Texts are convenient but not a place for clinical content. Secure messaging keeps the convenience of the Inbox and moves the content into the client's portal.
It is the Secure messaging switch under Settings → Client Portal → Client permissions (on by default when the portal is on).
Send a secure message
- Open the client's conversation in the Inbox, or start one from their profile.
- In the composer, choose Secure instead of Text (an Encrypted pill appears).
- Write up to 5,000 characters, attach files if you need to, and send.
A secure message can carry attachments: photos (JPEG, PNG, WebP, HEIC, GIF) and PDFs, up to 5 files of 10 MB each. Clients can attach the same kinds of files to their replies in the portal. Texts can't carry attachments.
The client is nudged by text (from your practice number, consent permitting) and by email that a message is waiting, with a link to the portal. The nudge never includes the content. When they sign in, they read it under Messages and can reply there; their reply lands in the same Inbox conversation, tagged as secure.
One thread, two channels
Texts and secure messages live in the same conversation so it reads in order. Each message carries a channel tag, previews of secure messages show a lock, and the conversation list has a Secure filter. The thread header shows the client's portal status, and under each secure message you sent, the footer shows Read 9:40 AM or Not read yet.
The composer defaults to Secure when the thread's last message was secure or the client has no phone number, otherwise to Text.
On the client's side, the portal's Messages tab shows an unread count the moment you send, whichever page they are on, and the browser tab title carries the same count. Opening Messages clears it and marks the messages read, which is what the Read footer in your Inbox reflects. The client's own messages show Seen once you have read them in the Inbox.
Requirements
- The conversation must be linked to a client record, and the client needs an email on file; that is how they sign in. A child with no email can be sent secure messages when a parent or guardian with an email has portal access to them: the parent or guardian reads them after switching to the child in their portal, and the nudge goes to them instead.
- The practice's Secure messaging switch must be on. If Secure is greyed out, hover it to see why: the conversation isn't linked to a client, or the client has no email and no parent or guardian with portal access to them.
- Texting the nudge needs a registered practice number and the client's texting consent, like any text. Between 9pm and 8am in the client's time the text waits until 8am (one text for that night's messages, and none if they have read them by then). The email nudge goes at once, unless the client is marked do-not-contact or has email turned off.
- The nudge text itself appears in the client's thread, marked automated, so you can see when they were told.
What FrontDesk will not do
- It never sends the content of a secure message by text or email.
- It never re-sends an unread secure message as a text.
Not available
A repeat nudge when a message stays unread, internal notes inside a thread, and a setting to hide read receipts from clients.