With a CSV file that has a phone or email column, plus columns for any details you want to add. If a row has a problem, the import reports it per row. Textra does not import Excel files.
Resident communication on WhatsApp for municipalities and public bodies
Textra lets a municipality or public body upload its list of residents as a CSV, send segmented notices by WhatsApp, SMS or email, and handle the replies on WhatsApp with an AI agent that hands over to a person in the department when needed. Each job has its own page.
Three jobs a department uses Textra for
Notify the residents who need to know
You build an audience from your list and from attributes such as the neighbourhood, and send the notice now or at a future date and time. Each resident receives a message with their own details, such as their appointment date.
Handle the questions that arrive on WhatsApp
When a resident replies to a notice, an AI agent answers using the instructions your staff wrote and hands the conversation over to a person when needed.
Query your own systems
The agent can use tools on an MCP server that your department or its provider exposes at a public address. A developer is needed to set it up.
How the work is organised
Teams usually already hold a list of residents with a phone number or email, for example the appointments of a service office. That list is exported to CSV and imported into Textra with any attributes you want to add, of text, number or yes/no type.
Access is split by role: whoever administers the account, whoever edits and whoever only views. The data of each Textra customer is isolated from that of the others.
Illustrative example
A municipality and an appointment notice
- A resident services office exports its list of the week's appointments to CSV, with the phone number, the name, the neighbourhood and the appointment date, and imports it into Textra.
- It builds an audience with the residents of one neighbourhood and checks the preview with the count and a sample.
- It schedules a WhatsApp notice for a future date and time, with each resident's name and appointment date.
- Each resident receives their message. If one replies, the AI agent answers on WhatsApp following the office's instructions and, if needed, hands the conversation over to a member of staff.
Frequently asked questions from municipalities
You can choose who to send to with an audience. Marketing campaigns are not sent to anyone who has not given consent, which is recorded manually or by the resident's reply.
There are three roles: admin, editor and viewer. The data of each Textra customer is kept isolated from that of the others.
WhatsApp, SMS or email. Replies are handled by an AI agent on WhatsApp only; by SMS and email Textra only sends.
Keep reading
Let's talk about your department
Tell us what you want to communicate to residents and we will show you how it would look in Textra.