How do I use Crossline?

If you're a follower, on a phone

Text JOIN to the number you were given, or scan a QR code, to start following a channel. No app, no account. US phones only. If the group approves each request, you get a text once you are in. Reply to any text to post in the channel, or, in an announcements channel, to send it to the organizers. People see the name you set with NAME, never your number. If the number used to text for a different group you followed, a plain JOIN is not enough: use the new group's join link or QR code. Every keyword you can text, from LEAVE and STOP to PAUSE, quiet hours, and stepping your delivery up or down, is on the keywords page. A few worth knowing right away:

How do I stop getting texts?

LEAVE stops texts from this group. STOP opts you out of every Crossline group, from every number, any time, until you text START. PAUSE stops texts for a day, or PAUSE 3 for three days (up to 30), without opting out; when it ends you get only the last day's messages. RESUME ends a pause early.

How do I get fewer texts?

Most channels send one digest text a day. Text WEEKLY for one a week instead, or DAILY for one a day from a channel that texts every message as it happens. EVENTS gets only event texts, and ALL goes back to what the channel sends.

How do I answer an event or get a reminder?

Reply YES or NO within a day of an event text to say whether you are going. REMIND gets you a text before the next event, and REMIND ON before every one; in a channel that texts each message live, reminders are on already. SKIP, in reply to a reminder, stops the rest of that series.

How do I tie my phone to my Discord account?

Text LINK. It replies with a code; run /link and that code in Discord, within 15 minutes, and your texts and your posts there are one person. UNLINK from the phone undoes it. Linking works with Discord only, not Slack or Telegram.

If you're a Discord admin

Everything under /crossline needs the Manage Server permission, except events: members with the relay role can create them, texted to phones once an admin OKs each one, and anyone can list them. Whoever ran /crossline connect is who Crossline DMs by default about join requests, holds, and billing, but any admin with Manage Server can act on those same things; running /crossline connect again in the channel hands that role to whoever runs it.

How do I connect a channel?

Add the Crossline bot to your server at crossline.stream/install, which asks for only the permissions it needs, then run /crossline connect in the channel you want bridged to phones. The first time your server connects it asks you to agree to the texting rules and for a card on file for the free texting trial, then connects the channel as soon as the card is saved; nothing is charged unless you pick a plan; after that, running it in another channel just moves things there. Crossline pins a notice saying where messages go and how to join by text. Pick your time_zone from the list so the digest time and event times use your clock; the default is Central time, and /crossline status time_zone changes it later.

How do I move Crossline to a different channel?

Run /crossline connect in the channel you want to use instead. The number and the followers stay the same, and nobody is texted about it: their texts simply post in the new channel now, and what is posted there reaches them. The old channel is disconnected and its pinned notice taken down, and a new notice is pinned in the new one. The channel's settings come along: the delivery (digest, weekly, or live), an announcements channel and its replies room, the relay role, and the hold on new members. If you move into the channel that was your replies room, replies go to your DMs until you pick another room with /crossline settings replies.

Each channel has its own join link, so run /crossline share in the new channel for a fresh link and QR code. Links and QR codes already handed out still work; they just no longer show which channel someone came from.

We moved to a new Discord server. Can we keep our number?

Yes. As an admin of the old server, email support@crossline.stream with the new server's ID and we set up the move; then an admin of the new server runs /crossline connect in the channel to use, within seven days. The number, the followers, your plan, settings, and events all come along, with no new access code or card, and nobody is texted about it. The old channel is disconnected and its notice taken down. The relay role does not carry over, since roles belong to a server, so set it again with /crossline settings relay: role. If the new server already texts phones on a number of its own, Crossline asks which number to keep: keeping the incoming one disconnects the server's own texting first, and keeping yours leaves both where they are, which /bridge can join instead.

How do I share the number with people?

/crossline share gives you the join link, a QR code, and the number and word to text, all for the channel you run it in.

How do I see who's following, and what we're using?

/crossline status is a quick snapshot: how many phones follow, whether texting is on, the join link, and every setting with its value, including the time zone, which you can change there. /crossline stats adds the last 7 and 30 days of traffic. /crossline phones list shows every phone by name and a short code, like Maria (k7q2), never any digit of the number. Remove and throttle find a phone by that name or code.

