Omnichannel messaging: how SMS, iMessage, calls and email work together

Omnichannel messaging means reaching one customer across several channels (text, iMessage, phone and email) while keeping a single conversation history and a single set of consent rules for that person. The goal is that the customer experiences one business, not four disconnected departments that each start the conversation over.

Most teams already use several channels. What they usually lack is the connective tissue: the rep who calls doesn't see the text thread, the email tool keeps mailing someone who replied STOP to a text, and nobody knows which channel actually got the answer. This post covers which channel to use for which job, how to keep one history per customer, how to handle opt-outs across channels, and where Ready fits. It also covers where Ready doesn't fit, because Ready doesn't send email.

What omnichannel messaging actually means in practice

Strip away the vendor language and an omnichannel setup comes down to three things:

1. One record per customer. A phone number or contact ID that every channel writes to, so a text reply, a call transcript and a campaign send all land in the same place.
2. One consent state. If someone opts out, every channel that legally needs to respect it does. The opt-out doesn't stay trapped in the tool where it happened.
3. Channel choice by job. You pick the channel based on what the message has to do, such as confirm, persuade, resolve or document. You don't pick it based on which tool happens to be open.

"Multichannel" is the weaker version: you're on several channels, but each runs separately. Plenty of businesses run multichannel and call it omnichannel. The test is simple. Can the person answering a call see the last three texts? If not, you're multichannel.

Which channel for which job

Each channel has a different cost, a different response pattern and different rules. Here's how we'd split the work:

A few principles sit behind that table:

• Text for short and urgent, email for long and reference. A reminder that needs no scrolling belongs in a text. A contract or a 400-word update belongs in email.
• Call when the stakes or the confusion are high. If a text thread hits its third "wait, what do you mean?", pick up the phone.
• Don't send the same message everywhere. Sending identical content by text, iMessage and email at once is how you earn an opt-out. Send it on one channel and escalate to another only if there's no response.

Keeping one conversation history per customer

The biggest operational win from omnichannel messaging isn't reach. It's context. When every touch lands in one thread, anyone on the team can pick up where the last person stopped.

In Ready, SMS and blue line conversations share one inbox. Replies, reactions, typing indicators and group chats from a blue line land in the same thread as that contact's SMS. A customer who texted your green number last month and iMessages your blue line today still shows up as one conversation.

Calls connect to the same contact. The Ready Dialer runs click-to-call from the dial pad in the dashboard (or inside GoHighLevel), with consented call recording and transcripts. Inbound calls ring the open pad, and missed calls show up as a Missed call card in the contact's Inbox thread. If you record, read up on consent rules first; our post on call recording for business covers the one-party versus all-party consent question.

If your team works in GoHighLevel, Ready's native integration syncs inbound and outbound messages both ways, mapped per GHL location, so each sub-account stays isolated. If you're a software platform texting for your own customers, the same idea runs through the API. Each customer gets a sub-account with its own numbers and registration, and you read message history with GET /v1/messages to show it in your own UI. The messages API docs have the details.

Where email fits

Ready doesn't send email. Email stays in your email platform or CRM. The practical move is to key both systems on the same contact (phone number plus email) so a person's history can be stitched together, and to sync opt-outs. That's the next section.

Syncing opt-outs across channels

This is where omnichannel setups break most often, and where the legal risk sits. TCPA exposure runs roughly $500 to $1,500 per text, so a STOP that gets ignored is expensive.

Inside Ready, inbound STOP or UNSUBSCRIBE is honored automatically, and the opt-out carries across campaigns, so that contact can't be texted again from a different campaign. Through the API, opted-out numbers, numbers on your Ban list and known landlines are refused up front and not charged.

Across channels, you need a policy and a little plumbing:

• Pull the opt-out list into your other tools. GET /v1/opt-outs returns the list, and GET /v1/opt-outs/:phone checks a single number. Run a scheduled sync into your email platform or CRM.
• Decide what an SMS opt-out means for email. Legally, a text STOP is a text opt-out. Many businesses also pause marketing email out of courtesy. Pick a rule and apply it consistently.
• Treat calls separately but carefully. Someone who stops texts may still want a callback about an open order. Note the preference on the contact record so the rep sees it before dialing.
• Keep your own consent records. Ready records the sender's opt-in attestation for each bulk send and each API send that sets consent_attested (who sent, to how many, when), which builds an audit trail. It is not a per-contact consent record. The opt-in time, wording and page URL for each person live in your form tool or store, so keep them there.

Ready also holds sends outside permitted local hours based on the recipient's area. It can screen known TCPA-litigator and DNC numbers before a send, at $0.003 extra per segment when scrubbing is switched on for an account, or $0.005 per contact as a standalone scrub. None of this makes you immune to lawsuits. It reduces risk, and compliance remains the sender's responsibility. Campaigns, drip campaigns and automations wait up to 24 hours for the window; a one-to-one or API text is held only if the window opens within 6 hours, otherwise it is refused and must be resent; a one-to-one reply to someone who texted you in the last 24 hours goes out at any hour.

