Overview

Postcards for Slack is a fully managed integration between Skyetel's SMS/MMS and Slack. By using this product, you are able to send and receive SMS and MMS from your Skyetel phone numbers via Slack. 

Installing Postcards for Slack

This part is easy. All you have to do is select slack as the option in the SMS/MMS tab, and authenticate it with your slack:

Once you have connected Postcards to Slack via the Skyetel Portal, you need to create the channel for the Skyetel DID. The best way to do this is to simply send yourself a new SMS, and Postcards will create the new channel for you automatically. Once the channel is connected, you simply have to add yourself to it to get started.

To add yourself to the channel, click on the + sign next to channels, and select Browse Channels:

You'll now see your Skyetel DID as a channel:

Simply hover over it, and click "Join"

 

Receiving Messages

Once you get everything setup, you'll see your Skyetel DID as a channel:

Inbound SMS messages will automatically create a new SMS Thread with the source phone number, and any replies inside that thread will send a reply to the party that originated the message:

Any member in the Slack Workspace that has access to the Channel is able to send a reply, and view conversation threads:

Sending New Messages

You can initiate new SMS messages by typing /sms into the Slack Channel:

Postcards will privately confirm to you when the SMS has been successfully sent:

and you will see the new conversation in the Channel:

Things you should know

We time out threads every 24 hours

Postcards will automatically timeout a thread after 24 hours of inactivity. This means that you may have duplicate threads for incoming messages. This prevents missing a message from a party who sent you an SMS a long time ago, and then tried again to get back in touch more recently.

Outbound Emoji's do not work

Slack does not use traditional emoji's, and so when you send out an outbound emoji via Postcards, the SMS will use Slack's variables instead. For example, a smiley face will be received like this: ":slightly_smiling_face:"

Private Channels are supported

So it is possible to create a private channel for each Skyetel DID so that end users can correspond privately. 

MMS Messages are Slow-ish

When you send or receive an MMS message on Slack, it gets uploaded & downloaded multiple times before it finally reaches its destination. The workflow works like this:

End User -> Slack -> Postcards -> Skyetel SMS Router -> Upstream Carrier

Because the file gets uploaded and downloaded so many times, there can be a 2-4 minute delay between the time you send a message and it is received and visa versa. This should not be the case in most cases, but please keep it in mind when you are testing.