Textiquette: Identify yourself!

Recently I got this text:  “Can I treat you to lunch to say thank you?”  I wanted that free lunch, and I appreciated the sender’s gratitude.  I wasn’t ready to accept, however, because I didn’t know who the heck the sender was!   The text carried no name and none showed up with the sender’s phone number.  I didn’t even recognize the number.

What to write back? I was stumped. “Who is this?” “PLEASE identify yourself!” Maybe I should just consider it a “blind date” and wait till the meeting to solve the mystery? Finally, somewhat awkwardly, I wrote, “Oh you’re very welcome, but I have to ask who this is.” It was embarrassing, but I’ve become bolder as the anonymous texts keep showing up.  I won’t say it’s a common problem, but it’s annoying when it happens and it’s easy to fix.

How to make sure your message recipients don’t puzzle over your text identity
If you don’t ever want to be “mystery texter,” you can easily set up your texts so that your name always shows up as an automatic signature. You can also choose to show your phone number as a link in the text. so the recipient can click to call you. Providing this info tells the recipient that you are thinking of their needs - and it makes you look good! (Be aware that the characters in the signature do count toward your texting limit.)

How to set up your automatic signature
For instruction on how to set up text message signatures, click here. For the iPhone, here’s instructions and here’s a video.  If your phone is one of the few that doesn’t have this functionality, you should be able to get an app to do it.

So please, identify yourself!