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The SMS agent answers inbound text messages automatically. A customer texts your business number, and the agent replies in a natural back-and-forth - answering questions, and booking, rescheduling, or cancelling appointments when a calendar is connected. It is a separate channel from phone calls and from SMS campaigns: campaigns send bulk texts, the SMS agent answers the texts people send back.
One agent per number. Each phone number carries its own SMS instructions (sms_prompt) and its own on/off switch (sms_reply_enabled). A number only auto-replies when you turn it on - it is off by default.

How it works

  1. A customer texts your business number.
  2. If auto-reply is on for that number, the agent reads the message.
  3. The agent replies using that number’s sms_prompt - the instructions you wrote for texting.
  4. If the number has a booking calendar connected (Cal.com or Google Calendar), the agent can check availability and book, reschedule, or cancel - right inside the text conversation.
  5. Every message is stored, so you can read the full conversation later.
The SMS agent is independent from phone calls. It uses only the sms_prompt, never the call prompt - so you can give it short, text-friendly instructions without affecting how the number answers calls.

Turn it on

Auto-reply is off by default. Turn it on per number - in the dashboard, or via the API. Dashboard: go to SMS Agent, find the number, and flip its toggle on. API:
Send false to turn it off again. See Update phone number for the full endpoint.

Write the instructions (sms_prompt)

The sms_prompt is the only thing the SMS agent knows about your business. Put your hours, prices, address, services, and how to behave right here. Keep it text-friendly - short replies save money and read better on a phone. Dashboard: on the SMS Agent page, select the number and click Set up agent. Write the instructions in the box (up to ~5,000 tokens) and save. API:
Send an empty string to clear it. The maximum is 20,000 characters.
The sms_prompt is for text replies only. It does not change how the number answers phone calls (calls use their own prompt) and it does not change your web agent.

Booking over text

If the number has Cal.com or Google Calendar connected on the Integrations page, the SMS agent can book straight from a text conversation - the same calendar and tools your phone calls use. No separate setup. A typical flow:
Customer: Can I book an appointment Monday at 2pm? Agent: 2pm Monday is available. What is your name and email? Customer: Sarah Jones, sarah@example.com Agent: Booked for Monday 20 Jul at 2pm. See you then.
The agent always checks the live calendar before it confirms - it never says something is booked unless the booking actually went through. It can also reschedule and cancel existing appointments the same way.
Connect one booking provider per number (Cal.com or Google Calendar). That same connection powers booking on calls, on the web agent, and here on SMS.

What the agent remembers

The SMS agent remembers the current conversation so it can follow context across a few messages. A conversation resets after about 12 hours of silence - the next text starts fresh. This keeps each session focused and avoids old messages confusing a new request. It does not carry information between different customers - each person’s conversation is private to them.

Get notified on booking (webhook)

When the SMS agent books, reschedules, or cancels an appointment, it can fire a webhook to your systems - so you can log the booking, update a CRM, or trigger an automation in Zapier, Make, or GoHighLevel. Set a webhook_url (and optionally a second webhook_url_2) on the number. When a booking happens over SMS, Nixflex POSTs an sms.booking event containing the whole text conversation and the booking details:
The action is created, rescheduled, or cancelled. Delivery uses the same reliable retry system as call webhooks (five attempts over ~76 minutes). See Webhooks for the retry and delivery detail.

Manage everything via the API

Everything on this page can be driven by the API, so a platform managing many numbers (for example a reseller onboarding hundreds of clinics) can set each number up in code:
Takes effect on the very next text - no deploy, no re-import. See Update phone number for every field.

Costs

Each text (in and out) is billed at the normal per-message rate - the agent is told to keep replies short to save you money. Booking over SMS has no extra charge beyond the messages themselves.