How do I turn texting off for a while?

/crossline texting off stops texting phones without disconnecting anything; their texts still post in the channel. While it is off nobody can join, and what is posted is not texted later. /crossline texting on turns it back on; if Crossline paused texting itself, for the month's limit or billing, it says so and changes nothing.

How do I control who can join?

By default anyone who texts JOIN follows right away, except from an internet or toll-free number, which asks you first. /crossline settings joins: approval makes every JOIN a request you approve or decline from /crossline phones requests, or from the DM with Approve and Decline buttons that Crossline sends for each request (the first five waiting). A request nobody answers expires after 7 days.

How do I remove someone?

/crossline phones remove and a name or code takes them off; they get a courtesy text saying so if they were following.

Crossline also DMs you when a phone stops getting texts, when one phone texts far too much and is held, and once a day about messages that did not reach phones. Each DM says what you can do, often with a button.

What if I'm away when one of those DMs comes?

Add a backup admin: /crossline admins add with someone who has Manage Server. Up to five backup admins get every DM you get about the channel, with the same buttons, and whoever presses first decides. /crossline admins list shows who gets them, and /crossline admins remove takes someone off. Until you add one, DMs with buttons remind you that only you get them.

How do I slow down one person who texts too much?

/crossline phones throttle with their name or code and per_hour (1 to 29, 5 if left out) sets how many of their texts an hour reach the group. Nobody is throttled until you do this; everyone else gets the usual 30 an hour. Past that, their texts go nowhere until the hour moves on, and they get one text an hour saying they're sending too fast. They still get the group's texts and aren't told they were throttled. phones list shows who is throttled; /crossline phones unthrottle puts them back to the usual 30 an hour.

How do I make our texts last the whole month?

/crossline texting pace: month watches the month's texts. While they're on track, nothing changes. When the group runs ahead, every phone gets the channel in the same bundles, every 15 minutes up to once a day as needed, and a bundle too long for one text becomes a short summary with a link to read it all. Nothing is skipped, so everyone stays on the same conversation. It's off unless you turn it on; pace: off turns it off. At 80% of the month, Crossline also DMs you who sent the most and which of these fit.

Can phones get every message whole, never a summary?

On the Pro plan, /crossline texting summaries: off. When messages pile up past what fits in one text, they go out as several texts in a row, oldest first, instead of a summary with a link. It uses more texts, and each phone still gets at most 36 segments an hour; the rest follows. With /crossline settings realtime: on as well, phones get the channel close to live. Daily and weekly digests stay as they are.

How do I control what phones see?

/crossline settings media: off stops pictures from phones posting in the channel. images, the default, posts them, up to 4 a text and 5 MB each; videos and other files are not posted. /crossline settings links: strip takes links out of what phones get, and links: allowlist with up to 20 domains, separated by spaces, like example.org eventbrite.com, texts only links to those. allow, the default, texts them as written.

How do I change how often people get texted?

Every channel starts on a daily digest at 6 PM; time changes when it goes. /crossline settings delivery: weekly sends one text a week, Sundays unless you set day. delivery: live texts each message as it happens. A follower can still take less than the channel sends, from their phone: WEEKLY, or DAILY in a live channel. If your plan's texts run out, live channels send a daily digest until you add more.

How do I set up an announcements channel?

/crossline settings kind: announcements changes a channel so a phone's reply goes to your team instead of posting for everyone. Until you pick a room, replies are DMed to the admin who connected the channel. Run /crossline settings replies: here, with an optional role to ping, in the channel your team watches (not the connected one) to send them there; replies: dm goes back to DMs. Anyone there answers with Discord's Reply, and the answer is texted to that phone only. In a live announcements channel each post is texted a minute after it goes up, so deleting it within that minute stops the text.

How do I limit whose messages get texted?

By default every member's messages are texted. /crossline settings relay: role and a role limits it to members who have it; everyone else's messages stay in Discord. Either way, a new member's messages are not texted for their first 10 minutes in the server, unless they have the relay role; /crossline settings new-members: allow turns that off.

What about forwarded messages and channels we follow?