How Ready combines texting, iMessage and calling

Here's what each piece does and what it costs, using only the published numbers.

SMS. $0.0075 per segment on the Standard rate, plus a $0.0045 carrier fee per segment. Replies you receive are billed the same way. That all-in figure excludes the compliance surcharge (scrubbing and landline validation, $0.003 per segment each, both off by default). A segment is 160 GSM-7 characters, or 153 per part in a longer message. One emoji drops the limit to 70 characters (67 per part). Business texting runs on registered 10DLC routes. Registration is $25 at submit for the first month, then $25/mo for registration + $2 per number, and most approvals take 2 to 7 days. Our 10DLC cost breakdown walks through every fee.

Blue line (iMessage). $99 a month per line, plus 6 cents a segment for each text sent and each reply received. Reactions are free. A blue line needs no 10DLC registration, so you can start texting as soon as the line is set up. Each line can start up to 50 new conversations a day, send up to 2 texts to someone until they reply, and send photos only after a reply. Campaigns and drip campaigns send from regular numbers, not the blue line. It also isn't Apple Messages for Business, because a blue line can text first. See blue bubble texting for business and the blue line guide.

Ready Dialer. $0.025 per minute, with each started minute billed as a full minute. There are no seat plans, and every minute, including the first, bills at that one rate. It's a human dialer: no auto-dialing, voicemail drop or call transfer.

The CRM. Contacts, pipeline, automations, templates and the unified inbox come with the platform.

Worked example: one month for a small service team

These are assumptions for illustration, not a benchmark:

• 1,000 appointment reminders at 2 segments each (a 200-character message, no emoji)
• 1 blue line sending 300 segments of first-touch texts to new iPhone leads
• 40 calls averaging 2 minutes 10 seconds, billed as 3 minutes each

The math:

• SMS: 1,000 × 2 = 2,000 segments. 2,000 × $0.0075 = $15, plus 2,000 × $0.0045 in carrier fees. Replies add to this at the same per-segment rate.
• Blue line: $99 for the line, plus 300 × $0.06 = $18 in segments
• Dialer: 40 × 3 = 120 minutes × $0.025 = $3.00

Add one emoji to the reminder and the count changes. A 200-character message becomes 3 unicode segments, so 3,000 segments instead of 2,000: 3,000 × $0.0075 = $23 before carrier fees. That's why we keep emoji out of high-volume reminders. For timing and templates, see appointment reminder SMS.

Where Ready isn't the right fit

We want to be straight about this:

• If you need email in the same tool, Ready won't do it. Pair Ready with your email platform and sync opt-outs.
• If raw per-message cost is your only metric, Twilio (about $0.0083 per segment) and GoHighLevel's LeadConnector (about $0.0083 per message, roughly $0.0128 all-in) charge less per text. What Ready includes on top is self-serve registration handled in-app, the compliance stack, the blue line, the dialer and the CRM in one place.
• If you need auto-dialing or call-center features such as queues, call monitoring or voicemail drop, the Ready Dialer doesn't offer them.

Getting started without overbuilding

You don't need every channel on day one. A sensible order:

1. Get SMS registered and running for your highest-value job, usually reminders or lead follow-up.
2. Route all replies into one inbox and make calls from the same contact record.
3. Set up your opt-out sync to email before you send your first SMS campaign.
4. Add a blue line once you're regularly texting new iPhone leads and want the business name and photo to show.

If you want to try it, sign up here. The first 20 texts are free one-to-one sends, so use them before you register. To send, you add a card and get a number, which is $2 a month with the first month charged when you get it.

FAQ

What's the difference between omnichannel and multichannel messaging?

Multichannel means you use several channels. Omnichannel means those channels share one customer history and one consent state, so a call, a text and an iMessage all read as one conversation.

Does Ready send email?

No. Ready handles SMS, iMessage through the blue line, calling through the Ready Dialer, and the CRM. Keep email in your email platform and sync opt-outs using GET /v1/opt-outs. That list holds only this account's opted-out contacts, so check GET /v1/opt-outs/:phone before another tool texts a number.

Does a blue line need 10DLC registration?

No. A blue line can start texting as soon as it's set up. Your regular numbers, which handle Android recipients and campaigns, still need registration, and most approvals take 2 to 7 days.

If someone texts STOP, can they still get a call?

A text opt-out applies to texting. Ready honors STOP across campaigns automatically. Whether you still call depends on your own consent records and the reason for the call, so note the preference on the contact and follow your policy.

What does a call cost on the Ready Dialer?

$0.025 per minute, with each started minute billed as a full minute. A 2-minute-10-second call is billed as 3 minutes: 3 × $0.025 = $0.08. There are no seat fees, and every minute bills at that same $0.025 rate.