Zipwhip Expands Landline Texting to Toll-Free 800 Numbers

May 14, 2013 Leave a comment

We have now extended our landline texting service to include toll-free business numbers! Below is our press release in it’s entirety. Please let us know what you think about this exciting new product.

Zipwhip expands landline texting to toll-free business numbers

New service multiplies the interactivity of customer care

 SEATTLE (May 14, 2013) — The approximately 10 million toll-free numbers used by U.S. businesses just doubled in value: Zipwhip, which pioneered the concept of cloud texting, announced today that it can now equip existing toll-free numbers to send and receive text messages.

That expansion of Zipwhip’s cloud texting innovation means toll-free numbers that have been limited to only receiving inbound customer calls can now become two-way portals for interaction with customers.

“Businesses’ toll-free numbers are only working half as hard as they could be,” said John Lauer, CEO of Zipwhip. “Being able to send and receive texts over those numbers means customers who previously had to navigate through several menu options and were held captive listening to hold music as they waited for a human voice to answer their questions can now simply text the same number for a quick response—and businesses can reply.”

Like its landline texting application announced earlier this year, Zipwhip’s toll-free texting service requires businesses to make no changes to their existing numbers, service or hardware—they simply sign up with Zipwhip, download the app and start texting from any connected device. Zipwhip partners with landline operators to offer this functionality, and Zipwhip text messaging supports all web browsers, all desktop operating systems (Windows, Mac, Linux), iPad, Android tablets, Amazon Kindle, and Windows 8 desktop.

Businesses that have vanity toll-free numbers that are heavily promoted in various forms of advertising will find Zipwhip’s toll-free texting capability particularly appealing.

Zipwhip’s services allow businesses to leverage text messaging’s burgeoning popularity as the go-to form of communication for many consumers. And they want to do that from their own devices, not from one of many over-the-top messaging applications that are now available.

“Consumers don’t want to wait on hold—they want to use text messaging to contact businesses at numbers they already have, and at the time and place that’s convenient for them,” Lauer said. “Mobile carriers already are identifying that nearly two percent of texts from their networks are going to landline numbers, because mobile customers are experimenting or even assuming that the business numbers they’re familiar with are equipped to communicate with them the way they want to communicate—via text.”

The toll-free number texting service is available now, with pricing starting at $99 per month. Businesses interested in having their toll-free numbers text enabled should contact Zipwhip at info@zipwhip.com or sign up for service at zipwhip.com.

 

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Zipwhip for Amazon

September 10, 2012 1 Comment

We recently received word that our app has been approved for download in the Amazon app store! We were successful in this endeavor in large part because we have built our own signal server in order to push messages to all end-clients, including desktops. Having notifications pushed to a given device is a critical feature for many apps like ours. However, because Amazon doesn’t support Google Push Notifications, apps that rely on that service simply don’t work on the Kindle. Because we have our own system in place, we’re able to perfectly support such a device while our competitors can’t.

It took a lot of time and effort on our part to build the signal-server. It takes even more time and effort to ensure that it’s working properly. Our team of network engineers are on call 24/7 to help ensure that we can successfully process the approximately 600 million text messages that pass through our servers every month. That’s no small task.

Because of our proprietary signal-server, we are first to market for Amazon Kindle/Fire. We were also first to market for the iPad and Android tablets. Our dedication to the text messaging space has allowed us to support virtually all devices in today’s market. As new devices come to market, we will be ready to move forward with a corresponding app. All of this in the name of achieving our goal- text messaging everywhere. Cheers!

Download Now From Amazon

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Zipwhip Goes Global

September 6, 2012 3 Comments

It’s a very exciting day here at Zipwhip because we’ve just gone global! That’s right, Android users the world over can now download Zipwhip and start texting across their connected devices. There were some significant road blocks to overcome prior to this release. Dealing with the vastly different number formats of other countries was one. Achieving full international SMS connectivity was another. During registration, we send a link to your phone as part of our registration process. This is a crucial step to ensure that the number entered into our website really does belong to you and not an imposter. It took awhile to ensure that step was going to work in countries outside the US. We took that extra step because your phone number is the foundation of our business. It’s a key identifier in your life and that’s why you use it to log in to our apps. We’re the only company in this space that uses it as your user ID and it wasn’t by accident.

