PulseText — Feature Guide

A complete catalogue of what the product does today, organised by area. For task-oriented walkthroughs see User Guide and Admin Guide. For "something doesn't work" see Help Guide.

Contents

1. Sign-in & account
2. Workspaces
3. Roles & permissions
4. Provider connections
5. Phone numbers
6. Number assignments
7. Inbox & sidebar
8. Conversations & threads
9. Outbound messaging
10. Inbound messaging & real-time
11. Attachments (MMS)
12. Templates
13. Scheduled messages
14. Conversation tags
15. Conversation assignments
16. Internal notes
17. Cloud accounts (Drive integrations)
18. Zoho Sign integration
19. Pinning & favourites
20. Search & navigation
21. Reports
22. Audit log
23. Access requests
24. Notifications & alerts
25. Theme & appearance
26. Mobile responsiveness
27. Multi-mode operation (SaaS, widget, contact-focus)

1. Sign-in & account

• Email + password sign-in.
• Self-serve signup that creates a brand-new workspace and makes the first user the OWNER.
• Temporary-password flow for new users invited by an admin, with a forced password change on first sign-in.
• Password change from the account menu.
• Auto-logout when a session expires, with a clean redirect back to the login page.
• "Sign in with embed" path — embedder applications can launch PulseText for their users without a separate sign-in step.

2. Workspaces

• A user can belong to many workspaces with a different role in each.
• Workspace switcher in the account menu listing every workspace the signed-in user belongs to and the role in each.
• Switching workspaces clears cached data so you don't see stale results.
• Strict isolation between workspaces — you cannot see another organization's contacts, numbers, or messages.
• Per-workspace name shown in the sidebar header.

3. Roles & permissions

• Three roles: OWNER, ADMIN, AGENT.
• At least one OWNER per workspace at all times.
• Non-owners cannot demote or remove an OWNER.
• You cannot change your own role.
• Agents see only the numbers assigned to them; admins and owners see all active numbers.
• Most management controls (invite, role change, disconnect provider, manage assignees, audit log, reports) are admin-only and hidden for agents.
• Agents can claim/release conversations assigned to themselves but cannot reassign other agents' conversations.

4. Provider connections

• Multi-provider support: connect one or more SMS providers to a workspace at the same time.
  • Twilio
  • Sinch
  • MessageMedia
• Per-organization credentials stored on the server, never sent to the browser.
• Status pill on each provider card (Connected / Not connected).
• Save / disconnect flow with explicit confirmation.
• Disconnect deactivates the provider's numbers but preserves message history.
• Token rotation by typing a new value over a masked input.
• Inline "Add number" form on providers that don't auto-discover.

5. Phone numbers

• One-click sync that pulls every active number from each connected provider into the workspace.
• Background scheduled sync at a configurable interval.
• Manual sync button in the sidebar header for on-demand refresh.
• Auto-archive for numbers that no longer exist with the provider.
• Cross-organization collision protection — a number already claimed by a different organization is skipped during sync, never silently re-homed.
• Friendly names carried through from the provider.
• Active vs archived state with visual differentiation in the sidebar and a read-only thread mode for archived numbers.
• Manual registration for providers without a list-numbers API.

6. Number assignments

• Agents can be assigned to many numbers, and a number can have many agents.
• Inline assignee popover in the sidebar (right-click any number) for quick re-assignment.
• Settings → Numbers page for bulk view and edit.
• Optimistic updates with rollback on error.
• Audit-logged with actor + timestamp for compliance.

7. Inbox & sidebar

• Two-pane layout (sidebar + main) on desktop; single-pane collapse on mobile.
• Sidebar lists every number the user can see, sorted with pinned numbers first.
• Per-number unread count in real time.
• Pinned (favourite) numbers with a star icon.
• Workspace name + workspace switcher in the sidebar.
• Settings, theme toggle, and account menu accessible from the sidebar bottom.

8. Conversations & threads

• Conversation list per number, one row per contact.
• Last-message preview, timestamp, unread badge, pinned star.
• Tag chips, assignee chip, and notes-count icon visible on each row.
• Thread view with chronological message bubbles, in/out distinction, status icons.
• Pinned-message banner at the top of the thread.
• Inline media previews (images), file icons (PDFs, etc.).
• Pagination — older history loaded on scroll.
• Per-thread real-time updates without refresh.
• Cross-number contact view — every message a contact has exchanged with any of your numbers in one timeline.
• Pick which of your numbers to reply from in the cross-number view.

9. Outbound messaging

• Type and Enter to send (Shift+Enter for new line).
• Optimistic bubble — message appears instantly with a "Sending" status.
• Status flips through Sending → Sent → Delivered (or Failed with reason) as the provider reports back.
• Automatic retry on transient network errors.
• Failure reasons surfaced inline (so agents know what went wrong without log access).
• Provider-side delivery callbacks update bubble state in real time.

