Bookings

Booking by text

Let your assistant book, move and cancel appointments over SMS, choose which texts it answers, and take over or hand back any conversation from the inbox.

With Booking by text on, customers can text your business number to book, move or cancel an appointment. The assistant checks your real availability, makes the change and replies in the same thread. Everything it sends shows in your inbox, and your team can take over any conversation.

It's off until you turn it on, and it's set per assistant. You need:

  • an assistant that takes bookings (booking isn't switched off on its Actions tab),
  • a Twilio number assigned to that assistant that can send texts (for US and Canadian numbers, an approved A2P 10DLC registration; see Register for A2P 10DLC),
  • a working OpenAI key, because the replies run on your key.

1. Turn it on

  1. In the sidebar, open Bookings → Booking setup → Booking by text, and pick the assistant.
  2. Turn on Let the assistant book by text.
  3. Under Which texts it answers, choose:
    • Appointment texts only (the default). Booking, moving, cancelling, "when is my appointment?" and joining the waitlist. Other texts wait in the inbox for your team, as before.
    • Every text. It answers from what it knows about your business, and passes anything it can't handle to your team.
  4. Under When your team replies, pause it for, choose 2, 12 or 24 hours. The default is 12.
  5. Under Most replies to one customer a day, choose from 5 to 50. The default is 20.
  6. Save.

The page lists the numbers this assistant answers texts on. If none of them can text, it warns you and links to My Numbers.

2. What the customer sees

  • Booking. The customer texts, for example, "can I come in Thursday?". The assistant offers a few free times, books the one they pick and replies with the time and their own link to see or change the booking. That reply is the confirmation: no second confirmation text is sent. If you have their email, they get the usual confirmation email.
  • Moving and cancelling. The assistant finds their bookings by the number they text from, checks which one they mean and applies your usual rules for changes and cancellations. A booking made under a different number isn't found by text.
  • Deposits. A service that takes a deposit isn't booked by text. The reply links to your booking page for that service and day, where they pay and pick the time.
  • Needs approval. For services that need your approval, the assistant sends a request, the same as in website chat.
  • Reminders. Reminder texts for this assistant say "Reply C to confirm, or reply to this text to change or cancel." Replying C still just confirms. Any other reply goes to the assistant, which knows which appointment the reminder was for.
  • Language. The assistant replies in the language the customer writes in.

Replies are short and plain, at most 480 characters before the link. The assistant never writes links itself; Aiva Chat adds the right one.

3. Your team stays in charge

Open Communication → Conversations. Every reply the assistant sends is marked as sent by AI. A thread the assistant has been part of shows a banner:

  • The AI is handling this conversation by text. Click Take over to pause it.
  • Paused for your team until … You (or the assistant's pause) took it over. Click Let AI reply to hand it back. If the customer's last text is still unanswered, the assistant replies straight away.
  • Needs you. The assistant left this one for your team, with the reason. The thread also gets a Needs you pill in the list.

When anyone on your team sends a reply from the inbox, the assistant pauses on that conversation for the time you chose.

Hand-offs. If a customer asks for a person, or the assistant can't help, it texts "Thanks, I've passed this to the team. Someone will text you back soon." You get a notification, and the thread shows Needs you. The assistant stays out until your team replies, someone clicks Let AI reply, or 24 hours pass with no team reply and the next text is about appointments.

Limits. Once a customer reaches your daily limit, they get one "the team will get back to you" text and the thread waits for your team until the next day. Each assistant also sends at most 300 AI replies a day. If a reply fails (for example, your OpenAI key stops working), the customer gets one "the team will reply shortly" text and the thread waits for you.

4. What still goes to a person

  • Texts that aren't about appointments, when you chose Appointment texts only. Use Suggest a reply in the thread to get an AI draft you can edit and send (see SMS replies and opt-outs).
  • Photos and voice notes. The booking assistant reads text only.
  • Taking a payment. Deposits go through your booking page.

STOP and START are always handled first, and the assistant never texts a number that opted out.

5. Missed calls

In workflow rules, the template Missed call: offer to book by text texts a caller you missed and invites them to reply to book or change an appointment. Their reply reaches the assistant like any other text.

Where text bookings show up

Bookings made by text are labelled Booked by text on the calendar and in the appointment's details, and show as AI by text message under Booked by in Reports. Someone new who books by text is added to your contacts.

Next steps

Something here doesn’t match what you see in the dashboard? Email support@aivachat.io and we’ll fix the guide.