After checking your text messages, you have two options for handling each message. You can mark it as read, and/or you can hide it from view. Marking a message as read is a great way to indicate that someone saw the message, and hiding a message is helpful to indicate that no further action is needed. Handling the visibility of text messages prevents your messages from stacking up in the inbox. 

Knowing how to use the view filter is important, so you can keep your inbox tidy and quickly access or retrieve your messages later, if needed.

The view filter works according to the two statuses that a message can have. You can filter according to whether a message has been marked as read or unread, and you can filter according to whether a message is marked as visible or hidden.

Let’s use some examples to help you better understand how to use the view filter.

Example 1

You read the message, and there is nothing else to do—for example, the patient is just confirming her appointment.

Click Mark as Read and then click the Hide icon to hide the message and prevent your messages from stacking up in the Inbox. The Hide icon, under Actions, is an eye with a line through it .  Clicking the icon means “hide the message.”

To retrieve the message, click the View filter, select Read to see only the read messages, and select Hidden to see only the hidden messages. Then, click Done.

When you apply this filter, you can see messages marked as read and hidden.

Note that the visibility icon, under Actions, changed to Unhide . Clicking the icon means “make the message visible again.” You also have the option to mark the message as Unread, meaning it will be counted as an unread message in the Inbox.

Example 2:

You read the message, and there is an action that you must take—for this example, the patient needs to reschedule their appointment and is asking you to call them.

Click Mark as Read because you read the message, but do not click the visibility icon because you are going to take action on it and want to leave it visible or unhidden until the task is complete.  

To show only the messages that have been read and are still visible, click the View filter, select Read to see only the read messages, and select Visible to see only the visible messages. Then, click Done.

When you apply this filter, you can see messages that are read and visible. Note that the Hide icon did not change because you did not click it, so the message is still visible.

Additional Information

• Creating a workflow for handling text messages will be helpful to your office.
• It is important not to confuse the Mark as Read/Unread button and the visibility icon (under Actions) as the current statuses of a message. They are the options or actions that you can take to handle that message.
• You can also search by name, phone number, and so forth to locate a patient message.
• Your user role must have the Review inbox messages right enabled to see text messages and the Manage inbox messages right enabled to hide messages.
• To learn more about using the text messages feature, read Viewing text messages in the Resource Center.