The Clearstream Blog

There have been major changes to the messaging ecosystem this year - most notably, the introduction of A2P. A2P 10DLC is a registration process required by wireless carriers when using 10-digit local numbers for mass texting.

Welcome to May! ☀️ We've been doing a lot of behind-the-scenes work around here, which isn't always flashy and fun, but it is important. While it may not sound very exciting, this "spring cleaning" work prepares the way for new and updated features. We're looking forward to a fun summer full of both development and growth here at Clearstream! Over the last month, our team has been working on releasing an exciting update for our iOS & Android Apps, sponsoring the TGC Conference in Indianapolis, and updating our API.

Happy (belated) Easter! 💐 Though our greeting is late, the empty tomb is more than worthy of our celebration year-round. We hope you had a great (though likely insanely busy) weekend and have some rest in sight! We've spent much of our recent time expanding our integrations with Church Community Builder and Rock RMS. Now both integrations are two-way and allow you to automatically create new CCB or Rock profiles when someone texts in. 😯 We've also updated our Slack integration to make managing your Clearstream Inbox even easier.

Yes, you read that right! The wait is finally over for two of our most highly requested features: Emojis and the ability to send messages in other languages! Now you can show your congregation how much you ❤️ them, when you're joining them in 🙏 and anything else that will help you share ✝️.

Can you believe it's already February? We kicked off the year by releasing Smart Keywords, which allow you to use one Keyword for everyone in your church. We're typically not ones to be dramatic, but Smart Keywords can entirely change the way your church communicates. If you haven't already, grab a coffee (or tea - you do you) and take a few minutes to learn how you can start using Smart Keywords in your church. They're available in every plan at no extra cost. Onto our other product updates: we've made a design update, Rock RMS integration changes, and added a new team member!

Hasn’t Clearstream always had keywords? Yes, we have – but never like this. Last month, we released Branches, transfer to workflow, and transfer to subaccount. This month, the rest of the party has arrived – Send Menu and Branch based on Planning Center Campus. Collectively, we’re calling this suite of features Smart Keywords. Smart Keywords let all guests and members use the same Keyword regardless of what info they need or which campus they attend. Using conditions and menus you can create one Keyword for everyone, but route each person to a different endpoint (unique information, links, Workflows, Subaccounts).

Let us be the first to wish you a very Merry Christmas! Over the last few months, we've been hinting at some large changes coming to Clearstream, and we just released a few of these updates last week. Along with those new features, we've pushed a few smaller updates. Check out Workflow Branches, updates to keyword workflows, and a sweet improvement to our Planning Center integration.

When creating a keyword workflow, have you ever wished you could send a digital form only to people whose name you’re missing or send a different set of texts to those using your keyword a second time? If so, Branches are for you. Using Branches, people can text in the same keyword but receive different texts, enter different workflows, or even be sent to separate subaccounts based on certain conditions.

In this season, we're all reflecting a little more on what we're thankful for. At Clearstream, our gratitude is centered around the gift of working with life-changing churches like your's each day. Although we're celebrating Thanksgiving this month, we feel a bit like elves getting ready for Christmas, as we're preparing to release a string of new features beginning in just a few weeks. In the meantime, check out the updates to Automated Workflows and the Rock RMS integration, as well as new ways that you can use Clearstream below.

Something about autumn brings a refreshing draw back to the basics. One of our core values at Clearstream is to be precise in all we do. This precision looks like fixing bugs and pushing updates to keep our platform as reliable as possible. Precision also includes ensuring clarity in our communication so that Clearstream is easy and simple to use. While working on larger updates to come, we're always assessing the lesser-noticed fixes and changes to be made, like the workflows, webhooks, notifications, and integrations noted below.