Texting candidates is effective. Texts get opened at 90%+ rates, responses are fast, and candidates prefer texts over voicemails. The problem? Sending mass texts manually is tedious, and using your personal phone number to text 200 candidates is a nightmare.

Grayscale is a candidate texting platform built for high-volume recruiting. It lets you send automated text campaigns, schedule interviews via text, answer candidate questions with AI chatbots, and manage conversations at scale. It's designed specifically for hourly and frontline hiring - warehouses, retail, restaurants, healthcare, logistics.

User reviews on G2 rate it 4.3/5 stars, with high-volume recruiters praising the response rates and time savings. The complaints? Mostly about candidates feeling spammed, occasional deliverability issues, and pricing for smaller operations.

If you're hiring dozens or hundreds of hourly workers, Grayscale is worth evaluating. If you're recruiting for professional or executive roles, texting platforms aren't the right tool.

What Grayscale Actually Does

Grayscale is a recruiting texting and conversational AI platform. Here's what it does:

Mass texting campaigns: Grayscale lets you send automated text campaigns to candidate lists. Send initial outreach texts, follow-ups, interview reminders, and job alerts. Personalization tokens, templates, scheduling, and opt-out management are built in.

This is the core feature. You upload a candidate list (from your ATS, job board, or database), select a campaign template, and Grayscale sends texts on your behalf. User reviews report 40-60% response rates on text campaigns, significantly higher than email outreach (15-25% response rates).

Automated interview scheduling: Grayscale can handle interview scheduling via text conversation. Candidates text back their availability, and Grayscale either books the interview automatically or routes the request to your scheduling system. User reviews note this feature saves significant time for high-volume interview scheduling.

AI-powered chatbot responses: Grayscale's AI chatbot can answer common candidate questions via text: job details, pay, benefits, location, dress code, application status, etc. Candidates text questions, the chatbot responds automatically, and only complex queries get routed to human recruiters.

The chatbot quality is hit-or-miss, according to user reviews. It handles simple FAQs well but struggles with complex or nuanced questions. Most users configure the chatbot for basic screening and route anything complicated to human follow-up.

Two-way texting inbox: Grayscale provides a shared inbox where recruiting teams can manage text conversations. Multiple recruiters can respond to candidates, assign conversations, tag messages, and track response times. This is useful for teams managing high volumes of candidate conversations.

Compliance and opt-out management: Grayscale handles TCPA compliance, opt-out requests, and consent management. Candidates can reply STOP to opt out of texts, and Grayscale automatically honors opt-out requests. This matters because violating TCPA regulations can result in $500-$1,500 fines per unsolicited text.

ATS integrations: Grayscale integrates with major ATS platforms like iCIMS, Workday, Jobvite, and others. Candidate data syncs bidirectionally, so you can launch text campaigns from your ATS and track responses in your recruiting system.

Analytics and reporting: Grayscale provides metrics on send volume, response rates, opt-out rates, and campaign performance. You can A/B test message content to optimize response rates. User reviews note that analytics help identify which campaigns and messages perform best.

What It Costs

Grayscale's pricing isn't published on their website - you have to "contact sales," which is annoying. Based on user discussions on Reddit and G2 reviews, here's what people report:

Estimated pricing: $200-$500/month per user, depending on text volume, features, and team size. Some users report $300/month for mid-tier plans with 5,000 texts per month included, with additional costs for higher volumes.

Per-text fees: Most plans charge $0.02-$0.05 per text sent beyond the monthly allotment. High-volume users negotiate custom pricing.

Cost comparison: Competitor texting platforms like Canvas and Sense charge $150-$400/month per user with similar per-text fees. Twilio (DIY texting infrastructure) is cheaper ($0.01-$0.02 per text) but requires technical setup and doesn't include recruiting-specific features.

The ROI calculation: if texting candidates improves your response rate from 15% (email) to 50% (text), you fill roles faster and reduce cost-per-hire. For high-volume hiring operations, the time savings and speed improvement justify the cost. For low-volume hiring, it's probably overkill.

What Grayscale Does Well

High response rates: User reviews consistently report 40-60% response rates on text campaigns, significantly higher than email outreach. Candidates open and respond to texts quickly, which speeds up hiring pipelines. This is the most frequently cited benefit.

Time savings on scheduling: Grayscale's automated interview scheduling saves recruiters hours per week. Instead of manually coordinating availability via phone tag or email, candidates text their availability and interviews get scheduled automatically. User reviews report 50-70% reduction in time spent on interview scheduling.

Built for high-volume hourly hiring: Grayscale is designed specifically for hourly and frontline recruiting workflows, unlike generic texting tools. Features like shift scheduling, job alerts, mass screening, and high-touch candidate engagement are tailored to industries hiring at scale (warehouses, retail, healthcare, hospitality).

Compliance management: Grayscale handles TCPA compliance, opt-out management, and consent tracking automatically. User reviews note that this is critical for avoiding legal risk when texting candidates at scale. DIY texting solutions often miss these compliance requirements.

Shared inbox for teams: Grayscale's shared inbox lets multiple recruiters manage candidate conversations without duplicating work. User reviews from large recruiting teams praise this feature for coordinating high-volume candidate engagement.

ATS integrations: Grayscale's integrations with enterprise ATS platforms like iCIMS, Workday, and Jobvite are solid, according to user reviews. Candidate data syncs smoothly, and recruiters can launch text campaigns from their ATS workflow.

What Grayscale Does Poorly (Or Doesn't Do)

Let's talk about the problems.

Candidates feel spammed: User reviews report that some candidates find mass texting intrusive or annoying. Text response rates are high, but so are opt-out rates (10-20% in some campaigns). Candidates who didn't explicitly opt in to texts may feel like you're spamming them, which hurts employer brand.

