---
title: "Contact by Text"
slug: "contact-by-text"
description: "Requirements to send text messages in infoodle: role permission, Cell checkbox, time embargo and a per-user text budget, with steps to allocate or remove it."
tags: ["Text Message", "SMS", "Text", "Text Funds", "Txt Funds", "Text Budget", "Txt Budget", "Txt Message", "SMS Funds", "SMS Budget"]
updated: 2026-10-17T04:36:51Z
published: 2026-10-17T04:36:51Z
canonical: "help.infoodle.com/contact-by-text"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.infoodle.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Contact by Text

infoodle enables you to send texts to people in your database. Text messages are sent directly from infoodle using the data you hold on your community. This is sent over the internet via a gateway to the users' phones. Because it needs to be sent this way, there are charges involved.

The cost of a text message is based on the number of recipients - therefore if you send 1 text message to 50 recipients you will be charged for 50 messages. This is true if you use any of the text message gateways including infoodle's and is a cost past on by the telephone companies.

If you want to send free messages to the phone you can consider App notifications, which go to infoodle app users. See [App Notifications](/v1/docs/app-notifications) for more information.

              
              

For information on text charges and gateways, see: **[Text & Phone Settings](/v1/docs/text-phone-settings)**

In order to be able to send text messages you must have permission in your role and you must be allocated a budget. The contacts must also have the **Cell** checkbox, next to their mobile phone number on their profile, selected.

              
              

For information on:

Contact Role Permissions, see: **[Contact Permissions](/v1/docs/contact-permissions)** Creating and sending text messages, see: **[Sending Text Messages](/v1/docs/sending-text-messages)**

Finally - you need to be aware of any time embargo which your site has implemented. This restricts the time of day that text messages can be sent out.

              
              

For information on text sending embargo, see : **[Text & Phone Settings](/v1/docs/text-phone-settings)**

### How to allocate a text Budget

1. From the person's profile page you want to allocate a budget to, click on the **Settings cog** and select **Settings**.

![image.png](https://cdn.document360.io/d198920d-a212-4177-85f9-e1abc92e7ab3/Images/Documentation/image%28992%29.png)

1. In the **Text settings** section enter the budget you want to allocate to this user

![image.png](https://cdn.document360.io/d198920d-a212-4177-85f9-e1abc92e7ab3/Images/Documentation/image%28994%29.png)

1. Select **Save**.

The current balance will decrease with each text sent. (At the time of writing texts cost .15 cents each.)

### To remove a text budget

From the settings page, enter the negative amount you want to remove; i.e. -15.00 will bring the above amount to 00.00.

## Related

- [Texts](/texts.md)
- [Text & Phone Settings](/text-phone-settings.md)