Every screen in the app, in the order you'll meet them, with what each button does and what happens behind it.
The pictures are built from the app's own layout, colors and wording, showing a sample office called Demo Plumbing with two texting numbers. Pictures marked animated play on their own.
Landline IM uses the same username and password as My Account on CoolTele.com, the login LineView IM uses too. The username is your office number plus your extension, like 405-555-1234-201; the app puts the dashes in as you type digits.
Sign in once. There is no daily login and no session that quietly expires: the app keeps one long-lived sign-in until you tap Sign out in Settings or Cool Telecom revokes it.
What has to be true before the first sign-in works:
Right after sign-in the app also looks for a names file for your office (a short list of name, number pairs that Cool Telecom can host for you). If one exists, your numbers show up by name everywhere instead of as digits. If not, your main number is simply labelled with your company name.
Messages is where the app opens and where you'll spend most of your time. Top to bottom:
Pull down on the list to refresh, though you rarely need to: the app checks for new texts every four seconds while it's open, and keeps checking in the background for notifications.
Someone texts your office number. Cool Telecom's servers receive it from the carrier within about a second and drop it into your office inbox. On your phone:
Everyone in the office who is signed in sees exactly the same thing at the same time. When anyone opens the conversation, it stops counting as waiting for everyone: one answer, not five.
Tap a card to open the conversation. It's a normal text thread, oldest at the top, newest at the bottom, and it scrolls to the newest message when you open it or when a new one lands.
When you tap Send, your bubble appears at once marked queued. The app hands the text to Cool Telecom, Cool Telecom hands it to the carrier, and the marker clears when the carrier accepts it, usually in about a second. If the carrier refuses it, the bubble is marked failed and stays in the thread so you can see what didn't go through and try again.
Back returns to the list. More opens Archive and Block for this conversation (section 7).
Tap New message on the Messages tab. The From line at the top tells you which of your numbers the text will go out from (it's the number on your plate). Enter a 10-digit number in To; if it's in your phone's contacts the name appears under the field so you know you've got the right person. Pick a canned reply or type, then Send. The app opens the new conversation, and from then on it's a normal thread.
Contacts is your phone's own address book, read-only, filtered to usable US numbers. Tap anyone to open a text to them from your office line. The first time, Android asks whether Landline IM may read contacts; say no and the app still works, it just shows numbers instead of names.
Contacts are also what name the cards and bubbles in Messages. The app never uploads your contacts anywhere; names are matched on the phone.
An office can have several texting numbers: a main line, a service line, a sales line, a second location. Landline IM keeps them completely separate while showing them all on one phone.
Out of the box each number is just digits, with your company name on the main line. Cool Telecom can host a small names file for your office (Front Desk, 405-555-1234 on one line, Service Line, 405-555-1999 on the next). The app fetches it at sign-in and again whenever it comes to the front, so a change made by Cool Telecom shows up on every phone without anyone touching the app. Settings → Numbers shows what loaded, lets you hide a number you don't want on this phone, and has Scan QR / Load to point one phone at a different list if you ever need to.
Hold a card in the Messages list, or tap More inside a conversation, for the two housekeeping actions.
You can still read, and even reply to, a blocked conversation; the block only affects what you're interrupted by.
The Auto Reply tab shows one card per number. Each card holds that line's canned replies, the one-tap chips you see above the keyboard in every conversation on that line. Up to 20 per line; tap Add canned reply, type, and it's on the chip strip immediately.
Every canned reply has a small clock beside it. Tap the clock and that reply is armed as the line's automatic answer: from that moment, every new text that arrives on that line gets the armed reply sent back, from that line, within a few seconds. The clock turns gold while it's on. Tap it again, or arm a different one, to stop.
Notification sound at the bottom of each card opens Android's settings for that line's notification channel, where you choose the sound, vibration, or silence for that line only.
If your office uses LineView IM on its PCs, the LineView tab is the same office chat on your phone, signed in automatically with your Landline IM login. Nothing to set up and no second password: the office chat server accepts your Landline IM sign-in as soon as you're in.
The status line under the LineView heading says Chat connected when you're in. Right after a brand-new sign-in the chat server can take a minute or two to learn your login; the app keeps retrying on its own and says Connecting to chat… meanwhile.
Offices without LineView IM just see an empty LineView tab. It doesn't affect texting.
The line at the top names the app, your company and your main number: a quick way to confirm which office this phone is signed in to.
Appearance settings are per phone. Numbers come from the office. Conversations live on the server, so none of this touches them.
Once signed in, the phone holds one long-lived key for your account. It's used for every check for new texts, every send, and as the password for office chat. It stays valid until one of three things happens:
Reinstalling the app or getting a new phone means signing in again, nothing more. Your conversations are the office's, not the phone's.
For anything else, open a ticket with Cool Telecom: Landline IM support ticket. Mention the office, the extension you sign in with and which number the problem is on.