2-way texting lets your housing team send and receive text messages with students directly from the admin portal. All conversations are threaded and organized in one place, giving your entire team visibility into student communication without switching between phones or personal devices.
Text messaging sits alongside email and phone as a core communication channel, helping you reach students where they already spend their time. Students can text your Housing.Cloud number with questions, and your staff can reply, assign conversations, track follow-up work, and maintain full message history all from the admin portal.
Send and reply to text messages
Start new conversations with students or reply to incoming messages from the SMS screen. All messages are threaded by student, so you see full conversation history regardless of which staff member sent previous replies.
Attach images to messages when students need visual instructions or when you need to request documentation like photos of maintenance issues or move-in damage.
View all text message history with each student directly on their profile page. The SMS history card shows every conversation, making it easy to reference past communication when reviewing applications or processing assignments.
Assign conversations and manage notifications
Assign conversations to specific staff members to distribute workload and ensure timely replies. Staff assigned to conversations receive notifications when new messages arrive, so everyone knows exactly who is responsible for each student.
Bulk assign multiple conversations at once during peak periods like room selection and move-in when message volume is high.
Set priorities on urgent conversations and use statuses to track progress from "New" to "In Progress" to "Resolved."
Add followers to conversations when multiple people need visibility—supervisors, RDs, or team members who need to stay informed without being the primary responder.
Filter and organize conversations
Filter conversations by assignee, status, priority, or date range to focus on exactly what needs attention. Create saved views for filter combinations you use regularly, like "My urgent messages" or "Unassigned queue."
Apply bulk actions to multiple filtered conversations at once—assign them to staff, change statuses, or update priorities in one step instead of editing each conversation individually.
Schedule text messages
Write messages now and schedule them to send at specific dates and times. Schedule deadline reminders to arrive when students wake up, or schedule move-in instructions for early morning on move-in day.
Edit or cancel scheduled messages before they send, giving you flexibility to adjust messaging as situations change.
Use message templates
Create reusable templates for common replies, reminders, and instructions. Templates save time and maintain consistency across your team during high-volume periods.
Use merge fields to automatically include student names, building assignments, or deadline dates when applying templates. Edit applied templates before sending to customize messages for specific situations.
Create tasks from conversations
Convert text conversations into tasks when student issues require follow-up work beyond just messaging. Tasks stay linked to the original conversation and appear in your teamʼs task list with assignees, due dates, and status tracking.
Use tasks for maintenance requests, accommodation reviews, room change processing, or any issue requiring coordination between departments or multiple steps to resolve.