Photo-Enabled Messaging Is Here! How To Use It

A feature that has been requested for a very long time is now available.  Effective immediately an end user, such as a customer of a utility company or a resident of a municipality, can now send a photo to your text-enabled 10-digit number.  This feature has many benefits and use cases, such as:

• Sending a photo of a downed line. Support/field/dispatch personnel can then make a determination as to whether the line is actually a power line, possibly saving a needless truck roll if the line is actually a phone/cable/fiber line.  
• Field personnel can send a photo of a defective, destroyed or non-functioning part to the office so that the correct, exact replacement part can be brought to the site for repairs.
• Residents of a municipality can send photos of potholes, graffiti, damaged lamp posts or other items requiring repair or replacement.

This is simple to set up and even more simple to use.  Just send a request to [e-mail] to "photo-enable" the phone number you are already using for sending and receiving messages (typically a local 10-digit number but occasionally a toll-free number).  We will respond with an addendum to your contract, which must be signed prior to implementing this feature, that will explain the small one-time setup fee, the monthly feature fee and the cost-per-message.  We will also request one or more email addresses to which the photo will be forwarded.  When an incoming message containing a photo is received we will forward it via email to those addresses.  Each email will contain:

1. The phone number that sent the message.
2. A timestamp showing when TextPower received the message.
3. Any text that was included in the message along with the photo.  
4. A link to the photo which you can then view in any standard web browser.  Once you see the photo in the browser window you can save it as you would any other image, or ignore it if you choose.  Photos will be retained on our servers for seven days.  After that the link will no longer function and the photo will be deleted.  
5. In some cases, depending upon whether the carrier passes the information through to TextPower, you will be able to access the EXIF data of the photo, which contains the location in latitude/longitude, which compass direction the camera was facing, information about the camera used to take the photo, etc.  (We recommend reminding your customers to send a text description along with the photo that includes the location in case this information is not incorporated into the photo sent to us by the carrier.)

Many 10-digit numbers have been pre-enabled with this capability and so the feature might be implemented very quickly. In rare instances we may need to get carrier approval on text-enabling the number, which would take 1-2 weeks.  

Photo-enabled messaging opens up a whole world of possibilities.  Enable your number now and start having your end users send images that illustrate situations better than any verbal description could!