Text Individuals Seamlessly with Breeze. Discover how to enhance your church's text messaging capabilities using Breeze ChMS.
Breeze allows organizations to text one or more people in the database at a time for quick communication. The texting tool, utilizing a dedicated short code (874-47) is meant for one-way communication (This means users cannot respond to your texts) to mobile numbers stored in the Breeze profiles. Because it is one way, you are unable to receive any replies. We provide each organization the ability to send 250 complimentary text messages per month at no additional charge. We implement the industry-standard 140-character limit per SMS message. While this limit is set across the board and cannot be currently extended, Breeze empowers you to send longer messages seamlessly by effectively utilizing multiple texts.
How to Send Text(s)
Click on the options below to reveal the steps for sending, scheduling and viewing text history. If your organization is based in the U.S., text messages are sent from the dedicated short code 874-47.
- Navigate to a specific person in Breeze.
- Click on that person's mobile phone number to bring up the compose text window.
- Compose your text and click Send Text Message.
Note: The character limit for a single SMS message is 140 characters. This is an industry set limit and there is no way to increase the limit at this time.
- Go to People
- Pull up the list of people you'd like to text (by running an advanced search, searching by tag, or another method).
- Using the Action Panel on the right click Text People.
- Compose your text message, and click Send Text Message.
Note: The character limit for a single SMS message is 140 characters. This is an industry set limit and there is no way to increase the limit at this time.
By default when you hit "Send Text Message" the text message(s) will be queued to send right away to the list of recipients. To schedule a text to be sent in the future:
- Compose your text message to an individual or a group as you normally would.
- Instead of clicking "Send Text Message," click the arrow to the right of the "Send Text Message" button and select one of the available options to send the message in the future.
Note: The character limit for a single SMS message is 140 characters. This is an industry set limit and there is no way to increase the limit at this time.
If you'd like to see a history of what's been sent or make adjustments to scheduled text(s) to be sent in the future, you can access your scheduled messages within your text history.
- Navigate to Account Settings (
) on the top right.
- Select History from the right side.
- Click Text on the left hand side of History.
- Click on a text to view its details. The details screen will also provide a way to unschedule/remove the message if desired.
Role Permissions needed for viewing History (History)
Role Permissions needed for Sending a Text Message (People > Action > Text)
How Are Texts Counted?
- On the technical level, Breeze counts each recipient as an individual text message, regardless of if the message has the same content or not. This is because each unique mobile number receives a text message and we are charged by the texting provider for each message sent to an individual number.
- For instance, if you send a text to 30 people, Breeze will send out 30 individual texts, all containing the same message, one text being sent to each number (and counting as 30 texts toward your limit).
- Breeze automatically filters out duplicates (if multiple people have the same mobile phone number) and will only send one text per phone number (only counting as one text)
How To Enable Unlimited Texting
Unlimited texting can be enabled for your organization, allowing for more than 250 complimentary messages to be sent a month. Every additional text above the 250 is billed at just one penny (1.9 cents) per text. If you have not enabled unlimited texting your organization will not be able to exceed the 250 text messages. Any text messages (including volunteer notifications) above the 250 limit will not send.To enable Unlimited Texting for the organization:
- Navigate to Account Settings(
- Select Manage Account in the Mega Menu.
- Click the check box that says Enable Unlimited Texts.
- Save Changes.
Confirmation Lead Message
When you send a message to a mobile number for the first time, we’ll help you inform the recipient about their messaging options automatically. This is to ensure that we are doing our part in keeping you compliant with industry standard regulations for texting.
Things to know about this confirmation lead message:
- Breeze handles this automatically and there’s no action required on your end.
- This first-time confirmation message, sent only once to each number, is free to the church and will not go against the free 250 messages per month count.
- This message will include the name "Breeze Church Management" and information on how they can opt-out of texts if desired.
- This message is sent just before we pass along your message or reminder.
Here's an example of what your text recipient will receive:
In addition to Breeze sending the confirmation text prior to the first message you initiate in the system, you must also provide the following opt-in verbiage to all new people you text from Breeze.
This opt-in verbiage can be shared with individuals either in writing or verbally.
Written Opt-In:
Simply add this message to your membership registration, or post it visibly within the church office:
"We occasionally send text message reminders and alerts to our membership. Message and data rates may apply. To opt-out of those messages at any time, reply with STOP and you will be removed from all messaging. For further information, visit breezechms.com/terms-of-service."
Verbal Opt-In:
As a convenience for situations where no registration information is collected, we ask that you share the following information with your members verbally:
"We occasionally send convenient text message reminders and alerts to our membership. Message and data rates may apply. To opt-out of those messages at any time, reply with STOP and you will be removed from all messaging. For further information, visit breezechms.com/terms-of-service."
