Check a status on the move
Ask for a concise update from any phone. A text goes out, the answer comes back, and you never have to find a laptop to learn where something stands.
SMS
SMS is a planned channel for reaching an AI employee by ordinary text message, with no app to install. It is on the roadmap and not available today: there is no SMS number, no inbound texting, and no way to turn it on yet. Until it ships, use web chat or Telegram for mobile access from any phone.
SMS is the planned mobile channel for quick requests and updates. Text a connected number and the employee will answer in the same conversation, using its configured skills and guardrails.
It is built for moments when a browser is inconvenient: a status check from the road, a reminder while travelling, or a short handoff between a human and the workforce.
The channel is not live yet. When released, number ownership, routing, and employee selection will be managed in the channel drawer.
Nothing about the way you work has to change while this is being built. Every channel in Sistava is a delivery route rather than a separate product, so a text will arrive as an ordinary request for the employee you already hired. It answers with the same skills, duties, tools, training, and memory it uses in web chat, and anything that needs your approval still waits for your go ahead. That is why a new channel is a connection and a mapping rather than a second assistant to configure from scratch.
The reply is planned to come back to the phone that sent it, with the whole exchange landing in the employee's history inside the workspace. A question you fire off from a car park would be readable on a laptop later, sitting in the same thread as everything else that employee did that day. You would never have to copy a text conversation into the workspace by hand to keep the record straight, and you would never lose the thread because you asked from the wrong device.
Text is deliberately a short form channel and the plan treats it that way. It suits a status check, a quick instruction, a confirmation, or an alert you want triaged, while a long research brief or a document review still belongs in web chat where you can read the output properly. An employee that answers in two lines on your phone and writes the full version into its Drive is the shape being built, so the phone stays readable and the detail is still there when you want it.
Anything you set up while waiting carries over. Employees, skills, duties, training, tasks, and memory belong to the employee rather than to a channel, so switching SMS on the day it ships means the employee you already trained answers there straight away, with no second setup and no retraining. Until then Telegram is live and puts an employee inside a messaging app on your phone, Slack is live if your team works there, every employee has its own email address, and web chat opens in a phone browser with nothing to install.
No App Required
SMS meets people on the phone they already carry, with no workspace login for the sender.
That matters most when the person you need an answer from is a customer, a supplier, or a contractor who is never going to install anything. A text is the lowest bar there is, and the plan is to meet people at that bar rather than ask them to sign up first.
Short Requests, Fast Replies
Use text for concise questions, updates, and handoffs while larger work stays in the workspace.
The employee reads the message, does the work, and answers in the same thread. When the real answer is a long document, it writes the file into its Drive and texts back a short line saying the file is ready, so a small screen never fills up with something you cannot read on it anyway.
Planned Telephony Connection
The channel will use a managed number and employee mapping when it launches.
One number maps to one employee, which keeps setup to a single choice instead of a menu tree, a keyword router, or a second persona to write and maintain. Switching the channel on and off will sit on the same Channels page that already carries Slack and Telegram, so there is nothing new to learn.
How It Works
A text sent to a managed number will route to one employee and return a text reply.
The planned adapter will normalize an incoming message, run the employee under the normal channel gate, and deliver the response to the same number.
Because the message becomes ordinary work, the employee runs it exactly as it runs a request typed into web chat. Skills, duties, tools, training, and memory all apply, and any step that needs your approval pauses and waits for you rather than going ahead just because the request arrived by text.
The answer is delivered back to the number that sent it, and the exchange is written into the employee's history inside the workspace. You can read on a laptop later what you asked from a phone, search it the same way you search any other conversation, and carry on in web chat without repeating yourself.
Use Cases
Hand off a request
Text context to an employee when you are away from the workspace. The work starts while you are still walking, and the finished result is waiting for you when you sit down.
Keep alerts actionable
Route a short alert to an employee for triage. Instead of a notification you read and forget, the employee looks into it and texts back what it actually found.
Reach someone who will never install an app
A supplier, a contractor, or a customer can text the number and get a real answer without signing up for anything, downloading anything, or learning a new tool.
Comparison
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| A question that occurs to you on the road waits until you are back at a desk. | Text it in and the work has already started before you sit down. |
| Reaching an assistant means opening an app and signing in first. | A phone number is the whole interface, and the person texting needs no account. |
| A text exchange lives on one phone and never reaches the rest of your records. | The conversation lands in the employee's history, searchable next to everything else. |
| Every new messaging surface means another bot to build and another script to maintain. | A channel is only a delivery route: same employee, same memory, same approvals. |
FAQ
Is SMS live?
No. It is planned.
Can my AI employee reply to a customer's text message?
Not yet. SMS is a planned Sistava channel and no text message reaches an employee today, so a customer who texts you still needs a person to answer. When it ships, a message sent to your connected number will be answered by the employee you mapped to it, inside the same text thread. Telegram, Slack, and each employee's own email address already work exactly that way today.
Do I need my own phone number for SMS when it launches?
The plan is a managed number you connect to your workspace from Settings, then Technical, then Channels, rather than telephony hardware you have to buy and wire up yourself. You pick which employee answers that number, and the mapping is the whole configuration. Your personal mobile number stays separate and is never used to send anything on your behalf.
Will my employee remember a conversation that starts by text and continues in the app?
