A text answering service replies to the texts customers send your business number, so a “can you come Thursday?” gets an answer in minutes instead of tonight. Most phone answering services don’t do this: Ruby and Abby Connect put your texts in an app for you to answer yourself. The services that reply for you are mostly AI, and they work on a texting number set up for them, with consent and carrier rules to follow. Below: who replies and how, what it costs, the rules, and how to test one, as of November 8, 2026.
What is a text answering service?
It’s someone, or something, that reads and answers the texts sent to your business number while you’re busy. Three things get sold under the name:
- An inbox you answer yourself. Your business number can text, and the messages land in an app. Useful, but you’re still the one replying.
- People who reply for you. A live agent answers texts on your behalf, the way a receptionist answers calls. In our checks for this post, few answering services sell it as a product today.
- An AI that replies for you. It answers questions from what you’ve taught it, books appointments, and hands you anything it can’t handle.
Missed-call text-back is a different thing: it sends one text after a missed call. We covered that in the best missed-call text-back software.
Do answering services answer texts?
Mostly not. From each provider’s own pages, November 2026:
| Service | Who answers the texts | What it costs |
|---|---|---|
| Ruby | You. Texts to your local business number “take place in your Ruby mobile app.” Ruby toll-free numbers “no longer have texting capability.” | Included with its call plans ($250 for 50 minutes and up) |
| Abby Connect | You: “follow up with callers by call or text, right in the app.” | Included with its call plans ($164 and up) |
| Smith.ai | Its receptionists send a follow-up text after a call | Part of its call plans |
| My AI Front Desk | AI. Its plan includes “2-way SMS” alongside phone answering | $99 a month with 400 SMS messages and 200 voice minutes |
| Podium | AI, through its AI Employee add-on for “phone calls, text, email, social” | Core $399 or Pro $599 a month (pricing), with the AI Employee priced on request |
| Rosie | AI, for texts started from your website | $50 a month add-on for 25 conversations, then $1 each |
The pattern: human answering services handle calls, and texting is something you do in their app. If you want someone else replying to texts, today that usually means an AI.
Hear the receptionist take a real call — it rings your phone in about a minute.
What should a text answering service do?
- Reply in minutes, at any hour, with your business name on the text.
- Read the whole thread, so it doesn’t ask a returning customer what they already said.
- Book, move or cancel appointments on a calendar you choose, or send a booking link.
- Hand off to you when it can’t help, and tell you right away about cancellations and complaints.
- Respect STOP. A customer who replies STOP, cancel or unsubscribe gets no more texts.
What are the rules for answering business texts?
A short version, not legal advice:
- Carrier registration. Businesses texting from a regular 10-digit number in the US register for A2P 10DLC. Twilio’s guide says anyone sending from an application over a 10DLC number “must register,” and unregistered senders pay extra carrier fees.
- Replying is fine; marketing needs consent. The wireless industry’s CTIA Messaging Principles expect no extra permission when the customer texts first and you simply respond. Marketing texts need the customer’s consent.
- STOP means stop. Under the FCC’s rules, replies like “stop,” “quit,” “end,” “cancel” or “unsubscribe” revoke consent, and you must honor it within ten business days (47 CFR 64.1200(a)(10)).
- Quiet hours apply to sales texts. Telephone solicitations, which include sales texts, can’t go out before 8am or after 9pm in the customer’s time zone (64.1200(c)(1)), and some states are stricter.
How to test one before you trust it
Text it three times from your own phone:
- A question it should know: “Do you do weekend appointments?” Check that the answer matches your hours.
- A booking: “Can you come Thursday afternoon?” Check that it offers a real time and that the booking lands on your calendar.
- Something it shouldn’t handle: a complaint or a refund request. Check that it hands off and that you hear about it.
Then text STOP and confirm nothing else arrives.
Where does Stack Space fit?
Stack Space is a CRM with an AI receptionist built in, and an AI employee answers texts from the Business Brain that trains your receptionist. On the AI employees page, switch on “AI answers your messages” and your AI replies to new texts, emails and social messages. It reads the customer’s thread and file, answers from what you’ve taught it, books, moves or cancels their appointment on the calendars you let it book (or sends a booking link), and hands you anything it can’t do with a text. It’s off until you switch it on.
To take texts on a number of your own, add a managed text number for $15 a month, and the AI’s replies go out from it. Texting from a number you bring yourself, and marketing texts, wait for carriers to approve your registration. A STOP reply stops texts to that number. Plans are $125 a month (Starter, 800 texts and 150 receptionist minutes) and $355 (Professional, 2,750 texts and 900 minutes), month to month, with no free trial.
If you only need calls answered, see the AI answering service. If you’re weighing people against AI, see human answering service vs AI.
FAQ
What is a text answering service? A service that replies to the texts customers send your business number. It can be people, an AI, or an app where you reply yourself.
Does Ruby answer texts? Not for you. Ruby’s help center says texts to your local business number happen in the Ruby mobile app, where you reply, and its toll-free numbers no longer text.
Can an AI answer my business texts? Yes. Several AI receptionists reply to texts as well as calls, including My AI Front Desk and Podium’s AI Employee; on Stack Space an AI employee answers texts. Each works on a texting number set up for it, so check which number it uses.
Do I need permission to reply to a customer’s text? When the customer texts first and you reply about what they asked, the industry’s messaging principles expect no extra permission. Marketing texts need consent, and a STOP reply ends all texts.
Run your whole business on one platform.
Full CRM + AI included from $125/mo · no contracts · cancel in two clicks
Start today