Use built-in Breeze features to help you adhere to opt-out requests! People who do not want to receive text messages can either:
- Reply to a text message with the word "STOP." (This will disable all text messages from Breeze, including volunteer reminders.)
- Have the mobile phone on their Breeze profile marked as "Do Not Text." (This will prevent the profile in question from receiving group text messages sent through Breeze but they will still be able to receive individual text messages and volunteer reminders.)
To do this:- Navigate to the individual's profile in Breeze
- Check the "Do Not Text" option beneath the Mobile Phone field
The Goal: Text carriers are interested in protecting the rights of recipients and therefore require opt-in adherence. Be sure to inform people of why and when they may receive text messages from you and allow them to opt-in or opt-out of those messages. This is only available in the US and Canada at this time, as text regulations do not require it in other countries.
As stated in our Terms of Service, texting through Breeze cannot be used for marketing purposes. Texting is meant to be used for reminders and alerts only.
Resubscribing to Text Messages
When a recipient replies Stop to your text thread, they are notified they have been unsubscribed and given instructions on how to resubscribe. Within that same message thread, or a new text message to 874-47, they should text the word Start to resubscribe.
How Many Texts Has My Organization Sent?
- To see how many remaining texts are left each month, you can open the text compose box, and at the bottom, to the left of the cancel tab, it will show you how many remaining texts you have.
- If you have enabled unlimited texting, you will see a total of the texts you have sent.
- Your organizations 250 free text messages will reset on the 1st of each month.
How Is My Organization Billed For Texts?
Monthly with your Breeze Subscription.
- Text messaging is billed by Calendar month, while the Breeze subscription is billed from "anniversary day-of-the-month.
For example, If your subscription is billed on August 28, you will be billed for texting from the previous month July 1 - 31 on that subscription invoice.
How to Text Links & Attachments
Sometimes there might be a desire to send a photo or link in a text message through Breeze. While there is not a native way to do this, there is a handy workaround!
- Upload the desired photo to a cloud-based site (e.g. Google Photos). If you are simply adding a link, you can start at step 3 below.
- Copy the link from this photo to share with others:
- Navigate to a website like Tinyurl.com to shorten this link by pasting the original URL into the appropriate field.
- Copy and paste this new URL into your Breeze text message so others can click on this link to view your photo!
Internal Note: Breeze uses two different providers to send text messages, depending on whether it's text giving, US, or international accounts. Nexmo (International Long Number and Some early text-to-give accounts) and Twilio (US Shortcode number: 874-47 and The remaining text giving accounts).
Internal Note: Information on Texting Outside the US (Currently Unavailable)
If your organization is located in Canada or the UK your texts will send from a long phone number with the code from your country. All other countries will have texts that come from a 415 Area Code (US San Francisco). At this time only organizations in the US and Canada have the Lead Message providing opt out verbiage.
By default, Breeze will assume that all phone numbers are in the same country as your church.1 When preparing to send a text, we'll automatically format it according to your country so it sends correctly.
If you are attempting to send texts internationally, you will need to include the plus symbol along with the country code in the mobile phone number on the profile so that Breeze doesn't attempt to reformat the text according to your own country's specifications.
Note: AT&T and T-Mobile have heavier filtering for international messages. If messages are initiated from outside of the US and the recipient uses AT&T or TMobile as their carrier (regardless of where the recipient lives), they may be subject to filtering that keeps them from receiving the message from the church
For example, if your church is located in the United States and you want to send a text to someone in the United Kingdom, you would want to format phone numbers similar to +44 20 5555 5555
However, if your church is located in the United Kingdom, you can simply use your local format for mobile numbers in the profile 020 5555 5555
1 Your country can be set within Account Settings > General Settings.
Note that Breeze may use a different sending number depending upon the destination of the text. For example, a text to Vancouver, Canada will come from a US/Canada phone number while a text to London, England will come from a United Kingdom number.
Click here to see what countries are supported for texting within Breeze and their corresponding country code:
Australia +61
Bahamas +1
Brazil +55
Canada +1
Colombia +57
Dominican Republic +99
Ecuador +593
Finland +358
India +91
Ireland +353
Malaysia +60
Mauritius +230
Mexico +521
New Zealand +64
Nicaragua +505
Nigeria +234
Norway +47
Philippines +63
Singapore +65
Slovenia +386
South Africa +27
Thailand +66
The Netherlands +31
United Arab Emirates +971
United Kingdom +44
United States of America +1
Vietnam +84