Appstle can text your customers through Postscript each time you move their order to a new status, such as Ready for pickup. It can also text your team when a customer places an order and each time you change its status. This article shows how to connect Postscript, turn on the texts you need, choose who gets the admin texts, ask pickup customers for permission and change the wording.

Emails are set up separately. See Set up email notifications for pickup and delivery orders.

Before you start

You need a Postscript account. Appstle sends every text through Postscript, so a text you turn on in the app is sent only after you connect Postscript (see "Connect Postscript").
A phone number gets a text only if it's already a subscriber in your Postscript account. That goes for customers and for your team. Appstle doesn't add anyone to Postscript, so ask each team member who should get admin texts to sign up for your store's texts in Postscript, for example by texting one of your Postscript keywords.
Every text, customer and admin, is off when you install the app. Nothing is sent until you turn it on.
Customer texts go to the phone number in the order's contact information, the number the customer gives as their contact at checkout. A number entered only in the shipping address isn't used, and an order without a contact phone number gets no text.
To let customers give a phone number as their contact, in Shopify go to Settings → Checkout and set Customer contact method to Phone number or email. Appstle sends no customer emails for an order whose contact is a phone number.
Customer texts are sent only when the order's status changes in Appstle: on the order page in the app, or in the Appstle Order Manager tile on Shopify POS. See Manage pickup, delivery and shipping orders.
Admin texts go to the phone numbers you enter for each location. Add them first (see "Choose who gets the admin texts").

Connect Postscript

In the app, go to Settings → Integrations.
Click the Postscript card.
In the PostScript integration window, tick Enable postscript integration.
In Postscript API key, paste the Private API key from your Postscript account.
Click Validate. Appstle checks the key with Postscript and shows a Valid badge when it works. If you see Not verified, copy the Private API key again from your Postscript account, paste it and click Validate.
Click Save. The button stays greyed out until the key is valid.

To stop all texts, open the same window, clear Enable postscript integration and click Save. This also hides the opt-in checkbox in the cart.

Turn on the texts you need

In the app, go to Settings → SMS.
Find the text in Customer SMS notifications or Admin SMS notifications.
Turn on its switch. The badge changes from Disabled to Enabled, and the change saves straight away.

Each customer text goes out when you set an order to the status next to it:

Text	Sent when you set the order to
Order ready for pickup	Ready for pickup
Order picked up	Picked up
Order ready for delivery	Ready for delivery
Order out for delivery	Dispatched
Order delivered	Completed. Pickup orders get no text when you mark them Completed.

Each admin text goes to the location's phone numbers (see the next section) when the event next to it happens:

Text	Sent when
New Pickup Order	A customer places a pickup order.
New Delivery Order	A customer places a delivery order.
Update Pickup Order	You set a pickup order to Ready for pickup, Picked up or Completed.
Update Delivery Order	You set a delivery order to Ready for delivery, Dispatched or Completed.

The Update texts go out only on these status changes. Editing an order's date, time or address doesn't send one.

Choose who gets the admin texts

Admin texts go to the phone numbers you set on each location, so each location's team hears about its own orders.

In the app, click Locations and open the location.
In the Store pickup card, click Show settings. For delivery texts, do the same in the Local delivery card. If the button is greyed out, that method is off for this location: click Enable first.
Find Internal notifications (store pickup) or Notifications (local delivery).
In Phone number that should receive this location’s internal pickup notifications (or delivery notifications), enter one or more phone numbers, separated by commas. Include the country code, for example +17185550142.
Click Save.

A location with no phone number sends no admin text, and a number that isn't a subscriber in your Postscript account gets none. The email field above it is for admin emails, set up in Settings → Email notifications.

Ask pickup customers for permission

When Postscript is connected and the Order ready for pickup or Order picked up text is on, the cart widget shows a checkbox once a customer chooses a store for pickup. It starts unticked and, by default, reads I would like to receive SMS notifications about my order updates.

Ticked: Appstle sends the customer the texts you turned on for that order. Ticking the box doesn't make the customer a Postscript subscriber, so the texts reach them only if their number already is one.
Left unticked: Appstle sends no customer texts for that order. Your team still gets the admin texts.

Appstle sends every text you turned on to orders that never showed the checkbox, as long as they have a contact phone number. That includes all local delivery orders, which have no checkbox, and pickup orders placed before you turned these texts on or chosen at checkout without the cart widget. The checkbox appears in the cart widget only, not at checkout.

To change the wording:

Go to Settings → Text and translations.
In the Pickup widget card, click Show.
Edit Pickup SMS opt-in label, below Pickup note required error label.
Click Save.

Change a text's wording

In Settings → SMS, click the text you want to change.
Click Edit content. The message opens on the left, with a live preview on the right.
Change the text in SMS body. Subject is required and shows in the preview, but it isn't sent: customers and your team receive the SMS body, with your store's name in front.
To add details such as the order number, pickup location or reference code, click Insert variable. View all variables and examples lists them all.
In Preview with, choose one of your orders to see the text with its real details. Sample data fills it with made-up details.
Click Save.