10. Inbound messaging & real-time

• Provider webhooks with signature validation per workspace.
• Auto-create contact rows for new senders.
• Inbound MMS with images, audio, video, vCards, etc.
• Real-time delivery to every signed-in member of the workspace (no refresh needed).
• Per-conversation read receipts — opening the thread marks inbound messages as read.
• Mark-on-open behaviour synchronises across multiple open tabs.

11. Attachments (MMS)

• Attach from five sources via the paperclip menu:
  • Upload from device — multi-file picker.
  • From a URL — server downloads + re-hosts so you don't leak source URLs.
  • Google Drive — browse, pick, attach. Native Google Docs export to PDF.
  • Zoho WorkDrive — same flow.
  • Zoho Sign — browse + attach as PDF, or use the Builder tab to create a sign request and insert the signing URL.
• Up to 10 attachments per message.
• Per-attachment size cap (configurable per server, typically 25 MB).
• Image preview thumbnails in the composer.
• Inline filename + size + remove (×) on every chip.
• Failed uploads shown in red with the failure reason.
• Outbound media re-served via signed time-limited URLs (the recipient's provider fetches the file directly).

12. Templates

• Pre-authored message bodies with optional pinned attachments.
• {{link}} placeholder — substituted at send time with any URL the agent supplies.
• Two visibility levels:
  • Private — only the author.
  • Workspace — every member of the workspace.
• Settings → Templates for create / edit / delete.
• Inline picker icon in the composer for quick selection.
• Author and admins can edit / delete; other members read-only.

13. Scheduled messages

• Pick a future date + time in the composer's clock popover.
• Background dispatcher sends the message at the chosen time.
• Settings → Scheduled lists every pending message in the workspace, sorted by scheduled time.
• Cancel a pending message with one click.
• Failed scheduled sends show with the failure reason and can be re-scheduled.
• Sent scheduled messages flow into the regular thread alongside manual sends.

14. Conversation tags

• Workspace-wide colour-coded labels applied to contacts.
• Settings → Tags page with a 10-colour palette and live preview.
• Apply / remove via right-click on any conversation row, or from the contact's thread.
• Conversation list shows tag chips per row.
• Filter the conversation list by tag with one-click pills.
• Search box matches tag names alongside contact / phone / body.
• Up to 20 tags per contact, no hard cap on tags per workspace.
• Usage count visible per tag on the management page.
• Real-time fan-out — applying a tag in one tab updates other tabs immediately.

15. Conversation assignments

• Assign a conversation (per number + contact pair) to a single team member.
• Right-click any conversation row → Assign / Reassign / Unassign.
• Assignment badge in the thread header for in-context reassignment.
• Conversation list shows the assignee's avatar chip per row.
• Filter pills — All / Mine / Unassigned — combine with tag filters and the search box.
• Permission model:
  • Owners + Admins assign anyone to anyone.
  • Agents can claim / release a conversation for themselves only; cannot redirect others' conversations.
• Real-time fan-out across all members of the workspace.

16. Internal notes

• Per-contact notes that never leave PulseText (not transmitted via SMS, never visible to the contact).
• Open the Notes button in the thread header → modal listing all notes for the contact.
• Compose, edit, delete from inside the modal.
• Notes are workspace-wide — every member sees the same set.
• Author can edit / delete their own; admins can edit / delete any.
• Real-time fan-out — a teammate's edit appears live.
• Notes count badge on the conversation row + thread header.

17. Cloud accounts (Drive integrations)

• Connect Google Drive, Zoho WorkDrive, and Zoho Sign accounts per user.
• Settings → Cloud accounts for connect / disconnect / share.
• Share any of your connections with teammates so they can attach from the same drive.
• Sharing is per-connection (you control which teammates see which account).
• Connections survive password / role changes.
• Disconnect revokes all team shares automatically.

18. Zoho Sign integration

• Existing-document flow — browse all documents in your Zoho Sign account.
  • Status pills filter Draft / In progress / Completed.
  • Search by document name.
  • Choose: attach as PDF, insert a signing link (when the document was authored with embedded signing enabled), or both.
  • Multi-recipient documents: pick which recipient's signing URL to insert.
• Builder flow — create a new sign request from a template:
  • Pick a Zoho Sign template.
  • Fill the recipient form (pre-filled from contact's name and phone; email required).
  • Optional document name override.
  • Click Create & insert link: the system creates the request with embedded signing enabled and inserts a one-time signing URL into the SMS body.
  • 2-minute URL expiry — toast warns the agent to send the SMS immediately.
  • v1 supports single-recipient templates; multi-recipient templates show a "use Zoho UI" message.
• Connection sharing same as Drive integrations.

