Send a Text to Many Students

If your program has texting turned on and you have the Bulk Texting permission, you can send one message to a whole group at once, for example a reminder about a deadline or an event.

Admins always have the permission. Advisors and assistants have it only when an admin grants Bulk Texting on the Team tab in Settings. If you do not see Bulk Texts in the left menu, texting is off for your program or you do not have the permission. To text one student, see Send a Text Message.

Two Ways to Start

• Bulk Texts in the left menu opens the picker with nobody chosen yet.
• On the Students page, tick the students you want, then choose Send Text in the bar that appears (on a phone, it is under More). Your selection comes with you.

Either way you land on the same screen, so the rules about consent, limits and timing are the same.

Program Year, at the top right of the recipient list, chooses which year you are texting. It opens on the current program year, so soon after a new year starts you see only the students already enrolled in it. Switch the year to reach an earlier group. Anyone you already ticked stays ticked when you change the year, so one send can span two years.

Ask the Assistant to Prepare It

If your program has the AI Assistant turned on, you can also ask it, for example "text my served students that FAFSA night is Thursday at 6pm." It prepares a card instead of a screen: how many will get the text in your program, who will not and why, the message as a real student will read it, the message parts and your allowance. Nothing is sent until you choose Send on the card. Choose Send Now, or Send at a Time and pick a time in your program's time zone. During your program's quiet hours the card offers Schedule for the time they end instead of Send Now. The card sends through Bulk Texts, so everything on this page applies: the same permission, consent rules, monthly limit, and the send shows in Text History or Scheduled Texts. If your permission changed after the card was prepared, Send says what is missing, such as the Bulk Texting permission, and nothing goes out. To send yourself a test first, use Bulk Texts. See Use the AI Assistant.

Choose Who Gets It

Search, filter and sort as you do on the Students page, then tick the people you want. See Find and Filter Students. The header shows how many you have chosen and how many texts your program has left this month.

On a phone, choose Choose Recipients to pick students on a full screen. The Program Year picker is at the top of that screen, the tabs filter by status (Selected shows who you have picked so far), and Select All Shown selects every student the tab and search match. Choose Add to Text to return, then Write Message.

When you choose Write Message, TRIOPilot checks who can actually receive a text right now. Selecting 400 students does not always mean 400 messages.

Write the Message

Keep sensitive details out of a group text, such as Social Security numbers, financial details, grades or health information. See Staying Compliant.

The box under Your Message counts your characters and shows how many message parts each text uses. A carrier bills every part, so a long message costs more, and one emoji makes every part much shorter. The counter also shows how many texts this send will draw from your monthly allowance: one for each student, however many parts the message has. A message can have up to 1,600 characters. Over that, a sentence under the box says how many you have, keeps your whole text, and Review and Send and Send Test stay off until you shorten it.

A web address of more than 50 characters is sent as a short go.triopilot.com address to save space, and a line under the counter says so. The counter already counts the short address. The Preview and the check screen show the address as you typed it, so you can check where it goes. An address with a name placeholder in it, such as {{first_name}}, is sent as you typed it. A test send carries the real short address, so you can open it from your phone. See Long Links.

The Add a Name buttons drop in a placeholder that fills itself per person:

• First Name becomes each student's first name. A student with no first name on file gets a friendly greeting instead of a blank.
• Advisor Name becomes your name.
• Program Name becomes your program's name.

A placeholder typed by hand that is not exactly one of these, such as {{firstname}} or {{First_Name}}, or one with a brace missing or extra, such as {{first_name} or {first_name}, would reach every phone as typed, so TRIOPilot points it out under the message, names the placeholder to use when it can, and will not send until you fix it.

One caution about signing a message with your name: replies come back to your program's shared number, not to you personally. A message that reads like a private note can leave a student expecting a private answer, so say who to contact if that matters.

The Preview shows the message as a real person in your selection will receive it, with their actual name in place of the placeholder.

Send Yourself a Test First

Under Send Yourself a Test, choose Send Test. The test goes to the one test number your program has saved, shown right there on the screen, usually an administrator's own cell. You cannot type in another number: the test is for catching a broken name or a bad link before the group sees it, not for texting one person. It counts as one message against your monthly allowance, and there is a small hourly limit on tests.

If no test number is saved yet, test sends are turned off. An administrator sets one on Settings > Features > Text Messaging.

If the test is not sent, the note under the button says why. When the saved test number cannot take the text (it is not valid, is a landline or has opted out), an administrator can change it on Settings > Features > Text Messaging. When texting is unavailable for your program, the problem is the texting account, not the number, and TRIOPilot support has already been alerted.

Check Before You Send

The last screen names your program next to the recipient count. Read that line. If you work in more than one program, this is where you catch a send in the wrong one.

It also shows:

• Who will not get this, by name and reason. Most often that is a missing mobile number or no opt-in on record. You can still send, and follow up on the missing numbers afterward.
• How much of your monthly allowance the send will use, and how much is left. A text counts in the month it goes out, so if you schedule it for a later month, the screen says it counts toward a later allowance, and when that allowance starts on your program's clock.
• Where replies go, which is each student's own message thread, with a notification to their assigned advisor, or to your program's admins for a student with no active advisor.

