Business phone numbers · Autessa Phone & Texting
Text from your existing number
Autessa Phone & Texting can add business texting to the number you already have. Hosted texting moves only the texting of an existing US or Canadian number to Autessa, so customers can text the number they know while your calls stay with your current carrier.
The problem it solves
Customers already text your main number, and nobody sees it
Your business number is on your website, your trucks and your invoices, and people try to text it. If your phone carrier does not support business texting, those texts disappear. Hosting the texting in Autessa puts them in a shared inbox, where your team or an AI agent can answer.
What you get
- Texting moves to Autessa; calls stay with your current carrier and nothing changes for callers.
- Works for existing US and Canadian numbers that are not toll-free.
- A step-by-step progress page: request sent, sign authorization, verification call, carrier processing, ready to text.
- The verification call reads a live code that you key in, with up to three tries, an optional delay and an extension if your line needs one.
- Carrier processing usually takes 1 to 7 business days.
- You can cancel any time before carrier processing starts, and an unfinished order expires after 30 days.
- Stop hosting later to hand texting back.
How it works
How does text from your existing number work?
Start the request
In Add a phone number, choose Text from your existing number and enter it.
Sign the authorization
Sign the Letter of Authorization that lets texting for the number be hosted.
Take the verification call
Press Call me. Autessa calls the number with a code, and you key it in to prove you own the line.
Wait for the carrier
The carrier processes the request, usually within 1 to 7 business days. The progress page shows where it is.
Start texting
Once it is ready, the number shows in your Texts inbox and can be answered by your team or an AI agent.
Every option
Hosting steps and options
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Eligible numbers | Existing US or Canadian numbers that are not toll-free. |
| Letter of Authorization | Signed in the app as the second step. |
| Verification call | Call me, with an optional delay and extension; key in the live code, up to 3 tries. |
| Carrier processing | Usually 1 to 7 business days. |
| Cancel | Available until carrier processing starts. |
| Expiry | An order that is not finished expires after 30 days. |
| Stop hosting | Hands texting for the number back; calls were never moved. |
Full reference: Phone Numbers guide on docs.autessa.com
Permissions
Who can do what?
| Who | Can |
|---|---|
| Company admin (owner or Manage team members) | Start, follow and cancel hosting orders, and stop hosting. |
| People with Write on the number | Choose who answers its texts and set automations. |
| Anyone whose role can use agents | Read and reply to the number's texts in the shared inbox. |
AI on the line
What AI agents do here
Once hosting is done, an AI agent can answer the number's texts with one ongoing conversation per sender, so the number on your sign can reply at any hour.
Connected
How it connects to everything else
FAQ
Questions about text from your existing number
What is hosted texting?
Hosted texting moves only the texting of a number you already have to Autessa. Calls keep working with your current carrier.
How long does hosting take?
Carrier processing usually takes 1 to 7 business days after you sign the authorization and pass the verification call.
Which numbers can be hosted?
Existing US and Canadian numbers that are not toll-free.
How is hosting different from porting my number?
Hosting moves texting to Autessa while calls stay with your carrier, so you keep your number and everywhere it is already printed.
100% customizable, code and all
Make Autessa Phone & Texting fully your own.
Use it out of the box, then change anything. Ask Autobot, Autessa’s AI builder, for a new field, screen, report, workflow or agent and it builds it into your copy of the app. Or open the code and edit it yourself. Nothing is locked: the app, its data and its code are yours.
Start free and make it yours