Joy Of Text Lite - ChoosePlugin.com

Send SMS and voice messages to your customers, subscribers, followers, members and friends.

Author:	Stuart Wilson (profile at wordpress.org)
WordPress version required:	3.0.1
WordPress version tested:	6.1.3
Plugin version:	2.3.1
Added to WordPress repository:	29-12-2014
Last updated:	21-09-2023
Rating, %:	96
Rated by:	24
Plugin URI:	http://www.getcloudsms.com
Total downloads:	29 545
Active installs:	600+
Click to start download

We are thrilled to unveil a new chapter in our journey. Joy of Text, the plugin you’ve come to rely on for SMS communication, has undergone a remarkable transformation, emerging as the all-new and improved Ultimate WP SMS!

What can you expect from Ultimate WP SMS?

More Power: Ultimate WP SMS is an all-in-one WordPress plugin, equipped with SMS, MMS, and Calling Functionality, designed to cater to all your communication needs seamlessly.

Enhanced Features: We’ve not just rebranded; we’ve upgraded our capabilities. Ultimate WP SMS comes with a suite of enhanced features and tools that will empower your WordPress experience like never before.

Seamless Integration: As always, Ultimate WP SMS ensures effortless integration with your WordPress website. Whether you’re using Twilio, Plivo, Clickatell, BulkSMS, or any of the 250+ SMS gateways, we’ve got you covered.

Reliability: Your trust in our plugin has driven us to make this transition. Rest assured, Ultimate WP SMS will continue to deliver the reliability and performance you expect.

What’s Next?

We’re committed to making this transition smooth for you. If you’re currently using Joy of Text, you can easily upgrade to Ultimate WP SMS without losing any of your existing data or settings.

Our support team is ready to assist you every step of the way. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or need guidance on migrating to Ultimate WP SMS.

Thank you for being a part of our journey. We believe that with Ultimate WP SMS, your WordPress experience will reach new heights. Stay tuned for exciting updates, and get ready to experience the ultimate in SMS communication!

See ultimatewpsms.com for details of the Ultimate WP SMS Pro plugin

The Joy of Text (or JOT) plugin provides a great way of connecting with your customers, blog subscribers or club members. This plugin allows you to send both SMS and text-to-voice messages to a group or to individuals.

To use this plugin you will need:

A Twilio account. If you don’t have a Twilio account, you can sign up for a free trial account.
A Twilio phone number – either one you’ve purchased or your Twilio free trial number.
Your unique ‘Twilio Account SID’ and ‘Twilio Auth Token’ – you’ll enter these details into the Joy Of Text plugin’s settings.

This free version includes the following features:

Allows SMS and text-to-voice messages to be sent a group or individuals.
Creates a default group, into which subscriber names and phone numbers can be added.
Allows administrators to add, delete and update members from the group.
Creates a subscription form, allowing website visitors to subscribe to SMS updates.
Provides merge tags that can be included into the message, allowing the subscriber’s name, number or a link to your last blog post to be substituted into the message.
Provides the option to automatically send an SMS message to new subscribers. You can specify the content of this welcome message, which can include website and media links.
Checks that each phone number entered is valid.
Has support for a number of extensions.

The extensions available for the UWS Pro plugin are:

Woocommerce Subscription extension – This extension – will send out new subscription notifications and will let you sync Woo customers into UWS, allowing you to send SMS messages to your valued customer base.
Message Scheduling extension – The Scheduler extension allows you to schedule messages to be sent at a future date and time.
Post and comment Notifier – The Notifier will send SMS notifications to your customers, when a new post is added or updated.

As discussed in this article, SMS messages have “open rate” of 98%, i.e. 98% of all SMS messages sent, are opened by the recipient. This compares to only 22% of emails sent, so give your marketing a boost, by sending SMS messages from the JOT plugin.

The JOT Lite Admin screens explained.

The “Settings” tab

Within this tab your Twilio authentication details are entered. Once you have entered your Twilio details, you can select the ‘from’ number from which your messages will be sent.

You can also use this screen to choose your voice and language preference, which is used when sending text-to-voice messages.

The “Message” tab

Use this tab to construct your messages. First select the recipients of your message, then enter your message. The message can contain the special tags shown below:

%name% – when the message is sent, this tag is replaced by the message recipients name.
%number% – the tag is replaced by the recipients phone number.
%lastpost% – the tag is replaced by the URL of your last blog post.

From this tab, you can also specify a message suffix, that will be appended to all messages.

You can also specify whether your message is sent as an SMS message or as a text-to-voice message. For text-to-voice messages, the text you enter will be converted (by Twilio) to speech, which is played to your chosen recipients when they answer their phones.

The “Group Manager” tab

The free version of the plugin provides one member group.

From this tab you can change the name and description of the group. You can add new members to the group, delete existing members from the group or update their name and number details.

From the “Group Invite” you can construct a form which you can place on your website, to invite your website visitors to subscribe to SMS or text-to-voice message updates. You can also choose whether to send a new subscriber an SMS message containing a welcome message. The HTML for your form is provided on this tab or you can choose to use the shortcode [jotform].