The solution is better consent management and less aggressive texting frequency, but the tension between outreach volume and candidate experience is real.

Chatbot limitations: Grayscale's AI chatbot handles simple FAQs but struggles with complex or nuanced candidate questions. User reviews report that candidates get frustrated when the chatbot can't answer their questions or provides generic responses. Most users limit chatbot use to basic screening and route complex queries to humans.

Deliverability issues at high volume: User reviews report occasional text deliverability problems, especially for campaigns exceeding 10,000+ texts per month. Carrier filtering, spam detection, and throttling can reduce delivery rates. This is an industry-wide issue (not unique to Grayscale), but it's frustrating when campaigns underperform due to deliverability.

Not appropriate for professional/executive recruiting: Grayscale is built for hourly hiring, not professional or executive roles. Texting software engineers, marketers, or executives en masse feels impersonal and spammy. User reviews note that text engagement drops significantly for white-collar roles where candidates expect more personalized outreach.

Pricing not transparent: Grayscale doesn't publish pricing on their website, forcing you to "contact sales" and sit through demos. User reviews consistently complain about lack of pricing transparency. Companies that hide pricing waste buyers' time and make cost evaluation difficult.

Learning curve for complex automations: Setting up automated workflows with conditional logic and chatbot rules requires training. User reviews report that basic texting campaigns are easy; complex automations take time to configure. Onboarding and support help, but expect to invest a few hours upfront.

How Grayscale Compares to Competitors

The candidate texting space is competitive. Here's how Grayscale stacks up:

Grayscale vs. Canvas: Canvas focuses more on candidate experience and automation (chatbots, interview scheduling, onboarding). Grayscale focuses more on high-volume texting campaigns and recruiter productivity. User reviews suggest Canvas is better for candidate engagement; Grayscale is better for mass outreach and speed.

Grayscale vs. Sense: Sense offers texting plus talent CRM, engagement automation, and candidate relationship management. It's more expensive ($300-$500/month per user) but includes more features. Grayscale is simpler and more focused specifically on texting. Sense is better for sophisticated talent engagement; Grayscale is better for straightforward high-volume texting.

Grayscale vs. Twilio: Twilio is a DIY texting infrastructure platform (API-based) that's cheaper ($0.01-$0.02 per text) but requires technical setup and doesn't include recruiting-specific features. Grayscale is a complete recruiting texting solution with templates, compliance, chatbots, and ATS integrations. Twilio is better for tech-savvy teams building custom solutions; Grayscale is better for teams wanting an out-of-the-box recruiting tool.

Grayscale vs. Paradox: Paradox focuses on conversational AI and chatbots for recruiting, including texting, but also web chat, voice, and other channels. It's more expensive ($500-$1,000+/month per user) and more complex. Grayscale is simpler and cheaper, focused specifically on texting. Paradox is better for enterprise omnichannel candidate engagement; Grayscale is better for high-volume texting-first operations.

Who Should Use Grayscale

High-volume hourly hiring teams: If you're hiring for warehouses, retail, restaurants, healthcare, or logistics and need to engage hundreds of candidates weekly, Grayscale's texting campaigns deliver high response rates and fast hiring. User reviews from high-volume operations consistently rate it highly.

Recruiting operations with high candidate drop-off: If candidates ghost during the application or interview process, texting improves engagement and reduces drop-off. User reviews report 30-50% reduction in candidate no-shows when using Grayscale's automated interview reminders.

Teams using enterprise ATS platforms: Grayscale's integrations with iCIMS, Workday, Jobvite, and other enterprise systems are strong, according to user reviews. If you use one of these platforms, workflow integration is seamless.

Staffing agencies and RPO firms: If you're placing candidates at scale across multiple clients and need to engage large candidate pools quickly, Grayscale's mass texting and scheduling automation help you move faster than competitors.

Who Should NOT Use Grayscale

Recruiters hiring for professional or executive roles: If you're recruiting for software engineers, marketers, finance professionals, or executives, mass texting feels impersonal and spammy. Candidates in these roles expect personalized, thoughtful outreach. Grayscale isn't appropriate for white-collar recruiting.

Small recruiting teams hiring <20 people per month: At $200-$500/month per user plus per-text fees, Grayscale is expensive for low-volume hiring. If you're only hiring a few people per month, manual texting or free tools like Google Voice are more cost-effective.

Companies without candidate consent for texting: If your candidate database doesn't include explicit consent to receive texts, using Grayscale creates TCPA compliance risk. Make sure you have proper consent before implementing mass texting campaigns.

Teams wanting deep candidate relationship management: Grayscale is focused on texting and scheduling, not comprehensive talent CRM. If you need candidate relationship management, talent pooling, and long-term engagement nurturing, look at Sense or Beamery instead.

The Bottom Line

Grayscale is a solid candidate texting platform for high-volume hourly hiring. At $200-$500/month per user plus per-text fees, it's expensive but delivers ROI if you're hiring at scale and need fast candidate engagement.

User reviews rate it 4.3/5 stars on G2, with praise for response rates, time savings on scheduling, compliance management, and hourly hiring features. Complaints focus on candidates feeling spammed, chatbot limitations, pricing transparency, and inappropriateness for professional roles.

If you're hiring for warehouses, retail, healthcare, or other high-volume hourly operations, Grayscale is worth evaluating. If you're recruiting for professional roles or hiring <20 people per month, it's probably overkill.

Pricing: $200-$500/month per user (estimated, contact for quote) plus per-text fees

Best for: High-volume hourly hiring, warehouses, retail, healthcare, staffing agencies

Not for: Professional/executive recruiting, small teams hiring <20/month, teams without texting consent

User rating: 4.3/5 stars on G2

Try it: grayscale.com