Yes, that is the design. Memory belongs to the employee rather than to a channel, so a request sent by text will appear in the workspace history and can be picked up in web chat without repeating the background. Slack, Telegram, email, and web chat already behave that way with each other today.
Can I turn the SMS channel off once it is switched on?
Yes. Once it is live, SMS is an optional channel like Slack and Telegram, switched on and off from Settings, then Technical, then Channels. Web chat and the automatic schedule are the only two surfaces that can never be turned off, because they are how the product works at all.
How can I reach my AI employee from my phone before SMS ships?
Telegram is the closest match and it is live now, putting an employee inside a messaging app on your phone. Slack works if your team already runs there, every employee has its own email address you can write to, and web chat opens in a phone browser with nothing to install. Nothing you set up in those has to be redone when SMS arrives.
Will messages use employee memory?
Yes, shared employee memory is the intended behavior.
Where will I configure a number?
In the SMS Manage drawer under Technical > Channels after release.
Where SMS fits
SMS is part of Ways you talk to them.
Chat in the app with live reasoning, speak to your AI voice agent over a call, message on Slack or WhatsApp, send an email, or embed a widget on your website. Every channel connects to the same AI agent with the same memory and capabilities. Switch channels mid-conversation and your employee picks up right where you left off.
- Ways you talk to them: Every channel. One conversation.
Read the guide
More in Channels
- Web Chat: Chat with any AI employee directly in the workspace, with a streaming reply, a live execution timeline showing what it is reading, thinking, and doing, and inline approve/reject buttons when it needs a sensitive action confirmed. It is the default channel: nothing to configure, works on desktop or mobile, and every conversation persists so you can pick it back up later.
- Voice Calls: Voice Calls is a planned channel for speaking to an AI employee out loud and hearing it reply in real time, instead of typing. It is not available yet: there is no voice button in the workspace today, and the feature is paused while the underlying voice flow is redesigned. When it ships, a voice call will run through the same skills, tools, and memory as a typed conversation.
- Connect an Email Provider: Point your own SendGrid, Mailgun, or Postmark inbound-parse webhook at a tenant-scoped endpoint and every email that lands there gets turned into work for an employee. Forward support requests, sales inquiries, or internal approval emails and the employee reads the sender, subject, and body, then acts on it in the background. You get a 202 response immediately; there's no waiting on the request.
- Personal Mailbox: Every employee gets its own email address on the shared Sistava domain the moment you hire it, no setup. Email it directly, CC it on a thread with other people, or forward something over, and it reads and replies within seconds. Free to send from, with a monthly cap by plan. Control the shared employee signature in Company Profile, or connect your own Gmail or Outlook when you want it sending as you, with no cap.
- Send from Gmail or Outlook: The built-in employee address is free and always on, but it sends as the employee, not as you. Connect your own Gmail or Outlook instead and an employee sends and replies from your real address, in your name, with no monthly sending cap on any plan.
- Talk to Your Employee on Video: In-App Video is a planned channel for live, face to face video calls with an AI employee, camera and microphone, directly inside the workspace. It has no working implementation today: it appears in Settings > Technical > Channels as a Coming soon placeholder only. Once it ships, it is meant to run on the same execution pipeline as every other channel, so the employee keeps its skills, tools, training, and conversation memory on a video call. If you need an employee in a live call today, it can already join a Google Meet, Zoom, or Microsoft Teams meeting as a participant, which is a different capability and available now.
- Chat Widget: The Chat Widget will let you embed an AI employee directly on your public website so visitors can ask questions and get answers without leaving the page. It is on the roadmap and is not available to configure yet: today it appears in Settings > Technical > Channels as a Coming soon placeholder with no setup, embed snippet, or Manage action.
- WhatsApp: WhatsApp is a planned messaging channel for talking with an AI employee from your phone. It is not connected yet: the card shows as coming soon and cannot be set up today. When it ships, it will carry the same employee memory, skills, and guardrails as web chat, Telegram, Slack, and the mailbox. Telegram and Slack are live now and give you the same access from a phone, so nothing you set up today has to be rebuilt when WhatsApp arrives.
- Discord: Discord is a planned channel for bringing an AI employee into the servers and direct messages your community already uses. It will connect the same way Slack does today: authorize a bot through OAuth, then map it to one employee. It is not available to connect yet, so no Discord traffic reaches an employee until it ships. Slack, Telegram, each employee's own email address, and web chat cover the same job in the meantime.
- Calendar Invites: Add your employee's personal address as a guest on any Google, Outlook, or Apple calendar event and they show up for the meeting automatically, no RSVP or extra app on your side. Once the meeting starts, the employee joins the Meet, Zoom, or Teams call, listens, speaks when addressed, and writes a summary afterward. There is nothing to switch on for the invite itself, just turn on the Meeting Attender tool for that employee once.
- Slack Channel: Bring your AI employee into Slack as a real bot user your team can mention, DM, or trigger with a slash command. Every reply lands in the same thread, and memory, tasks, skills, and tools stay shared with web chat, so a conversation started on Slack continues anywhere else. You approve or reject requests right from Slack, and the bot only speaks when mentioned, DM'd, or already in a thread.
- Telegram Channel: Connect an AI employee to its own Telegram bot so you can message it from your phone the same way you message a person. It answers direct messages instantly, and joins group chats where it replies only when mentioned or replied to. Memory, tasks, and tools are shared with the web app, so a conversation started on Telegram picks up right where it left off on the desktop, and back again.