The Pro version allows an unlimited number of member groups to be created.

For requests, feedback and support please send an email to support@ultimatewpsms.com. All feedback appreciated.

The Pro Version

A Pro version is available for sale.

Check out the comparison of the UWS Lite and UWS Pro versions.

A number of extensions are available for the Pro and Lite versions. For example, the Pro version can be integrated with

WooCommerce
WooCommerce Subscriptions
Ultimate Membership Pro
MemberMouse
MemberPress
BuddyPress

The Pro Version has the following features:

Allows SMS, MMS, text-to-voice or audio file messages to be sent a group or individuals.
Receives inbound SMS and MMS messages.
Allows multiple subscriber groups to be created, into which subscriber details, such as name, phone number, email address, address can be added.
Allows administrators to add, delete and update members from the groups.
Allows a wide range of merge tags, such as %firstname% and %lastname% to be included into your messages, providing more personalised messages.
Create one or more subscription forms, using Gravity Forms or the built-in JOT forms , allowing website visitors to subscribe to SMS updates.
Automatically sends out a “welcome” SMS message to new group subscribers, a great way to distribute offers or voucher codes.
Support for Twilio SMS and voice messaging.
Support for advanced Twilio features such as number pools and Messaging Services.
Creates user groups based on existing WordPress roles.
Routes inbound SMS messages to another cell phone number or email address.
Shows the history of all successfully sent and received messages.
Shows an Android/iPhone-like “threaded” view of messages sent and received from an individual member’s cell number.
Provides commands that can be issued from an administrator’s cell phone, allowing group details to be retrieved and messages to be sent to groups remotely, without logging into the WordPress dashboard.
Support for Twilio’s new Sender ID capability on SMS and MMS messages. This replaces your Twilio number with some text, such as your company name, allowing you to add branding to your text messages. (Not supported by Twilio in the US).
Integration with WooCommerce, allowing your Woo customers to synchronised with a Joy Of Text group, so you can send them messages.
Allows “opt-out” keywords to be specified, allowing subscribers to opt-out of receiving SMS messages from individual or all groups.
Includes an admin and user role and new capabilities for WordPress Multisite users or for making the plugin available to non-admin users.
Allows a subscription keyword to be specified for each group. People can text the keyword to your Twilio number to be subscribed to the group.
Twilio number verification and country codes. New numbers entered will be verified by Twilio, to ensure the number is valid.
Provides a “bulk import” facility, allowing your existing customer’s or member’s details to be imported into the JOT plugin.
Allows selection of all media types for MMS messages. Allowing all of the media file types that Twilio supports to be sent in MMS messages.
Allows members lists to be downloaded into a CSV file
Support for WordPress multisite networks and cross network activation of the plugin.
Automatic updates from the WordPress dashboard and a licence key.
Implementing auto-add groups. Allowing the numbers from inbound SMS messages to be automatically added to chosen groups.
Support for unicode characters.
Allows the gender and language to be chosen for text-to-voice messaging.
Support for the JOT Scheduler extension plugin.
Support for SQLlite.
An SMS or email can be sent to an admin user, when new member subscribes to a group.

To download the pro version please visit here

Screenshots
FAQ

What are the associated costs ?

This plugin is free, however to use it, you need a Twilio account and number. Twilio will charge you a monthly fee for a phone number and they’ll charge you for each message you send. The Twilio charges vary, depending on which country you are in.

Please refer to Twilio’s charges for more detail.

Are other SMS providers supported?

No, only the excellent Twilio service is supported.

Do new subscribers need to enter both their name and number?

By default the plugin expects new subscribers, to enter both their name and number into the form created either using the [jotform] shortcode or using the HTML supplied on the
“Group Invite” tab.

However, if you only want new subscribers to enter their phone number, you can alter you form as shown below, with a hidden name field or use the shortcode
[jotform id=1 name=no]

<div>
  <form id="jot-subscriber-form-1" action="" method="post">
      <input type="hidden"  name="jot-group-id" value="1">
      <input type="hidden"  name="jot_form_id" value="jot-subscriber-form">
      <input type="hidden"  name="jot-form-special"  id="jot-form-special" class="jot-special" value="">
      <input type="hidden"  name="jot-verified-number"  id="jot-verified-number"  value="">
      <input id="jot-subscribe-name" name="jot-subscribe-name" type="hidden" value="No name given"/>
      <fieldset class="jot-fieldset">
          <h3 id="jot-confirm-header">Get SMS updates!</h3>
          <p>
          <label for="jot-subscribe-num">Enter your number:</label>
          <input id="jot-subscribe-num" name="jot-subscribe-num" maxlength="200" size="40" type="text"/>
          <p>
          <input type="button" id="jot-subscribegroup-button" class="button" value="Subscribe"/>
      </fieldset>
      <fieldset class="jot-fieldset">
          <div id="jot-subscribemessage"></div>
       </fieldset>
  </form>
</div>

Can SMS messages be received by the plugin?

