Clerk Chat
Clerk Chat offers a free plan, giving you the opportunity to thoroughly explore the application without any obligation or commitment. This free plan allows you to experience all the features and functionalities of Clerk Chat, helping you make an informed decision before deciding to subscribe.
If your Clerk number is SMS Only, it only supports text messages. Should someone attempt to initiate a call to your Clerk SMS-only number, the default behavior is to terminate the call without any further action.
Message count resets on the first day of the month.
The maximum number of characters per single message being sent to carriers depends on the encoding used, and the encoding used depends on the content of the message. Refer to our SMS Limits doc for a detailed breakdown.
SMS is really hard to filter as anyone can send you random spam messages. We are working on a filter and will release it in the next few months. You can reply "STOP" to the number & they will never send you unsolicited spam again. As it is illegal to send spam SMS without the receiver's consent.
Slack Integration
We've built Clerk to support a variety of Slack workflows. Enterprises with a large volume of text messages might prefer to use the thread SMS functionality where all inbound SMS go into a single "triage" channel. Internal support team can then triage the conversations and move them to individual channels should they choose to.
Small businesses or organizations that have a pre-defined set of contacts or vendors might want to use the direct channel functionality and separate SMS conversations into their own individual Slack channels.
If a direct channel with a contact has been deleted or archived a new inbound message would get posted to your shared channel. You can choose to keep the conversation there or re-create the direct channel. On a new outbound message you can choose to send the message to the shared channel or create a brand new direct channel.
Should you ever choose to move the number to another carrier you can do so at anytime. Existing or new phone numbers acquired from Clerk belong to you as a customer.
Microsoft Teams Integration
Microsoft's Operator Connect is a feature within Microsoft Teams that provides a seamless way for organizations to integrate with telephony operators. It simplifies the process of connecting Teams to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) by allowing organizations to use approved operators directly from within the Teams admin center. For more details refer to our Operator Connect page.
Bandwidth is the underlying phone carrier that powers Microsoft Teams calling plan. When enabling the phone numbers with Clerk you are enabling SMS and going “wholesale” directly to the phone carrier resulting in added features and cost benefits. For more information refer to our carrier page on Bandwidth.
Operator Connect requires Teams Phone Standard or E5 license to work. For more details refer to our Microsoft Teams Licensing page.
By enabling your Microsoft Teams phone number with Clerk you are updating your phone number from Teams Phone Calling to Operator Connect. This is done by instantly enabling your phone numbers directly with the phone carrier that powers Microsoft Teams calling. This results in added benefits such as added functionality and reduced pricing.
Should you choose to move the number back to Microsoft, you will need to submit a port-in request to Microsoft from the Teams Admin Portal. You can expedite the port-in request by submitting a ticket with Microsoft Teams Voice team. For more details refer to the Microsoft documentation.