For Cool Telecom customers

Your office landline,
now it texts.

Customers text the business number they already know, and everyone in the office sees it. Reply from your phone as the business, not as your personal cell — with canned replies, an auto-reply when you're out, and your office chat built in.

Download for Android What Cool Telecom sets up first
Platform AndroidNumber your existing office lineInbox shared by the whole officeSign-in your Cool Telecom login
How it works
Animated recreation of the real app · sample office, fictional names and numbers

Texting that belongs to the business, not to someone's phone.

Landline IM turns the number on your sign, your truck and your invoices into a number people can text. Nothing changes about how it rings.

The number they already know

Texts go out from your office landline and come back to it. No new number to print, no personal cell numbers handed out.

One inbox for the whole office

Every extension that signs in sees the same conversations. Whoever is free answers, and everyone sees that it was answered.

One number or several

Main line, service line, sales line: each keeps its own inbox, its own canned replies and its own notification sound. Switch with a tap.

Auto reply when you can't

Arm a canned reply on a line and every new text gets it right away: closed today, out on a call, back at 8.

Your office chat, too

The LineView tab is the same office chat the LineView IM desktop app uses, with each coworker's phone light next to their name.

Nothing to set up on the phone

Sign in once with your Cool Telecom login and stay signed in. The carrier connection lives on Cool Telecom's servers, never on your phone.

Behind the scenes

Where a text actually goes, and why your phone never holds the carrier connection.

Your office's phones Landline IM, Android ext 201 · 203 · 205, one shared inbox Cool Telecom Landline IM service office inbox · every text, every line sign-ins · who may see which office carrier login & number map cooltele.com, encrypted (https) SMS carrier gateway for your landline numbers inbound · outbound customer cell send · check every 4 s new texts, same for everyone outbound inbound, ~1 s green: a reply leaving the office · blue: a customer's text coming in

Your phone only ever talks to Cool Telecom

The app sends and receives through one encrypted connection to cooltele.com. The carrier account, its password and the list of which numbers belong to which office live on Cool Telecom's server and never on a phone. Lose a phone and the office loses nothing but that one sign-in, which Cool Telecom can cut off.

The inbox is on the server

Every text, in or out, on every line, is stored once in the office inbox. Phones are windows onto it: that's why three people see the same list, why reading a text clears it for everyone, and why a new phone has the whole history the moment it signs in.

Inbound in about a second

When a customer texts your number, the carrier delivers it to Cool Telecom immediately. Phones that are open see it on their next four-second check; phones in your pocket get the notification. A text is stored even if nobody is signed in, so nothing is lost overnight.

Sends are confirmed, not assumed

Send waits for the carrier's answer before the bubble stops saying queued. A refusal is shown as failed in the thread rather than disappearing, and a duplicate delivery from the carrier is recognised and dropped, so you never see the same inbound text twice.

Office chat rides the same sign-in

The LineView tab connects to the same office chat server the LineView IM desktop app uses, with your Landline IM sign-in as the key. Signing out of one signs you out of both.

Your phone's number stays yours

Landline IM doesn't use your phone's SIM or your personal number for anything. It sends through your office landline and nothing else, so customers never learn your cell.

Getting set up

Texting on a landline number has to be switched on by Cool Telecom before the app has anything to show. Here's the order.

  1. Ask for texting on your numberOpen a ticket naming the number or numbers. Cool Telecom enables SMS on each one and points its inbound texts at your office inbox. Any number already receiving texts somewhere else is switched over deliberately, one number at a time.
  2. Carrier registrationUS carriers require every business texting number to be registered to a real business (the 10DLC program). Cool Telecom files this for you; it needs your legal business name, EIN and address, and can take a few days to clear. Receiving usually works right away; sending to mobiles is allowed once the registration is approved.
  3. Install and sign inDownload the Android app and sign in with your Cool Telecom login. That's the whole setup on the phone. Each person in the office who should see the inbox signs in with their own extension.
  4. Optional: name your numbersTell Cool Telecom what to call each line (Front Desk, Service) and they'll host the names file for your office. Set your canned replies on the Auto Reply tab and you're done.

New to Landline IM? Read the How To for every screen, from the first sign-in to auto replies and blocking spam. Already a LineView IM office? Your office chat is on the phone the moment you sign in, no extra step.