Gaining connectivity required a great deal of technical know how. There were updates to the web app, desktop app, and tablet app. Plus, we had to “internationalize” our entire cloud, as our V.P. of product Anthony Riemma explains it. We were frequently forced to troubleshoot…and scratch our heads. Thankfully we have an amazing team of developers and product managers that figured out solutions to every problem that arose. Way to go team!

If you have a friend in Canada that has been waiting to download our app, let ‘em know they’re good to go. Or a son or daughter in Beijing. Or a crazy uncle in Italy. Let the international cloud texting frenzy begin. Thanks for your support and patience as we’ve been finishing up this feature. Just a heads up, we’ve got some great new product updates coming down the pipe so be sure to check our social channels frequently. As of  2:30 p.m. (MST) Zipwhip Inc. became an international company. Cheers!

-The Zipwhip Team

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Privacy Mode

August 22, 2012 2 Comments

Do you love the desktop app, but worry about a text message popping up on your screen during a presentation or when you’re showing off something on your computer? That’s why we have a privacy mode option. Activation is simple and ensures that you can comfortably command a presentation or leave your desk without the fear of a message bubble appearing. Steps: Click on the Zipwhip logo in the system tray of your computer (a), click on privacy mode inside the box (b) and you’re good to go. Notice that our logo is dimmed when privacy mode is on (c).

(a.)

(b.)

(c.)

Cheers!

-The Zipwhip Team

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Zipwhip Desktop App Debut

July 12, 2012 4 Comments

 

 

We’ve been busy improving our desktop app since the last time we featured it here on our blog. You’ll see what we mean in this video. With some new features rolled out sending and receiving text messages with our app will be an even better experience.

The first thing you’ll see is an example of our read-sync technology. We strive to make sure that our apps make texting across devices as seamless as possible, and that’s why we focused a lot of energy on getting this feature right. It works like this; when you mark a message as read on your desktop, that message is also marked as read on your phone. It’s a simple yet critical feature that we know you expect as a consumer. It will help you keep better track of the status of your messages and improve your overall experience.

By far the coolest function of the app is the MMS feature. I can’t tell you how great it is to see a picture message come in on your screen as you’re pecking away on your keyboard. It’s one of the features that is separating us from the pack. Over the next few months we’re going to continue optimizing this feature to make it even more useful so stay tuned. With our hot-key functions (control+enter to send a message) and Windows key+Z (bring up a new message window) you’ll be even more efficient. Especially considering that when you enter a name/number into the “send-to” box our software automatically starts narrowing your field of contacts.

If you don’t have time to respond to a message right away our sticky-note function will come in handy. All you do is left click on the message and drag it to a different part of your screen. There it will sit until you have time to reply. I like to move mine to the very edge of the screen where I can barely read it. Then when I have a second I just drag it entirely back onto my screen and in-line reply. Done.

One last note. If you need to access our app for some reason just look down into the system tray of your computer. You’ll see our logo there. You can right click on it to exit the app, get to our web-app, etc. As always, if you have any questions or concerns feel free to contact us at support@zipwhip.com. Cheers!

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GeekWire Utilizes Zipwhip at SummerBash

June 29, 2012 Leave a comment

The following guest post is courtesy of Rebecca Lovell, Chief Business Officer at GeekWire. 

Last week GeekWire hosted the biggest, geekiest, sportiest summer bash you can imagine. We packed over 500 techies into the Showbox SODO, and featured three tournaments (intermediate ping pong, expert ping pong, and foosball) as well as pick-up games of GeekBall and Beer Pong (not to mention a golden ping pong scavenger hunt). Sound like a lot of cats to herd? You better believe it. That’s why we were thrilled to partner with Zipwhip on their Android-based texting technology to help us in tournament-wrangling.

