Phound Glossary
A quick reference for the terms you'll see across Phound, Phound Wave, and the porting process. New to Phound? This page is a good place to start.
Phound Core
Persona
A Persona is a communication identity inside Phound — a distinct profile with its own caller ID and behavior. Phound supports four persona types: Professional, Personal, Promotional, and Public. See What Are Personas?.
Magnum AI
Phound's AI layer. Magnum AI powers call summaries, meeting summaries and transcripts, and voicemail transcription. Full Magnum AI is available on Pro and Business plans; the Basic plan includes basic meeting summaries only.
Verified ID
Government-backed identity verification built into Phound. Verified ID lets you authenticate your identity so contacts can see you're a real, verified person.
Meetings
Phound's built-in video and audio conferencing. Basic plan supports meetings up to 100 participants; Pro supports up to 500 participants.
Flows
Phound's IVR (interactive voice response) and auto-attendant feature, available on the Business plan. Flows let you build visual call routing, menus, and greetings.
Shared Numbers
A Business-plan feature that lets multiple team members access and operate under the same phone number.
vCon
A standardized format for capturing conversation metadata. Phound uses vCons to sync call and meeting data with CRMs and enterprise tools.
Ring Boost
Phound's vanity number offering (memorable or patterned phone numbers). Vanity numbers are sold as a one-time purchase plus a $4.99/month premium phone line subscription.
Phound Wave
Phound Wave
Phound's broadcast messaging tool. Wave lets you send personalized SMS to many contacts at once (one-time Blasts) and run automated campaigns. Wave is a $29.99/month add-on for Pro and Business subscribers. See What Is Phound Wave?.
Blast
A one-time broadcast message you send to a group of contacts. See Sending Your First Blast.
Campaign
An automated, multi-step messaging sequence that triggers based on contact data or actions. See Building Automated Campaigns.
Contact
A single person in your Wave audience. Contacts have a phone number and optional fields like name, email, tags, and custom fields.
Collection
A saved group of contacts you send messages to. Collections let you organize your audience for repeated outreach. See Contacts and Collections.
Tag
A short label you apply to contacts for flexible grouping (for example, vip, lead, customer). See Tags, Custom Fields, and Templates.
Custom Field
A named piece of structured data attached to every contact, like customer_since (date) or preferred_service (text). Custom fields power message personalization.
Template
A reusable message draft that supports merge variables (like {first_name}) so each recipient gets a personalized version.
Merge Variable
A placeholder in a message template that gets replaced with the recipient's data at send time, such as {first_name} or {customer_since}.
Message Pack
A pre-allocated bundle of SMS segments that meters your Wave sending volume each billing period.
SMS Segment
The billing unit for SMS. A standard SMS up to 160 characters is one segment. Longer texts and MMS (messages with media) count as multiple segments per recipient.
TCR (The Campaign Registry)
The industry-wide registry used by US wireless carriers to verify business SMS senders. Every Wave user must register with TCR before broadcasting to US numbers. See Carrier Registration and TCR.
Brand ID / Campaign ID
Identifiers TCR issues after it approves your business and your campaign use case. They tell carriers your messages are legitimate.
Opt-in / Opt-out
Opt-in is the recipient's consent to receive your messages. Opt-out is when they revoke that consent — typically by replying "STOP" or similar. Wave processes standard opt-out keywords automatically.
Porting
Porting
Transferring a phone number from one carrier to another — for example, from AT&T to Phound. Porting to Phound is free from Phound's side. See How to Port Your Number.
Transfer PIN / Number Transfer PIN / Port-Out PIN
A short-lived code you generate at your current carrier that authorizes the port. Different carriers call it different names and have different validity windows (AT&T = 4 days, Verizon/T-Mobile = 7 days, etc.).
Letter of Authorization (LOA)
A signed document from the account holder authorizing the port. Required for ports from VoIP providers (Twilio, OpenPhone, Grasshopper), not usually needed for wireless carriers.
Customer Service Record (CSR)
The account record your current carrier has on file — name, address, account number, authorized users. Used to validate the port. Mismatches (different name or address than what the carrier has) are the most common rejection reason.
Number Lock / Port Freeze / Port Out Protection
A security feature many carriers offer that blocks port-out requests. You must disable it before you can port your number out. Each carrier has a different name and toggle location.
Rate Center
The geographic area a phone number is associated with, based on its area code and exchange. Some ports can only go to carriers that operate in the same rate center.
Wireless Port vs. Wireline Port
A wireless port is between two mobile carriers (usually completes in hours to a few days). A wireline port is from a landline or VoIP provider (typically 3-15 business days). Google Voice, Twilio, and most VoIP providers are classified as wireline.
Plan Terms
Basic
Phound's free tier. Includes a single Phound number, unlimited Phound-to-Phound calls, basic messaging (~250 SMS/month), meetings up to 100 participants, basic meeting summaries, and 3GB of cloud storage.
Pro
Phound's mid-tier paid plan. $9.99 per user per month when billed annually ($11.99 monthly). Adds multiple phone lines, unlimited calling to US/Canada/Mexico, meetings up to 500 participants, full Magnum AI, 20GB cloud storage, and access to the Phound Wave add-on.
Business
Phound's top tier. $18 per user per month when billed annually ($21 monthly). Adds Flows (IVR), shared numbers, international calling, team management, 40GB cloud storage, CRM integrations, and API access.
Phound Wave (add-on)
$29.99/month, available to Pro and Business subscribers. Unlocks broadcast SMS, campaigns, contact management, and TCR registration tools.
Still need help?
If you couldn't find what you were looking for, our support team is ready to assist. Contact Phound Support and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.