How can I set up Text & Voicemail?

Text & Voicemail sends SMS and ringless voicemail to the leads in your searches.

You connect your own Twilio and Slybroadcast accounts, so those providers bill you directly for the messages and LeadSwift adds nothing on top.

You send from the Leads page, one lead at a time or thousands at once. A send runs in the background, so you can close the browser and come back to it.

What you need

Texts and voicemails go out through your own provider accounts, so set up whichever channel you plan to use.

Text message: Twilio — reaches mobile numbers worldwide.

Ringless voicemail: Slybroadcast — reaches US and Canadian numbers.

Important: You also need permission from the people you are contacting. Texting and voicemail are regulated more tightly than email in most countries, and the rules that apply to you are your responsibility. Every send asks you to confirm this before it starts.

Both providers bill you directly for what you send. LeadSwift does not charge per message.

Connect Twilio for texts

Open Outreach › Text & Voicemail and fill in the Twilio card.

1. Enter your Account SID and Auth Token — copy both from your Twilio console

2. Enter your Send from number with its country code, such as +15125550100

A Messaging Service SID starting with MG works here too, and is the better choice if you send in volume.

3. Tick Add "Reply STOP to opt out" to texts by default if you want that line appended automatically. You can still change it per send.

4. Save, then use Send a test text with your own mobile number to confirm the connection.

Your auth token is never shown back to you. Leave the field blank when you save again and the stored token is kept.

Bring replies back into LeadSwift

The settings page shows a Webhook for replies address.

In Twilio, open your phone number — or your Messaging Service, if you used one — and set that address as the webhook for incoming messages.

Important: Without it, your leads' replies never reach LeadSwift and STOP requests are not recorded, which means someone who asked you to stop can be contacted again.

Connect Slybroadcast for voicemail

Ringless voicemail drops a recording straight into a voicemail box without ringing the phone.

Fill in the Slybroadcast card on the same Outreach › Text & Voicemail page.

1. Enter your Login email and Password — the ones you use at slybroadcast.com

2. Enter your Caller ID — the US or Canadian number people see, and the one they call back. Use a number you actually own.

As with Twilio, the password is not shown back to you. Leave it blank to keep the saved one.

Important: Voicemail reaches US and Canadian numbers only. Leads with any other country code are skipped.

Voicemail recordings

A voicemail send needs a recording.

The Voicemail recordings panel on the Text & Voicemail page holds yours, and you have three ways to get one there.

1. Upload a file — upload an audio file from your computer

2. Record one here — record straight in the browser using your microphone

3. Name a recording in Slybroadcast — if you already keep recordings in your Slybroadcast library, type the recording's exact name in the send form instead of picking one from LeadSwift

Give each recording a name you will recognise later; the send form lists them by name.

A recording that a send is currently using cannot be deleted. Wait for the send to finish, or cancel it first.

Send to your leads

Open any search in Campaigns, then either:

1. Use the Contact menu above the list and pick Text message or Voicemail to reach several leads at once

2. Open a single lead and use the Text Message or Voicemail link on its row

Choose who gets it

The form offers two choices:

Selected leads — the ones you ticked.

All leads in this search with a phone number — all leads in the search that have a phone number.

Important: Filters you have applied on the Leads page do not narrow "All leads". If you want a subset, tick the leads you want instead.

Write the message

For a text, type the message.

Two things you can use in it:

Lead details with a fallback:

{Business Name|there}

This uses the business name, or "there" when that lead has none. This works the same way as in your email templates.

Variations:

{{RANDOM:Hi|Hello}}

This picks one at random per lead, which helps your messages look less templated.

For a voicemail, pick one of your recordings, or type the name of a recording in your Slybroadcast library.

Options before you send

Add "Reply STOP to opt out" at the end — appended to the text.

Only mobile numbers / Skip numbers known to be landlines — see the note in the Landlines section below about what can and cannot be detected.

Consent — you confirm these contacts agreed to hear from you and that you follow the messaging laws that apply to you. This box is required.

