Route an SMS number

Each SMS number assigned to your tenant has its own routing. Inbound texts to that number can drop into the general inbox, go to a specific team, or be handled by an Agent Stack. Routing is set on a per-number basis from Settings → SMS.

Before you start

• At least one SMS number assigned to your tenant by your account team. Numbers show up in Settings → SMS under Assigned Phone Numbers.
• A team configured if you want to route to one (set up in Settings → Teams).
• An Agent Stack published if you want autonomous handling (set up in Settings → Agent Stacks). A published stack must have at least one enabled specialist before it can be used for SMS routing.

Steps

1. Open Settings → SMS.
2. Find the number in the Assigned Phone Numbers table.
3. In the Change Routing column, click the dropdown.
4. Pick the destination:
   General inbox — the conversation lands in the main inbox without team or Agent Stack pre-assignment. The default if no other routing is configured.
   Team → [your team] — the conversation is assigned to the chosen team. Agents on that team see it in their team’s queue.
   Agent Stack → [your stack] — the conversation is handed to the Agent Stack, which handles it autonomously (with escalation to a human when needed).
5. There is no separate Save button: the change is saved as soon as you pick a destination, and a Routing updated message confirms it.

The next inbound text that starts a new conversation on that number uses the new routing.

Verify it worked

Text the number from your own phone with a short test message. Confirm the conversation appears in Atender:

• Routing to a team → the conversation should be visible in that team’s inbox view.
• Routing to an Agent Stack → the Agent Stack should respond automatically within a few seconds.
• General inbox → the conversation appears unassigned in the main inbox.

Routing decision guide

• General inbox — Low-volume numbers, or when you want supervisors to triage and assign manually.
• Team — A dedicated number for one team (sales, support, after-hours). The team owns inbound to that number.
• Agent Stack — High-volume numbers where most inbound is FAQ-like and an Agent Stack can resolve a meaningful share of it. The Agent Stack escalates to a human queue if it can’t resolve.

Troubleshooting

• Symptom: The Team dropdown is empty. Fix: No teams have been created yet. Set up at least one team in Settings → Teams, then come back.

• Symptom: The Agent Stack dropdown is empty. Fix: No Agent Stack has been created yet. Build one in Settings → Agent Stacks, then come back.

• Symptom: You see Failed to update routing. when you pick an Agent Stack (the API returns STACK_HAS_NO_ENABLED_SPECIALIST). Fix: SMS routing cannot be bound to an on stack with no enabled specialists. Add a specialist, switch on an existing specialist, or turn the stack off while you wire the number.

• Symptom: Routing is set to a team but conversations still appear in the general inbox. Fix: Confirm you saved the change. Routing only takes effect when an incoming text starts a new conversation — a text from a customer who already has an open, snoozed or done SMS conversation joins it, and it keeps its existing assignment.

See also

• The SMS channel
• Set the default outbound number