19. Pinning & favourites

• Pin a phone number to the top of the sidebar (per-user).
• Pin a contact to the top of a conversation list (per-user).
• Pin a message to a thread-level banner (workspace-wide).
• Up to 5 pinned messages per thread.
• Right-click toggles in/out for every pin type.
• Pinned numbers and contacts get a star icon for visual emphasis.

20. Search & navigation

• Conversation list search — matches contact name, phone, message body, tag name, assignee name.
• Cross-number contact search — quickly find a contact regardless of which of your numbers they reached out on.
• Audit log search — filter by event type and date for compliance investigations.
• Tag filter — one-click filter pills above the conversation list.
• Assignment filter — All / Mine / Unassigned pills.
• Workspace switcher in the account menu.

21. Reports

• Admin-only dashboard at Settings → Reports.
• Date-range presets: 7 / 30 / 90 days.
• KPI cards: total messages, inbound vs outbound split, unique contacts, active numbers, active agents, failed message count and percentage.
• Daily volume chart — stacked bar per day, inbound vs outbound, with hover-tooltip exact counts.
• Top agents — most active outbound senders.
• Top numbers — busiest lines, inbound + outbound split.
• Top tags — most-used labels by contact count.
• Cached per range — switching back to a previously-loaded range is instant.

22. Audit log

• Admin-only view of every workspace event:
  • Sign-ins, sign-outs.
  • User invited / removed / role changed.
  • Provider connected / disconnected.
  • Number access requested / approved / denied.
  • Number assignments changed.
  • Embed-SSO launches.
  • Workspace switched.
• Filter by event type and date.
• Search by email, number, or message id.
• Always carries actor + timestamp + workspace context.

23. Access requests

• Agents file requests for numbers they don't currently have.
• Admins approve / deny in Settings → Access requests with an optional decision note.
• Approving auto-assigns the agent to the number.
• Withdrawn requests stay in the audit log for posterity.
• Real-time updates so an admin's approval is visible to the agent without refresh.

24. Notifications & alerts

• Browser tab title shows total unread count: (N) PulseText.
• Sound on inbound — opt-in beep when a new message arrives. Toggle from the account menu, persists per-browser.
• Real-time message delivery — open thread updates without refresh.
• Real-time fan-out for assignment + tag + notes events.
• In-app toast notifications for action results (saved / failed / connected / etc.).
• Inline error banners for invalid inputs.

25. Theme & appearance

• Light / Dark / System modes.
• System mode follows OS preference and switches automatically with the OS.
• Custom CSS-variable theme tokens flip across both modes.
• All status chips, badges, and accents stay readable in both modes (WCAG-compliant).
• Theme choice is per-browser and persists across reloads.

26. Mobile responsiveness

• Single-pane collapse on mobile (sidebar OR main, not both).
• Touch-target minimum size on every interactive control.
• Long-press fallback for right-click context menus on touch devices.
• Form inputs sized to disable iOS auto-zoom on focus.
• Modals scale from full-screen on mobile to centred dialogs on tablet+.
• All filter strips wrap gracefully in narrow viewports.

27. Multi-mode operation

PulseText runs in three modes:

• SaaS — full app at your normal URL with a browser router.
• Zoho widget — embedded as an iframe inside a Zoho app (your team uses PulseText without leaving Zoho).
• Widget with contact focus — same as widget, but pinned to a single contact's conversation. Used when an embedder launches PulseText specifically for one customer (the rest of the inbox is hidden).

In every mode:

• All features above are available.
• Real-time delivery works.
• Tag, assignment, notes, Zoho Sign — all functional.
• Workspace switching is hidden in widget+contact mode (you're pinned to one customer's conversation).

Appendix — Recent additions

The following capabilities have been added recently and are worth calling out for teams that have used PulseText for a while:

• Conversation tags with workspace-wide colour palette.
• Conversation assignment with Mine / Unassigned filters.
• Internal notes per contact (agent-only).
• Reports dashboard for admins.
• Zoho Sign integration — both browse-existing and template builder flows.
• Browser tab unread count + opt-in sound notifications.
• Long-press context menus on touch devices.
• Sharper signup errors — when a workspace can't be created the page now tells you what clashed (your email, an existing workspace email, or an embedder identifier) instead of a generic "account exists" message.
• Cloud connect popup keeps the error on screen — Google / Zoho Drive and Zoho Sign connect popups no longer flash closed on errors. The page stays open with a red reason line and a Close button so you can read what happened.

These are documented in detail in User Guide and Admin Guide under their respective sections.