# How to text customers from the Onyx Phone app

The Messages tab in the Onyx Phone app has every text conversation on your business lines, the same ones your team sees on the website. This guide shows you how to switch lines, search conversations, start a new text, reply with words or photos, call the person, block a number, and delete a conversation on iPhone or Android.

Works on: Android app, iPhone app. Updated November 6, 2026. Web page with labeled screenshots: https://www.onyxphone.io/guides/phone-app-texting

## Before you start

- Texting turned on for your account. See Register your business for texting.

## Step 1. Open your conversations

- Step 1.a: Tap Messages at the bottom of the app. The red number counts unread texts.
- Step 1.b: Tap Line to choose which business line's conversations to see.
- Step 1.c: Tap Search numbers or words to find a conversation by phone number or by something said in it.
- Step 1.d: Read each row. It shows the number or name, when the last text came, and the start of it. A blue dot marks unread texts.
- Step 1.e: Pull the list down to check for new texts.

![The Messages tab in the Onyx Phone app with the Line picker, the search box, and text conversations.](https://www.onyxphone.io/guides/shots/app-messages-list.webp)

## Step 2. Start a new text

- Step 2.a: Tap New at the top right of the Messages tab.
- Step 2.b: Type the number in Phone number.
- Step 2.c: Tap Next. The conversation opens on the line you picked; type your text and send it.

![The New text window in the app with a phone number typed and the Next button.](https://www.onyxphone.io/guides/shots/app-messages-new.webp)

## Step 3. Reply, send photos, call, or block

- Step 3.a: Tap a conversation to open it. Your texts are on the right; theirs are on the left, with the time and whether each was delivered.
- Step 3.b: Tap Text message at the bottom and type your reply.
- Step 3.c: Tap the picture button at the bottom left to add photos.
- Step 3.d: Tap the send button at the bottom right.
- Step 3.e: Tap the phone button at the top right to call this number from the same line.
- Step 3.f: Tap the block button at the top to block this number. See Block numbers.
- Step 3.g: Tap the back arrow at the top left to go back to your conversations.

![A text conversation in the Onyx Phone app with the message box, photo button, send button, call button, and block button highlighted.](https://www.onyxphone.io/guides/shots/app-messages-thread.webp)

## Step 4. Delete a conversation

- Step 4.a: On the Messages tab, tap the trash button at the right of the conversation, or swipe the conversation to the left.
- Step 4.b: Confirm. The conversation leaves Messages for everyone on the line. An admin can restore it from the website; see Deleted texts.

![The Messages tab with the trash button on a conversation highlighted.](https://www.onyxphone.io/guides/shots/app-messages-delete.webp)

## Questions and answers

### Do my teammates see the texts I send from the app?

Yes. Texts belong to the line, so everyone assigned to it sees the whole conversation on the website and in their apps, with your name on the texts you sent.

### Why does it say texting is off on this line?

Texting needs the carriers' approval of your business's texting registration, which an admin sends from the website. Until it's approved, you can read texts but not send them. See Register your business for texting.

### Will I get a notification for new texts?

Yes, during your alert hours, with the text tone you chose in Sounds. Outside your alert hours texts still arrive, quietly. See Alert hours.

### Can I text from a different line?

Yes. Tap Line on the Messages tab and choose the line, then start the text. You can text from any line assigned to you.

### Why can't I delete a conversation?

An admin may have set texts so only admins can delete them. See Deleted texts.