How-to · Updated October 11, 2026
Make texts to your tracking numbers reach you
Updated October 11, 2026
20 minutes
Turn texting on for every tracking number and route its texts to a phone someone reads, usually the mobile its calls ring. A new number can arrive with texting off and no text route, so calls ring while texts go nowhere. Forwarding texts to a phone also counts as sending, which needs the business registered.
Before you start
- Admin access to your call tracking account. The steps here are for CallTrackingMetrics; other tools have the same two settings under different names.
- A list of your tracking numbers and where each one's calls ring, so each number's texts can go to the same place.
- A mobile number that can receive texts. A forwarded text fails when the number it goes to is not enabled to receive texts.
Find the numbers that cannot take texts
Texting is a capability of each number, so start by checking that every number has it.
- Open Numbers, then Tracking Numbers, and find the column with the cell phone icon, next to Renewal Date. A checkmark means the number can be used for texting.
- For any number shown publicly without the checkmark, plan a replacement. Under Numbers, then Buy Numbers, tick the text messages feature box before searching so only text-capable numbers are listed.
- A number ported in from another provider must already be text-enabled to send and receive texts, CallTrackingMetrics says on its texting page. Ask its support before the move if that is unclear.
Turn texting on and give each number a route
A text-capable number still drops texts until texting is switched on and the number is told where to send them.
- Open Numbers, then Text Numbers. Under Allow Text Messages, click each tracking number in the left list to move it to the right list of text-enabled numbers, then click Save Settings.
- Open Numbers, then Tracking Numbers, and click Edit next to the first number. In the Text Routing section, turn on Text Messaging Enabled.
- In How would you like to route your texts, choose Phone Number and pick the receiving number that the same tracking number's calls ring, as long as it is a mobile. If the mobile is not in the list, add it first under Numbers, then Receiving Numbers, New Receiving Number, and click Save Changes. Log Only keeps texts in the text log and sends them nowhere else.
- If your team answers in the call tracking app instead, choose Agent, or Queue where your plan includes it. With Notify Available Agents on, the text becomes a chat, each agent notified needs a chat license, and a text no agent responds to within 500 seconds is closed automatically. It stays in the log.
- Save the number, then repeat for every tracking number, including ones on your Business Profile, in ads and on print.
A newly bought number is the one most likely to be missed. Add these two settings to the steps for every number you buy, the same as call routing.
Register the business before texts are forwarded
CallTrackingMetrics counts forwarding an incoming text to a phone as outgoing texting, so it needs a registration a number that only receives does not.
- Open the menu in the top-left corner and click Trust Center, and check whether the business registration has been submitted and approved. CallTrackingMetrics also treats calls routed to a receiving number as outbound calls that need the business registered.
- Complete the business registration and register at least one text message campaign. CallTrackingMetrics says outbound texting, even forwarding, must be registered, that you are liable for what forwarded texts contain, and that the process takes four to six weeks.
- For toll-free tracking numbers, also submit the toll-free registration form in the Trust Center. CallTrackingMetrics says it can be sent while the business registration is under review.
- Until registration is approved, route texts to Log Only, Agent or Queue and read them in the app. A reply sent from the app is outbound texting too, so it also needs the registration.
Check it worked
From a mobile that is not one of the receiving phones, text each tracking number. Within a few minutes, each text should show under Activities, then Texts, with the status Received, and arrive on the phone or agent you routed it to.
If the forwarded copy shows Failed, the destination could not take it: CallTrackingMetrics lists a number that is not in service, on the do not text list, or not enabled to receive texts. Route that number's texts to a mobile instead. Undelivered means the carrier reported the text was not delivered, for example after content filtering, and Unreachable means the receiving phone was switched off or otherwise unavailable.
Why calls work while texts disappear
Call routing and text routing are separate settings on each tracking number. Setup after buying asks for the call route, the tracking source and, for online sources, the target number, so a number can pass every call test with texting never turned on. A customer who texts a number from a listing or an ad gets no reply, and the business never sees the text.
Taking texts on a different line from calls
Some businesses want calls on the office line and texts on one mobile. Add the mobile under Numbers, then Receiving Numbers if it is not there yet, choose Phone Number and pick that mobile for every tracking number, and keep the list of numbers and routes so a number bought later gets the same route.