Under When to Send, keep Send Now, or choose Send at a Time and pick a time. Then choose the send button below, which shows your count, such as Send 12 Texts Now or Schedule 12 Texts. Times are in your program's time zone. A scheduled text goes out at, or shortly after, the time you choose. If your program has no quiet hours, TRIOPilot warns you when you pick a time outside 8am to 8pm. If it has quiet hours, see Quiet Hours.

Quiet Hours

An admin can set quiet hours for your program, for example 9:00 PM to 8:00 AM, on Settings > Features > Text Messaging. The times are your program's time zone. During quiet hours no group text goes out:

• Send Now is replaced by Schedule for 8:00 AM (the time quiet hours end), already chosen. Choose the button below it, such as Schedule 12 Texts, and the text waits until then.
• Send at a Time does not accept a time inside quiet hours. The screen says when quiet hours end, and the send button stays off until you pick a time outside them.
• A text that already started going out finishes, even if quiet hours begin partway through.
• If an admin sets or widens quiet hours after a text was scheduled, and its time now falls inside them, the text waits and goes out when quiet hours end. Scheduled Texts shows the new time, and the Audit Log records Held a Bulk Text for Quiet Hours.

The same rules apply to a text the AI Assistant prepares. Quiet hours do not stop a one-to-one text from a student's profile, which is a conversation; see Send a Text Message. A test send to your program's test number is not affected either.

Who Does Not Receive a Bulk Text

A student is left out when any of these is true:

• They have no mobile number on file.
• They have not opted in to texts: their SMS Opt-In has no answer. A text from their profile needs a recorded Yes too, except a reply within 72 hours of the student's own text. To include them, set SMS Opt-In to Yes in the Contact Information card on their profile once they agree to receive texts.
• They have opted out of texts: they replied STOP, or their SMS Opt-In is No. Consent belongs to the phone number, so if anyone in your program sharing that number has opted out, the number is blocked for everyone on it.

One more line can appear on the check screen, and it is counted rather than named: students whose record is no longer in this program, usually because it was deleted or moved after you made your selection. With no record left to name, TRIOPilot shows how many there were. The totals on that screen always add up to the number you picked.

Changing Your Mind

Scheduled Texts lists every text waiting to go out for your program, whoever wrote it, with its message, recipient count, author and time. Choose Cancel to stop one, then Cancel Text to confirm (Keep It leaves it scheduled). A cancelled text cannot be restored; to send it later, write it again. Anyone with bulk texting in your program can cancel any scheduled text in it, so a wrong message can be stopped even when its author is away. Every cancellation is recorded with the name of whoever did it. In the Audit Log, a text sent at once shows as Sent a Bulk Text, and a text scheduled for later shows as Scheduled a Bulk Text, with the time it goes out on your program's clock.

Once a text starts going out, it finishes, and the list shows no Cancel button for it.

Seeing What You Sent

Text History shows your program's group texts 100 at a time, including scheduled and cancelled ones, and Show Older Texts opens the next 100. Each set is the most recently written first, in order by the time each one shows (when it was sent, or when it is scheduled), with how many were sent, how many failed, how many students could not receive it, and who wrote it. Sent means the texting service accepted the text for delivery. When the texting service refuses texts in a group send, the Audit Log records them as Text Not Sent, one row for each reason in each batch of up to 25 students, with the reason and how many students in that batch.

What a Group Text Does Not Do

• It does not log a contact. A group text is not recorded as a contact on anyone's record.
• It does not repeat. Each send goes once, now or at the one time you pick.

If the Send Is Refused

If the group is larger than the texts you have left in the month it goes out (this month, unless you scheduled it for a later one), TRIOPilot refuses the whole send and nothing goes out. When this month's texts are used up, you can still pick students and write the message. Above Write Message, the page names the time the count starts over only when the next month's allowance has room for the students you selected; otherwise it says that allowance is full or too small. On the check screen, Send Now and any time this month are refused, and the message names the day and time the count starts over on your program's clock. Choose Send at a Time and pick that time or later. If texts already scheduled leave too few for this group in the month that starts then, the message says so instead and offers no time: pick a later month or a smaller group. The check screen also checks the month you pick: if the texts already scheduled for it leave too few for this group, it says how many are left in that month's allowance, named by when it starts, and the send button stays off until you pick another month or a smaller group. This way no group gets half an announcement. Ask your admin about your monthly limit, or send to a smaller group.

If you send during your program's quiet hours, or schedule a time inside them, the send is refused and nothing goes out. The message names your quiet hours and when they end. Schedule the text for that time or later. See Quiet Hours.

A text can also be stopped when its time comes, for example when the month's texts are used up, texting is turned off, or the texting service refuses every message. The bell then tells whoever wrote it, A text was stopped, with the reason, and Text History shows it as failed. A stopped text does not come back: to send it, write it again. Before you archive someone, the confirmation says how many of their group texts are waiting to go out, so you can check or cancel them on Scheduled Texts.