Ahead of the big day, we gathered the mobile phone numbers of our ping pong players so we could easily communicate with them. Going into the event, our assumption was that this would be a back-stop…a last resort if our players didn’t hear announcements over the PA, or we couldn’t spot them with their glow-in-the-dark necklaces, or if our carrier pigeon never returned to home base. What we learned at the event itself was that the super-easy Zipwhip interface enabled us to communicate quickly and personally with each of our players. As our tournament manager announced the upcoming games, our newest geek on the GeekWire team (Emily Shahan) sent out messages to each player wishing him/her luck and announcing their game times-right from her laptop. One of our intermediate players, Teddy Choi of Zillow, even credited his first win to Emily’s encouraging text!

We were delighted to use the Zipwhip platform to serve as such a quick-and-easy extension of customer service at our event. We can’t wait to see what the Zipwhip team cooks up next (group texting on the consumer to consumer product?  hope so!).

-Rebecca Lovell

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Android Tablet App From Zipwhip

June 19, 2012 3 Comments

 

The Zipwhip Android tablet app has been published and is ready for download! Just go to our homepage and click on the tab (pictured below) after you sign in/register. The app is also available for download by just searching for Zipwhip in the Google Play store from your tablet. In this video Zipwhip’s John Larson takes you through the workings of the tablet application. You’ll quickly notice that this app UI is consistent with our web application and is very straight forward.

In just a few minutes you’ll be sending and receiving text messages from your main mobile number via your Android tablet. One especially convenient feature is that you’ll be notified that you have a new text message even when you’re not active in the app. That notification appears in the system tray of the tablet and is highlighted in our video. We hope you enjoy this short tutorial. Please share it with your friends. This app is a must have for anybody who uses their tablet throughout the day like we do.

Click on this button during registration to install the app.

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The Linux Foundation Creates Textspresso Comic

May 18, 2012 Leave a comment

We’ve had a lot of fun with Textspresso this past month. Almost overnight it became part of our company culture and helped us show off our software applications to thousands of people. It’s been featured in 50+ online articles and our video on YouTube has been viewed over 21,000 times. However, what really made us feel like we’d entered into the realm of tech pop culture was when we saw this comic strip made by The Linux Foundation. In addition to being really funny it accurately depicts daily interactions here at the office. When we’re not working we’re texting. When we’re not texting we’re drinking coffee. We’re addicted to both. We’re going through about 5 pounds of beans a week! But jittery? We’re not jittery! Who said that?

We’re now back to the business of bringing our apps to the masses. We’re involved in some really fun projects this summer that we’ll be telling you about soon. In the meantime tell us what you think about the comic and the Linux operating system in the comments. It’s time for some more coffee.

Here’s to beans!

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Zipwhip Powers World’s First Text-Enabled Espresso Machine

April 30, 2012 81 Comments

 

Textspresso. It’s a beautiful thing. In order to combine our cloud texting service with Seattle’s technology and coffee cultures, we created a machine that sends and receives text messages while simultaneously making a coffee. You heard right. We’ve got a robotic barista in the house. Did we mention there’s also a warming plate to keep your coffee warm? Once that feature was completed we decided to take things to the next level. We added an edible ink jet printer that provided a truly over the top touch. The build was completed with lots of head-scratching and weekend work. It was worth it. We’re having trouble keeping beans on hand and our engineers are working through the night.

We are not in the business of making these machines commercially. This is the only machine of its kind and it’ll be living right here in our Seattle headquarters. We created it to show off the power of our cloud texting technology. Simply put, our service allows you to send and receive text messages from your computer using your main mobile number. It’s very simple…building Textspresso was not.

If you have an Android powered smartphone you can go to zipwhip.com now to download our apps and start utilizing our technology. As for the Textspresso, if you’re interested in making one of your own we’ll be open sourcing all of the code and build plans in the near future. Just be sure to send us some video of your creation! Until then you’ll have to stick with those over-priced Americanos from Starbucks.

We just made human baristas old school.

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