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Larger businesses face challenges communicating with and engaging customers effectively while facilitating cross-department collaboration. Textline is a secure business texting service that aims to solve these problems with robust communication features, automations and controls, making it our choice for the best text messaging service for large businesses. The solution is easy to use and can improve communication and customer support while enhancing your marketing efforts. Notably, Textline’s focus on data security is unmatched. It includes built-in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and is the only Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)-accredited text messaging system on the market. 
9 / 10
As businesses grow, their communication needs become more complex. Textline was built specifically to support larger companies with layered corporate structures. For example, we like that Textline lets users create specific departmental groups like Sales and Customer Service, as well as geographic divisions like the West Coast. This setup helps businesses streamline messages to the right teams and avoid information overload.
Textline also helps tackle collaboration challenges. We appreciated its Whispers feature, which lets team members add internal notes to live chats without alerting the customer. Its routing tool ensures incoming messages are assigned quickly and logically. We especially love how easy Textline makes conversation management with one-click claims, transfers and tags. Tags are also useful for text message marketing campaigns, allowing you to label customers by product interest, location or signup date.
This intuitive platform also makes it easy to build custom workflows, such as scheduled messaging. We were especially impressed by its security focus: Textline is compliant with CCPA, System and Organization Controls 2 (SOC 2) and GDPR — and it’s the only fully HIPAA-compliant texting platform we found. For all these reasons, Textline is our pick for the best text messaging platform for larger businesses.
Textline’s intuitive, clean dashboard and handy mobile app are simple to use. Source: Textline
No matter how you plan to use business texting, Textline makes the process painless. The platform is browser-based, so there’s no need to download software to your desktop. We like its sleek, minimalist layout, which makes it easy to find the features you need. For example, the main menu bar includes:
Managers and representatives can easily switch between teams and we like that Textline’s interface stays consistent across roles, so managers can jump in and help without needing extra training.
Textline’s Chrome plugin is another standout feature. It lets users send texts directly from their browser without switching tabs, which is especially helpful for sales reps doing research while messaging a client.
With one-click conversation claiming and transfers, Textline makes it easy to connect with customers and collaborate with teammates. Source: Textline
Textline has an impressive array of features, including the following.
Textline’s “departments” structure makes team-level communication easier by letting you set up and message separate groups within your business. For example, if you have sales, support and service teams across multiple locations, you can create departments like Wyoming Sales, Connecticut Support and Boston Service Team. (Employees can belong to more than one department.)
When setting up a new department, you can assign a dedicated phone number, enable an existing landline to receive texts or use an existing Twilio or Nexmo number. You can also connect the department to your business’s Instagram or Facebook pages.
Each department functions as a distinct unit with its own contact info and, optionally, its own Facebook page. This compartmentalized setup keeps communication organized and helps ensure the right team members handle the right conversations. Employees only see the conversations in the departments they’re assigned to — and if they have access to multiple departments, switching between them is seamless. You can even set up department-specific automations and reports.
Textline’s Unified Inbox is a standout feature. From a central location, you can easily access and manage all your conversations. In addition to SMS, you can integrate Facebook and Instagram business accounts, as well as internal tools like Slack and Pipedrive. We love how simple it is to start new conversations, collaborate with team members and send files. A drop-down menu lets you switch between departments, phone numbers and channels — or view all messages in one feed. Admin controls ensure employees only see the messages meant for them.
However, we were disappointed that only Pro and Enterprise users have access to the Unified Inbox.
We were impressed by Textline’s focus on data protection, especially its Sensitive Data Redaction feature. This function obscures private data automatically, making it accessible only to authorized team members. This added security layer is indispensable for companies dealing with confidential data.
Other security features include the following: 
Textline’s focus on healthcare data protection is also noteworthy. It offers comprehensive HIPAA-compliant texting plans that cover everything from patient consent to secure data storage. Note that HIPAA compliance isn’t available on the Limited plan and will increase the monthly base price on other tiers.
Textline has three standout collaboration tools for managing marketing campaigns and using text messaging for customer service:
Textline’s Whisper feature lets you loop in colleagues to provide direction and advice. Source: Textline
Shortcuts and workflow automations are core elements of the Textline platform, helping users save time and respond faster to customers and colleagues. We especially liked that automations can be ordered by priority — a valuable feature when a message could trigger multiple rules.
Notable examples include the following: 
The Shortcuts feature allows you to respond promptly to common inquiries with prewritten templates. Source: Textline
We like that Textline makes it easy for managers and company leaders to monitor conversation activity and other metrics, including the following: 
We appreciate that filters allow you to get insights into individual team members, specific departments or your business as a whole. You can also access important marketing campaign data like replies, delivery errors and unsubscribes.
The Metrics dashboard lets you keep track of conversations, departments and individual employees. Source: Textline
Textline’s customer communication tools impressed us. Features include the following: 
Textline lets users send Announcements, which are mass text messages, to specific groups. Source: Textline
Each Textline service level includes a wide range of features, including announcements, conversation history, automations, message templates, automatic responses and the ability to track and analyze metrics.
The current subscription levels are as follows:
Plan
Monthly price
Features
Limited
Includes basic features, plus the ability to add one department, web chat and a 90-day conversation history.
Standard
Includes everything in Limited, plus:
Pro
Includes everything in Standard, plus:
Enterprise
Custom
Includes everything in Pro, plus:
Additional pricing considerations include the following: 
Textline’s higher-tier plans include access to standard and specialized integrations. Source: Textline
We were happy to see that setting up Textline is straightforward. Here’s how it works:
If you prefer to use existing phone numbers, Textline can help you text-enable them and add SMS functionality to your landline numbers.
Textline has many excellent upsides, but we did identify some limitations: 
We analyzed and evaluated multiple text messaging services to identify the best solutions available. Our in-depth review process included evaluating each solution’s ease of use, features, pricing, customer support and integrations. When looking for the best text messaging service for larger businesses specifically, we prioritized customer and in-house communication tools, managerial controls, collaboration functions and security. 
We recommend Textline for …
We don’t recommend Textline for …
Tom Anziano contributed to this review. 
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