatically rejected, while mobile and VoIP numbers are accepted.

Test Mode and the SMS Allow List

Communities in test mode have an SMS allow list that restricts which phone numbers can receive messages. This prevents accidental texts to real prospects while you are setting up or testing your community.

In test mode, SMS messages are only sent to phone numbers on the allow list.
In live mode, the allow list is ignored and SMS messages are sent to all verified numbers.

If you are testing your community and not receiving SMS messages, confirm with the Stoked team that your phone number has been added to the allow list.

Supported Countries

By default, SMS relay is available in the United States and Canada. Support can be expanded to additional countries on a per-community basis.

For the full list of countries where Stoked is available, see Supported Countries.

Troubleshooting

Not receiving verification codes - Make sure you are entering a mobile or VoIP number, not a landline. Check that the number includes the correct country code.
Advocate not getting SMS notifications - Verify the advocate has a valid phone number on file. In test mode, confirm their number is on the allow list.
Messages not relaying - Each party must text the community phone number directly. Messages sent to other numbers are not routed through Stoked.
Need a phone number assigned - Contact the Stoked team. Phone numbers are not self-service at this time.