Getting started with emu.chat

This guide walks you through your first run in emu.chat: setting up your organisation, verifying your mobile number, activating your free trial, and finding your inbox. The whole flow takes a few minutes, and you can start sending messages as soon as you finish.

What you get when you sign up

When you create an account, emu.chat sets up an organisation (your top-level account) and a workspace inside it. Within that workspace you create inboxes, and each inbox maps to one phone number. Your trial starts with one number already set up, so you can send a message straight away.

Your organisation, workspace, and inboxes are separate layers. You manage people at the organisation level and send messages from inboxes inside the workspace. For who can do what, see User roles and permissions.

The setup steps

The first time you sign in, emu.chat walks you through a short setup flow with four steps. Anything you have already done is skipped: if your mobile number is verified, the first two steps disappear, and if you are already on a paid plan, the trial step is skipped.

1. Set up your organisation: tell us a bit about your team.
2. Verify your mobile number: a quick security check.
3. Activate your free trial: start your 14-day trial.
4. Take the quick tour: see the basics.

Set up your organisation

Tell us about your team (your organisation name, size, industry, and how you plan to use emu.chat) so we can tailor your workspace, then continue. Your timezone is detected automatically and used for scheduling and timestamps; change it if it is wrong.

Verify your mobile number

We text a verification code to your mobile so we can recover your access if you ever get locked out. Enter your number, then enter the code we send to confirm it. You can resend the code or change the number if you need to.

Standard message rates may apply, and we will never use this number for marketing. Verifying your number is required to finish setup.

Activate your free trial

Your free trial runs for 14 days and includes 25 free text messages on a real, working number, so there is nothing to switch on. A few things behave differently during the trial: outbound messages carry a short trial signature, inbound verification codes are masked, and your trial number comes from a shared pool, so you get a new permanent number when you subscribe.

If your organisation has already used its trial, you can continue without one, or get in touch with our team to ask about an extension. For the full picture, see Your free trial: what's included and what happens when it ends.

Take the quick tour

The last step previews the things you'll do most: sending messages, organising contacts, and connecting to Microsoft Teams. Step through it, or skip it, to finish setup and open your first inbox. You can come back to any of it any time in this help centre, starting with the links below.

Finishing setup

Once your mobile number is verified, emu.chat completes your onboarding and opens your first inbox. From there you can send your first message: see Sending your first text message.

Adding more inboxes

Your trial gives you one inbox so you can start straight away. To add more inboxes, you need an active paid subscription; until then, the option to add an inbox stays locked. Only Organisation Administrators and workspace Administrators can create inboxes. Once you are on a paid plan, you can run the inbox wizard to add more. For a full walkthrough, see Creating your first inbox (the inbox wizard).

Where to go next

• Sending your first text message: send your first SMS from your trial inbox.
• Creating your first inbox (the inbox wizard): add a new inbox once you're on a paid plan.
• Your free trial: what's included and what happens when it ends: what the trial covers and what happens at the end.
• How emu.chat works with Microsoft Teams: connect conversations to Microsoft Teams.