A message a member forwards into the channel is bridged and texted as theirs, with the forwarded text and pictures. Posts that arrive because the channel follows another server's announcement channel are different: they stay in your channel, not bridged or texted, since a followed channel can post often and every post would use your texts. The first time one is left out, Crossline DMs you once to say so. To include them, run /crossline texting action: followed: on in the channel; they are then bridged and texted under the source's name, screened and limited like any message, without the relay role. followed: off leaves them out again, and /crossline status shows which it is.

How do I mirror our Discord events?

Discord's own Scheduled Events are posted in every channel of the bridge as they are made (one in a voice or stage channel stays in your server, below), and texted to the phones once an admin OKs each one, from a DM button or /crossline event text. /crossline settings events: off stops the mirror. /crossline event create, and edit, cancel, delete, list, show, run events Crossline manages itself, with reminders and a YES/NO RSVP by text or button. repeat makes a weekly, every-other-week, or monthly series, announced once and reminded each time, with until for its last date. remind picks an hour before (the default) or the morning of, and remind_to everyone or only those going. dial_in adds a call-in number that phones can tap. For an event with no start time, end when with all day, like Sat all day; for several days, give ends the last day, like Mon. An all-day event is reminded at 8 AM on its first day.

An event made with /crossline event create also shows in the Events tab of each Discord server it reaches, and follows every edit, cancel, and delete. Interested there counts as going. Crossline needs the Create Events permission in the server for this; without it, the admin who connected the channel gets one DM with the link that grants it. Removing Crossline's event from a server's Events tab keeps it out of that server.

In a digest or weekly channel an event's announcement goes in the next digest, and reminders go only to phones that texted REMIND; in a live channel everyone is reminded. How many events can be upcoming depends on the plan: 3 on Free and during the trial, up to 30 days out; 10 on Bridge, up to 90 days; 25 or more on a texting plan, up to a year. A series counts as one.

reach says who sees an event. everywhere posts it in every channel of the bridge and texts it to the phones. A new event starts in your server only, and Crossline asks you, in the answer only you can see, whether to share it with the rest of the bridge, saying how many channels and phones that means. Press Yes, share it to send it everywhere; Keep it here, or no answer, keeps it in your server. Only an admin (Manage Server) sends an event to other servers: when a member with the relay role makes one, or an event is made in your server's Events tab or comes in from a connected Google Calendar, it stays in your server and the admin who connected the channel gets a DM to Share and text it, Share in the chats only, or Keep it here. this server posts it only in your server's channels and texts no phone, since people following by text or from another server may have no way into yours. An event whose place is in Discord, a voice or stage channel, a #channel, or a discord.gg link, has to stay in your server: give a place outside Discord, like an address or a Zoom or Meet link, to send it everywhere. Change it with /crossline event edit; sending a server event everywhere posts it in the other channels and texts it to the phones then.

How do I text everyone a message right now?

/crossline broadcast with a message texts it to every phone that follows. Phones see your name in front of it, as with any message from the channel: [Sam]: Practice moved to 6. A phone on a daily or weekly digest gets it in its next one, the way an event announcement arrives.

How do I text people right away instead of bundling messages?

Crossline holds messages up to a minute so a burst to the same phone becomes one text, not several. On a paid plan, /crossline settings realtime: on skips that wait, though it uses more of your plan's text quota since a bundled text costs fewer segments than the same messages apart. Run it once to see what it means, then again with confirm: True to turn it on. realtime: off, the default, needs neither. It only changes anything in a channel on delivery: live.

How do I approve messages before they reach phones?

/crossline settings moderation: rules holds a message with a blocked word, one over the length limit, or one carrying a link your link policy would strip, for you to approve or reject from a DM. The word list and length are set by hand for now, so write in and we set them. moderation: docent lets Docent decide instead, if Docent is already in your server. none, the default, holds nothing.

How do I connect another server, a Telegram group, or a Slack channel?

/crossline bridge create makes a code (or just run /bridge with nothing after it); give the code to another Discord server's /crossline bridge join, a Telegram group's /crossline join, or a Slack channel's /crossline bridge join once its workspace has installed Crossline. A code works once, within 24 hours. See connecting more than one channel below for what each side can do.

How do I see or change our plan?

/crossline plan shows your trial or plan, what you've used, and how to change it. When your plan's texts run out, it has buttons to add more.

How do I disconnect?

