Using Your Phone for Sending Text Messages

For Directra to process your text message you must send your message to the Directra short code: 45997. Directra will then route your message to the phones of the Group members you specify in the message (see below).

Use messages of the form <command> <recipient> <message> to communicate with Group members. You can abbreviate the command and recipient as long as you provide enough information so the command is not ambiguous. (See Commands and Formats for Sending Text Messages for details and examples.) The command messages are:

• Send: Send a message to specified recipients. This is the default command, so if you don't include a command, Directra assumes you mean Send. For example: s tom@ghs Meet @ 11? will send the message "Meet @ 11?" to Tom, a member of an Group whose name begins with "ghs".
• Blast: send a blast message. In this case the recipient is one or more tags. For example, b pl@war practice@2 might send the blast message "practice@2" to the "Players" tag for the "Warriors" team.
• Call: place a phone call to the specified member. For example, c san@fan will call your phone, then will call Sandy, who is in an Group whose name starts with "fan". All of Sandy's phones that are not unlisted will ring, and the first one that answers will be connected.

Directra recognizes the following one-word messages. These are case insensitive, i.e. Help, HELP and help are the same message.

• Help: Directra will return a summary of message types you may send.
• Stop: Stop receiving messages from all Groups. Directra automatically updates your Member Page to reflect this.
• Start: Resume receiving messages to this phone.

Type your reply without using a command. Directra will attempt to determine the sender of the original message so that the reply will be correctly sent. If Directra cannot make this determination, you will get a message asking you to identify who should receive your reply. Usually, Directra sends your replies to the member who most recently sent you a text message, making it easy to converse with someone. But if you have received messages from multiple members within the last hour, or if you have not received a message from anyone within the last day, Directra will ask you who should get the reply.

To send most messages Directra requires that you be a member of an Group. (The exceptions are the basic messages described below.) When you send a text message Directra checks your caller-ID. If either of the following is true then Directra will send your message:

• The phone you're using is specified in your My Preferences page.
• If the number is not found in your My Preferences panel, Directra checks to see if the number appears on any Member Pages and is assigned only to you. If so, then Directra assumes the number is yours and will send your message.

If the above lookups fail, Directra will reply that it cannot identify you.