How do I send messages to multiple contacts?

In theory, as many as you’d like. Note: Messages are throttled by SMS carriers, and only one message can be sent by your number per second. That said, it’s important to be mindful of the time you are sending your announcement as it could be a few hours before your entire batch of messages is sent. Time will vary based on the number of recipients in your announcement and the length of your message.

Per SMS carrier regulations, 160 characters is one full text message segment. If the text is over 160 characters long, it will be sent as multiple segments/messages. i.e. 320 characters = 2 text segments/messages sent x # of recipients; 480 characters = 3 segments, etc. This is why we highly recommend keeping your messages short and sweet (under 160 characters in total including your signature). We also recommend sending a test announcement to yourself and a couple other recipients to make sure the text looks and reads the way you want it to before sending to a larger group.

No, unlike group texting, where your phone can get blown up with responses from other people in the group, announcements are sent BCC (Blind Carbon Copy), so responses from contacts route back into Captivated in individual conversations.

We do this so that other Captivated users who may not have access to use announcements cannot hop into a conversation and send announcements on your behalf. That said, you can easily tag your recipients when drafting an announcement so that the next time you need to send one, you can quickly select your group of recipients.

Currently, this is not a feature we offer. We are always looking for ways to improve our software and value your feedback. Feel free to chat with our support team to put in a feature request.