In less than six weeks, on June 17th, AT&T will Say Goodbye to email-to-text and text-to-email. In other words, your church-goers who use AT&T will no longer be able to receive texts you send through our free texting option.
When we first developed texting in Churchteams, it was done exclusively by leveraging this service which was offered by all major US telecommunication companies. This allowed us to offer free texting for many years. However, in 2020 and 2021, all the major telecoms launched their 10DLC (10-Digit Long Code) services, the first step in a shift away from free texting.
With that release, we began preparing for the transition from free texting to 10DLC, or paid texting. The benefits of 10DLC are improved deliverability, cost-effectiveness (compared to dedicated short or long codes), and enhanced customer engagement. We developed and copyrighted Text-to-Church, using the 10DLC system, as our built-in solution to empower connectivity in churches through the use of texting. (If you're unfamiliar with that, click here for an introduction.)
How will the loss of AT&T free texting impact church texting?
All texting service providers will be affected by this change. For now, our clients will continue to have the option to send free texts with an understanding that AT&T customers will not receive them. We will continue to monitor what other carriers do with their free texting services and determine what that means for free texting with us in the future.
If you have Text-to-Church, we have made changes to ensure system-related texts, such as volunteer invitations & reminders, payment reminders, and keyword response texts (including Check-In), will be delivered through your Text-to-Church number. These are no extra cost to you (i.e. they will not count toward your outgoing text numbers).
How will the loss of AT&T free texting impact you?
If you are a Churchteams client and haven't set up Text-to-Church. Beginning June 17, AT&T's actions will leave us without a way to deliver system related texts. Your best solution is to set up Text-to-to-Church.
To do that, click on the Find A Phone Number link at the bottom of the home page when you log in and follow the instructions to get set up. You can even use your church office number.
It's just $10 per month and includes 500 outbound texts (incoming texts are free). Additional texts beyond the 500 included are just 2 cents per text. If you send an average of 8,000 texts or more per month, ask about our high-volume discounts.
If you are not currently a Churchteams client. This might be a good time to either consider a change in who you use for texting, or consider adding texting as a way to communicate to your church. Please reach out to us. We would love to help you.
If you are a Churchteams client using Text-to-Church. Do nothing. You're set!