In order to get started with Gloo Communications, you'll need to complete 2 steps to verify your identity and claim a free toll free phone number. Gloo makes everything simple with a united experience that guides you through both steps.
Claiming a toll free phone number only takes a few minutes with Gloo. Every phone number is randomly generated and unique to your account. This is the phone number you'll use when accessing any of our texting features under your Communications menu.
Note: Going through this process claims a free toll free phone number only. In most cases we recommend using toll free phone numbers. However, if you're interested in using either a 10-digit local number or a short code, you can learn more here.
Verifying Your Identity
In order to better protect you and the people you are texting, we use a system called Persona Identity Verification. This is to protect against spammers and harmful users from using Gloo Workspace.
All Gloo accounts will need to complete this step before claiming a phone number to use Gloo Communications features. Note that only one Gloo Team Member needs to complete this step- not each team member in your account.
Navigate to Communications -> Broadcasts and click Verify your ID. Note that this step is required first, and even if you click Claim your free number, you'll still be routed to ID verification to start.
Click Get Started and the tool will walk you through the rest of the process!
As a summary, you will need to:
Upload a valid government ID, such as a Driver’s License, Passport, etc. Only IDs from the US and Canada are accepted.
Take a picture using one of several available options for selfie verification.
Ensure the photo of your ID is on a flat, non-reflective surface If you encounter issues using one form of identification, consider trying another accepted form of ID (e.g., driver’s license instead of a passport) and ensure the ID meets display standards such as clarity and proper lighting.
If there are any issues with your ID or your selfie, the system will let you try again. If it still fails though, you will see an error message and will need to reach out to support by either clicking the chat bubble in the bottom right corner of your screen, or the Contact Support button near the verification error. You may also reach out to request a reset of your verification process to provide a different ID type or have a different team member complete this process.
If everything is successful, you will see a screen like the one below, and are ready to move on to step 2, claiming your phone number!
Claiming Your Phone Number
Now that your identity has been verified, you can move in and claim your free toll free phone number!
Navigate to to your Communications tab, and then click Claim your free number.
Now we need to collect some information about you and your organization. These fields are very important because we'll need this federally required information in order to submit your number to our texting provider for verification.
Every single field is required, and if any are missing or inaccurate, we will not be able to verify your phone number and you will not be able to send or receive text messages.
Make sure your Organization Name matches your organization's official name and website. If you created an account when purchasing a product, your organization name may have defaulted to "{First Name} {Last Name} Organization." If this was the case, make sure to update your Organization Name.
If your organization doesn't have an official webpage, please submit some kind of proof of online presence- a Facebook page, business listing, etc will all work fine, as long as it is associated with your organization (personal Facebook pages for an individual will not work).
When submitting Facebook or Instagram as a website, the page must be public and viewable without creating an account. Make sure your pages have plenty of information to correlate to your organization (name, address, and some informational posts).
Please ensure the Primary Contact First and Last Names are the real name of one of your account administrators. Any submissions in this field like "Church Admin" or "First UMC" will be rejected by our texting provider and will not be verified for messaging.
Please do not submit any fake information as this will result in a significant delay in our texting provider being able to officially verify your number.
When you're finished, click Submit for verification.
We will now submit the number on your behalf to a federally regulated third party provider to be verified for use. This verification process typically takes at least 72 hours, as long as the information you submitted was correct. If anything was incorrect or invalid, the verification process can take up to 2 weeks for everything to be fixed.
Your phone number will now show on the left side of your screen at the bottom of the navigation bar. Please note that you will not be able to send or receive any messages using this number until the verification process is complete. You will receive an email notification when your number is verified.
When you've submitted your number, there will be a blue dot next to your number, showing it has been submitted.
Once the number is verified, the dot will turn green.
If you see any color besides blue or green by your number, this means that there was a problem with the information you submitted. Please contact support by clicking the chat bubble in the bottom right corner of the screen, or by clicking the Contact Support buttons next to the error so we can help you correct the information and resubmit the number for verification. You can correct the information yourself, but will not be able to resubmit the number on your own- a support team member must do that part for you.
Note: It generally takes about 24-72 hours for this number to be verified. Once it's ready, you'll be able to send out messages that uplift, inform, and unify your community — right to their phones.
Want to know why Gloo uses toll free numbers? Check out this article.