Not with this free version. The pro version does allow inbound SMS messages to be accepted and forwarded onto another cell phone number. The pro version is available here.

Will this plugin help me advertize my business?

A number of users have used the plugin to distribute links to their website, app store listing or digital media. The JOT plugin allows forms to be placed on your website, inviting visitors to subscribe to SMS updates. When visitors enter their number successfully, the JOT plugin can be configured to send a “welcome message” in an SMS.

Using this feature, you can use the “welcome message” to send new subscribers a link or links to your site or media via SMS messages.

What hooks are available?

The following hook is triggered, after someone subscribes using the subscription form, [jotform] –

do_action('jot_after_subscriber_added',$subscriber_args)

where $subscriber_args, is an array containing the member’s ID, name and phone number.

The following hooks triggered, after a new member has been added to the group, using the JOT admin screens –

do_action('jot_after_member_added',$subscriber_args)

where $subscriber_args, is an array containing the member’s ID, name and phone number.

The following hooks triggered, after a member has been removed from the group, using the JOT admin screens –

do_action('jot_after_member_deletion_from_group',$member, $group)

where $member is an array containing details of the member and $group is the group id, which will be set to 1.

Can I change JOTFORM’s colors?

To change the colors of the labels and fields of the JOTFORM shortcode, take a look at the custom CSS rules here

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ChangeLog

2.3.1

Removed link to Twilio referral scheme, which has now be discontinued by Twilio.
Changed SQL queries to use prepare statements.

2.3.0

Added Application-to-Person (A2P) registration guidance.

2.2.9

Added Twilio account details to Messaging-Settings-Twilio Settings tab

2.2.8

Changes to the Extensions tab

2.2.7

Minor change to the layout of the Messages tab.
Added quick link to WP toolbar.

2.2.6

Stop double clicking on the “Send message” button.
Show Twilio account balance on Messaging-Settings-Twilio Settings page.
Added functions to support changes to the JOT Scheduler plugin.

2.2.5

Added a link to the Twilio referral scheme on the Get Started tab.

2.2.4

Added new action hooks, which are triggered when a user is added (through the admin screens or subscription form) and deleted.

2.2.3

Fixed an issue where settings were not saving correctly.

2.2.2

Added field length counters on the message fields

2.2.1

Fixed problem where Twilio account details were being deleted from Settings
Corrected HTML generated for the JOTFORM

2.2

Added Answer Phone Detection.
Added GDPR notice on JOTFORM
Added security feature (nonce) to front-end forms.
Added member list refresh button
Added method name to debugging log.
Changed pagesize parameter on Twilio API call to allow up to 1000 Twilio numbers to be retrieved.
Fixed EDD licence activation problem.
Fixed PHP count() warning message.

2.1

Fixed javascript error, caused when the member multi-select drop-down was not present on the current page.
Added member export button on Group Manager page.

2.0

Improved the design of the jotform subscription form. If you prefer the old style form, then use the shortcode parameter “formstyle=old”. For example, [jotform id=1 formstyle=old]

1.9

Added a search filter on the message recipients list
Added support for repeating schedules (requires Scheduler Extension)

1.8

Added support WooCommerce notifications extension.
Added support for the Buddypress integration extension.
Added Spambot form fill check on subscription form.

1.7

Added support for scheduled message plans
Added configuration guidance to the Get Started tab.
Various minor bug fixes

1.6

Changed the layout of the settings pages, to match the Pro layout.
Integrated the plugin with the SMS Post Notifications plugin extension.
Improved documentation.

1.5

Added support for the Woocommerce extension. Allowing customer details from Woocommerce to be pulled into JOT.

1.4

Added support for the message scheduler extension

1.3

Included number validation. A check is made with Twilio to ensure that each number added is a valid number.

1.2

Included the option to change the voice and language of the text-to-voice messaging feature.

1.1

Added support for localization and included a Vietnamese translation.
Fixed problem with the inital activation of the plugin.

1.0.13

Added support for the SMS Notifications extension which will send SMS messages to a group when new posts or comments are added.

1.0.12

Added shortcode [jotform id=1 name={yes|no}], to create a number only form
Removed default message suffix.

1.0.11

Fixed a problem with php start tags, which was causing a problem on some sites.

1.0.10

Added progress counter, useful when sending large amounts of messages.

1.0.9

Group info tabs bug fix. Sorry about that folks.

1.0.8

Fixed a bug related to tabs and Gravity forms
Changes required to support the S2Member and Buddypress plugin

1.0.7

Fixed problem with the form shortcode

1.0.6

Fixed problem with checkbox on invite form
Put some error handling on SMS provider form

1.0.5

Changed WordPress installation URL used by Twilio for voice messages
Changed the method of saving voice messages

1.0.4

Added voice call debug logging.

1.0.3

Corrected path to javascript libraries.

1.0.2

Further updates to screenshots and readme

1.0.1

Updated readme.txt

1.0

First release.

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