From the same text page you can also:

Edit the code. Click Edit code to edit the message with its variables written as codes in double curly brackets, such as {{ order.name }}. If you're already editing, click the back arrow at the top of the page to get back to the buttons first.
Turn the text off. Click Disable notification, or turn its switch off on the list. A turned-off text shows a Notification disabled banner with an Enable notification button.

Things to know

The texts follow the order's status in Appstle. Fulfilling an order in Shopify sends no text. The status table in Manage pickup, delivery and shipping orders lists what each status sends.
Going back a step sends the text again. When you move an order back with a revert button, such as Revert to ready for pickup, the customer gets that status's text again, and the location gets an Update text. Revert to require preparation sends nothing.
Shipping orders get texts only from Shopify POS. The app has no status buttons for shipping orders. In the Appstle Order Manager tile on Shopify POS, though, Mark ready to ship sends the customer Order out for delivery, and Complete order sends Order delivered. Both are local delivery texts, so check their wording before you use the tile for shipping orders.
Phone numbers need a country code outside the US. A 10-digit number gets +1 added. Any other number is sent with a plus sign in front of its digits, so enter or collect it with the country code. Postscript rejects numbers it can't use.
Klaviyo doesn't change your texts. Connecting Klaviyo replaces the app's emails, but the app still sends its texts through Postscript. If a Klaviyo flow also texts customers about their orders, turn off the matching texts here so customers don't get two.
Order ready for pickup carries the pickup reference code. Its default wording includes the code customers give you at the counter. If you use the code, keep this text or its email on.
Every text starts with your store's name. Postscript adds it, followed by a colon, for example "Northside Coffee Roasters: Your order…". The preview doesn't show it. The default wording of every text already ends with your store's name, so you can delete that ending to avoid showing it twice.
Texts sent at night can arrive in the morning. Postscript treats Appstle's texts as promotional, and it holds a promotional text sent outside the subscriber's waking hours until those hours start again. This goes for your team's admin texts too.
The app doesn't show whether a text arrived. If Postscript turns a text down, for example for an invalid key or a number that isn't a subscriber, the app shows no error. Check the message history in your Postscript account, or contact Appstle support, who can see why a text failed.
There's no test text and no restore button. Use Preview with to check the wording. Before you change a text, copy the original to a safe place so you can paste it back.

FAQs

Why didn't my customer get a text?

Check these in order:

Postscript is connected and Enable postscript integration is ticked in Settings → Integrations.
The text's switch is on in Settings → SMS.
The status changed in Appstle. Changes made in Shopify send no text.
That status has a text. Pickup orders get none when you mark them Completed, and shipping orders get texts only from Shopify POS.
The order has a phone number in its contact information, with a country code if it's outside the US. A number only in the shipping address isn't used, and customers can give a contact phone number only when Customer contact method is Phone number or email in Shopify's Settings → Checkout.
For a pickup order placed through the cart widget, the customer ticked the opt-in checkbox.
The customer's phone number is a subscriber in your Postscript account. Ticking the opt-in checkbox doesn't make it one: the customer has to sign up for your store's texts in Postscript, for example by texting one of your Postscript keywords.

If all of these are true, Appstle has passed the text to Postscript. If it was sent at night, Postscript may be holding it until the customer's waking hours. Otherwise, check the message history in your Postscript account, or contact Appstle support, who can see why a text failed.

Why didn't I get an admin text?

Check these in order:

Postscript is connected and Enable postscript integration is ticked in Settings → Integrations.
The admin text's switch is on in Settings → SMS.
The event sends an admin text. Update texts go out only when the order's status changes in Appstle, not when you edit its date, time or address.
The order's location has a phone number in Internal notifications (store pickup) or Notifications (local delivery). Admin texts go only to those numbers.
Each phone number on the location is a subscriber in your Postscript account. If one isn't, that team member signs up for your store's texts in Postscript, for example by texting one of your Postscript keywords.

If all of these are true and the text was sent at night, Postscript may be holding it until your team's waking hours. Otherwise, check the message history in your Postscript account, or contact Appstle support.

Why is the Save button greyed out in the Postscript window?

Save stays greyed out until you change something. A new key, or turning the integration on, also has to be validated first: click Validate and wait for the Valid badge. If you see Not verified, copy the Private API key from your Postscript account and try again.

Why don't I see the opt-in checkbox in the cart?

The checkbox shows only when all of these are true:

The app embed is on and the cart widget shows on your cart page. See Let customers choose pickup, delivery or shipping in the cart.
Postscript is connected and Enable postscript integration is ticked in Settings → Integrations.
The Order ready for pickup or Order picked up text is on in Settings → SMS.
The customer has selected store pickup and chosen a store.

The checkbox never appears at checkout, only in the cart widget.