Press send and the job is queued.

It runs on our servers, so you can close the tab straight away.

Track a send

The Sends list on the Text & Voicemail page shows every send with its progress, and refreshes itself while you watch.

Each send has:

Pause — stops after the message in flight. Nothing further goes out until you resume.

Resume — carries on from where it stopped.

Cancel — abandons the rest of the send. Messages already sent stay sent.

Details — shows the per-lead outcome, including anything skipped and why.

Recent messages below it lists individual messages across all your sends, with their delivery state and any replies.

You can close the browser at any point. A send keeps going without you, and pausing or cancelling from another device works just as well.

If a send sits without starting for more than five minutes you will see a note saying it is taking longer than usual.

That means our sending worker is behind rather than anything wrong with your message — it will pick up.

You can have 10 unfinished sends at a time, and up to 50,000 leads in one send.

Who gets skipped

Not every lead in a send receives a message.

These checks run in order, and Details tells you which one applied to each lead.

No usable phone number — skipped.

The same number twice in one send — skipped after the first.

Voicemail to a number outside the US or Canada — skipped.

A number known to be a landline, when you asked for mobiles only — skipped.

The number is on your opt-out list — skipped.

You already texted or left a voicemail for that number in the last 24 hours — skipped.

The 24-hour rule counts the same channel only, and a failed attempt does not count — so a text that failed does not block you from trying again.

Landlines

Most US and Canadian numbers cannot be identified as mobile or landline in advance.

LeadSwift uses the phone type when it has one, but for many leads it simply is not known.

A text to a landline is accepted by Twilio and then fails, so it shows in your list as failed rather than skipped.

That is normal and not something you have set up wrongly.

Replies and opt-outs

When a lead replies to one of your texts, the reply arrives against that message in Recent messages, as long as you set the webhook in Twilio.

If someone replies STOP, their number is added to your opt-out list automatically and no further texts or voicemails go to it.

A reply of START removes it again.

Twilio also blocks messages to a number that has opted out at their end, and LeadSwift records that number as opted out when it sees that.

The Opt-outs panel lists every number that will never be contacted from your account.

You can add numbers yourself — useful when someone asks you to stop by email or on the phone.

Opt-outs are yours alone. They do not affect other LeadSwift accounts, and they apply to both channels.

When a send stops

A problem with one lead only affects that lead — it is marked skipped or failed and the send carries on.

A problem with your account pauses the whole send, because carrying on would waste messages or make things worse.

You get a plain message explaining why, plus a notification, and a Resume button once you have fixed it.

This happens when:

1. Your Twilio login is wrong

2. Your number cannot send to that destination

3. A recording has been deleted

4. Your Slybroadcast account refuses the send

5. Carriers start blocking your messages as spam

Two things do not pause a send:

Rate limits. If Twilio asks us to slow down, the send waits about a minute and continues. It is not counted as a failure.

A provider not answering. The send retries after 1, 2, 4, 8 and 15 minutes. Only if it still cannot get through does it pause.

Common problems

An error as soon as you press send

Your Twilio credentials are checked at that moment, so a wrong Account SID or token shows immediately. Re-copy both from Twilio.

Texts to some US numbers fail

Those are landlines. They cannot be told apart from mobiles beforehand.

Voicemails skipped in bulk

The numbers are outside the US and Canada, which Slybroadcast does not reach.

Replies never appear

The webhook is not set on your Twilio number or Messaging Service. See Bring replies back into LeadSwift.

A send paused mentioning spam or blocking

Carriers are refusing your messages. Change the wording, slow down, and check your Twilio number is registered for A2P messaging.

"Taking longer than usual"

The send is queued and will start shortly. Nothing is wrong with the message.

A voicemail marked not confirmed

We could not tell whether it reached Slybroadcast, so the send paused rather than risk sending it twice.

Check your Slybroadcast account, then resume.

Tip: If a send paused and the reason is not clear, open Details — it shows the outcome for every lead in that send.