/crossline disconnect on its own only tells you what would happen. Run it again with confirm: True and every follower gets one text saying the group closed, and the channel is unbound. If this channel started a bridge, the bridge ends for every channel in it. You can connect again later, but followers have to text JOIN again.

If you're a Discord member, not an admin

How do I follow this channel by text?

Run /help in the channel. Only you see the answer: the word to text and the number, a QR code to scan, how often texts come, and the few keywords most people need. The full list is on the keywords page.

How do I get my messages texted to phones?

If the channel has a relay role set, only members with it are texted; ask an admin. Otherwise everyone's messages are texted, though by default not in a member's first 10 minutes in the server. Messages that look like ads, or that may break carrier rules, are not texted; you hear once a day, with a count.

How do I tie my phone number to my Discord account?

Your phone has to follow the channel first. Text LINK from the phone to the same number you joined with; it texts back a six-character code. Then run /link with that code in Discord, in any server Crossline is in, within 15 minutes. Only you see the answer. A phone with no name of its own then shows your Discord name. UNLINK from the phone undoes it for that phone, and /unlink in Discord for every phone you linked. You can link up to five phones.

How do I answer an event?

Press Going or Not going on the event post; only you see the answer. On a Discord scheduled event, Interested counts as going.

How do I answer a phone's message in an announcements channel?

If your team's replies room is where they land, reply to the post with Discord's own Reply feature; Crossline texts your answer to that one phone. A message there that is not a Reply goes to no one.

If you're a Slack admin or member

How do I install Crossline?

A workspace owner or admin visits api.crossline.stream/slack/install, and once it's in, joins a channel to a bridge with /crossline bridge join and a code (invite @Crossline first if the channel is private).

How do I run commands without a dropdown?

Commands are typed instead of picked: the action is the second word, and fields are name:value, for example /crossline event create title:Game night when:Sat 7pm where:the park, with reach:server to keep it in this channel and off phones. A new event stays in this channel until you press Yes, share it in the answer. A bare value works for the common ones, like /crossline bridge join XB-7K3M-9QWD.

Who can run them?

A workspace owner or admin, the same as Manage Server on Discord, except event list and event show, which anyone in the channel can run.

What's different from Discord?

Texting is set up on Discord: connect, share, plan, phones, broadcast, and every setting but relay are run there. In Slack you join or leave a bridge, check it with /crossline status, which also gives the link for following by text, pick whose messages are bridged with /crossline settings relay: admins or everyone, and run events. Starting a bridge from Slack is coming soon.

If you're a Telegram group admin or member

How do I connect a group?

Add @crosslinesms_bot to the group, then have a group admin run /crossline join with a bridge code from the Discord server that started the bridge. /crossline status shows what the group is bridged with and, if the bridge texts, the link for following by text. Starting a bridge from a Telegram group is coming soon.

How do I announce an event?

An admin runs /crossline event create Game night | Sat 7pm | the park; add | reach=server to keep it in this group and off phones. A new event stays in this group until an admin presses Yes, share it under Crossline's answer. /crossline event help shows the rest, including a series.

Who can run commands?

The group's creator or an administrator, the same as the other platforms, except /crossline event list and /crossline event show, which any member can run.

How do I limit it to admins' messages?

/crossline relay admins sends only admins' posts on to the other channels and the phones; relay everyone, the default, sends everyone's.

How do I leave a bridge?

/crossline leave takes the group out. It can rejoin any time with a fresh code.

Connecting more than one channel together

What's the difference between a home channel and a guest?

The channel a bridge was started from, with /crossline bridge create (or /bridge) or /crossline connect on Discord, is the home channel: it owns the phones, and only it can see the follower list, remove a guest, or turn a guest's texting on or off. A channel that joined with a code is a guest: it can leave any time (/crossline bridge leave, or /crossline leave on Telegram) and choose whose messages leave it (a relay role and new-member hold on Discord, admins or everyone on Slack and Telegram), but not the phones. A Discord guest can also set its own delivery and run /crossline share for its own join link. A bridge holds one channel per Discord server: 2 channels on Free, 15 on Bridge.

Can Discord, Slack, and Telegram all be in the same bridge?

Yes. A message posted in any of them reaches the others and the phones, and a reply from any of them goes back the same way. Edits carry everywhere; a delete in Telegram stays in Telegram.