Texting Your Assistant

Give your assistant its own phone number so you can text it like anyone else in your contacts.

Sometimes opening an app just isn't the fastest way to get something done. Your assistant can have its own real phone number, so you can text it the same way you'd text a friend or coworker — no app required. Ask it to check your day, draft a reply, or set a reminder, right from your messages.

Getting a number for your assistant

Open your assistant (from Assistants in the sidebar), go to its Phone tab, and choose which kinds of line you want: SMS, WhatsApp, and/or iMessage. Add a note for the admin if you like, then click Request Phone Line. This isn't instant — the request goes into an approval queue first, since it's a real number that needs to be set up properly, and you'll be notified once it's ready. The request screen also spells out current costs: SMS and WhatsApp messages use credits, while iMessage doesn't use credits but is an add-on charged per line. Once approved, the numbers appear on the same Phone tab.

Texting like normal

Once your assistant has a number, save it in your contacts and text it exactly like you would anyone else. Ask a question, give it something to do, or just check in — your assistant reads every message and replies right there in the thread, no different from texting a person.

Blue bubble, green bubble — it doesn't matter

If you're on an iPhone, you might notice your assistant's messages sometimes show up as a blue bubble and sometimes as a green one. That's just how your phone displays the message — blue means both sides support the fancier messaging style, green means it fell back to plain texting. Either way, your assistant reads what you send and replies the same way every time. You don't need to think about which one you're seeing — just text away.

It also works on WhatsApp

WhatsApp is one of the line types you can request. If that's where you already spend your time, ask for it when you request your line, then add the number there and message your assistant the same way. Your assistant's Phone tab lists each number it has, and shows channels that share one number as a single row.

The same safety check still applies

Texting is a shortcut for talking to your assistant, not a shortcut around it. If you ask it to do something that actually happens in the real world — booking a meeting, sending an email on your behalf — it follows your Autonomy settings, exactly like it would if you'd asked from the app: it waits for your approval, gives you a confirmation window, or goes ahead, depending on how you've set it. See the dispatch cart guide for how the review step works.

A text can't make a task less restrictive. To loosen a task's autonomy, open the task in the app and use its autonomy badge.

And if you also use Voice & Phone Calls, it's worth knowing: your assistant's call line is listed on the same Phone tab, so you can call when you want to talk and text when you'd rather type.