Migrate from Textline to Mailchimp

Textline Address Book contacts map to Mailchimp Audience Members. The primary identifier in Textline is the phone number; in Mailchimp it is email address. We require an email address field to exist on each contact for direct member import. If contacts have no email, we flag them for the customer to supplement or accept as phone-only records that cannot be imported as Mailchimp members (Mailchimp requires an email address per member). Name, phone, tags, and notes carry over as merge fields and tags. Custom address book fields (Standard/Pro only) require pre-creation in Mailchimp as merge fields before import.

Textline tags on contacts migrate as Mailchimp tags on the corresponding audience member. Tag names and taxonomy are preserved as-is. Mailchimp stores tags as a flat list per member with no hierarchy; if Textline uses a hierarchical tag naming convention (e.g., department_role_agent), the full string carries over. Tag-based segmentation in Textline must be rebuilt in Mailchimp as audience segments based on tag membership.

Textline Departments group phone lines by location or function. We export the department-to-agent assignment and map it to Mailchimp as either separate Audiences (one per department) or as a tag prefix (e.g., dept_support, dept_sales). The customer chooses the strategy during scoping. If departments are used purely for routing and not as a contact attribute, we document the department structure and recommend it be recreated in Mailchimp as a Tag Group for segmentation.

Textline Agents are user accounts that send and receive messages. Mailchimp does not have an agent/user concept at the contact level. Agent names and their department assignments are documented as part of the routing inventory, but there is no Mailchimp equivalent to migrate agents to. The customer's Mailchimp account admin and any additional users are provisioned separately from the contact migration.

Textline Conversations are threaded SMS exchanges tied to a contact's phone number. Mailchimp does not have a conversation or messaging thread object. We do not migrate conversation history into Mailchimp as threads because no equivalent structure exists. For compliance and audit purposes, we export the full conversation history as a JSON archive and deliver it alongside the Mailchimp import so the customer's team retains the SMS history. The contact's most recent message date can be stored as a merge field for segmentation purposes.

Textline canned replies and message templates export as template body text. We deliver these as a documented list with shortcut codes. Mailchimp supports both email templates and SMS templates, but SMS templates in Mailchimp are scoped to the Customer Journey SMS actions and are not a standalone reusable library as in Textline. Templates are not imported programmatically; we provide a written inventory that the customer's team copies into Mailchimp's template editor.

Textline Automations trigger on keywords, time delays, or contact actions. Mailchimp Customer Journeys use email and SMS send triggers, not real-time two-way SMS routing. We do not migrate automations as code. We document every active Textline Automation including its trigger type (keyword, time, contact action), conditions, and actions, and deliver this as a written handoff document for the customer to rebuild in Mailchimp Customer Journeys. Keyword-triggered automations have no Mailchimp equivalent and require a different implementation strategy.

Textline Routes assign inbound messages to specific agents or departments based on routing rules. Routes are not exposed via the Textline public API, making programmatic migration impossible. We document the routing logic during discovery by interviewing the customer's admin and reviewing the Route configuration. There is no Mailchimp equivalent for agent-level inbound message routing; Mailchimp SMS is campaign-based, not agent-inbox-based. The routing logic must be documented and implemented differently in Mailchimp's automation or abandoned if the use case no longer applies.

Textline Announcements are bulk outbound messages sent to contact lists. We export announcement history including send date, recipient list, and message body. Mailchimp campaigns serve a similar bulk outbound function but are scoped to email or SMS campaigns within an audience. Bulk SMS sends from Textline map to Mailchimp SMS campaigns, but Mailchimp requires SMS credits and a Text-to-Join opt-in flow before sending to any contact. We deliver the announcement inventory as a reference for the customer to recreate in Mailchimp campaign drafts.

Textline custom address book fields (available on Standard and Pro plans) map to Mailchimp merge fields. We export the field name, type, and values for each contact. Before import, the customer must create the corresponding merge fields in Mailchimp with matching names (Mailchimp field type must correspond to the data type: text, number, date, dropdown). Mailchimp merge field values are limited to 255 characters; longer text values from Textline are truncated with a note in the reconciliation report. Custom field schemas must be confirmed pre-import because Mailchimp limits audiences to 30 fields total.