If you thought February was big, March just raised the bar again.
The Autumn 2026 update is our most significant communications upgrade ever, headlined by the feature you have been asking for since the very beginning: 2-way SMS messaging with your own dedicated phone number. But that is just the start. We also shipped an AI assistant that actually understands your business, a simulation mode that lets you walk in your customers' shoes, colour-coded care management, cancellation fee handling, and a stack of improvements that make every part of Petboost faster and smarter.
Let's get into it.
1. 2-Way SMS & Messaging Pro: The Headline Act
The Feature
This is the big one. Messaging Pro gives your business its own dedicated Australian phone number and unlocks full 2-way SMS conversations from within Petboost.
Your clients no longer text into a void. They reply to your reminders, ask questions, request changes, and you respond from a threaded inbox inside your dashboard, with their pets, bookings, and history right alongside the conversation. Every outbound message shows delivery status (Sent, Delivered, Failed) via Sinch Australia, and inbound replies from clients cost you zero credits.
The system includes KYC-verified number provisioning, STOP/HELP keyword handling for compliance, daily per-client rate limits to prevent over-messaging, smart credit pooling (plan credits first, pack credits never expire), and auto top-up so you never run dry.
Use Cases
- A grooming salon sends a reminder for tomorrow's groom. The client replies "Can we move it to 2pm?" The groomer sees the message in the inbox, checks availability in the side panel, reschedules the appointment, and confirms, all without leaving Petboost
- A daycare sends a pick-up notification: "Max is ready for collection!" The owner replies "Running 10 minutes late, sorry!" The team sees it instantly and knows to keep Max comfortable
- A mobile groomer sends a payment link via SMS after a house call. The client taps the link and pays in 30 seconds. No awkward "So... about the payment" conversation
Bottom Line
Your clients can now reply to your messages, and you can respond from one place with full context. This is not a messaging add-on. It is a complete communication platform built for the way pet businesses actually work.
Read the full 2-Way SMS deep dive
2. BoostGPT AI: Your Built-In Business Assistant
The Feature
BoostGPT AI is an artificial intelligence assistant built directly into Petboost. Open the panel from your sidebar and ask questions about your business in plain English. It answers with real data from your account.
Ask "How is my revenue this month?", "Which clients have not booked in 60 days?", "What is my busiest day of the week?", or "How do I set up recurring appointments?", and get instant, accurate answers. BoostGPT understands your bookings, clients, pets, services, and revenue. It can also draft client communications, suggest next steps, and guide you through any Petboost feature.
Multiple AI model options are available during the beta so you can choose the balance of speed and depth that suits your workflow.
Use Cases
- A business owner opens BoostGPT between appointments and asks "Am I ahead or behind this month?" BoostGPT pulls the numbers: revenue is up 12% on last month, with 8 more appointments completed. It takes 5 seconds instead of 5 minutes of dashboard navigation
- A receptionist is unsure how to set up a recurring series for a new client. Instead of searching help articles, they ask BoostGPT "How do I create a recurring appointment?" and get step-by-step instructions tailored to their account
- A groomer wants to send a review request after a great session. They ask BoostGPT to "draft a Google review request for Sarah and Buddy" and get a personalised message ready to send
Bottom Line
Your business data is powerful, but only if you can access it quickly. BoostGPT AI turns questions into answers in seconds, so you spend less time navigating dashboards and more time running your business.
Read the full BoostGPT AI announcement
3. Simulation Mode: Walk in Your Customers' Shoes
The Feature
Simulation Mode lets you see exactly what your pet owners experience when they interact with your business. Simulate the complete booking flow, profile completion process, and portal experience for any pet owner on your account.
Select a pet owner, enter Simulation Mode, and walk through their journey from their perspective. See what they see when they try to book, which services are available to them, what eligibility requirements are shown, how their profile looks, and whether anything is blocking them from completing a booking.
Use Cases
- A client calls saying they cannot find the full groom option when booking. Instead of guessing, the business owner enters Simulation Mode for that client and immediately sees the issue: the client's dog's vaccination certificate has expired, making them ineligible for groom services until it is updated
- A new business finishes setting up their services and uses Simulation Mode with a test pet owner to verify the booking flow looks clean, pricing is correct, and the experience makes sense before going live
- A multi-service business wants to check that daycare customers see different service options to grooming customers. Simulation Mode confirms each pet owner sees the right services based on their pet type and booking history
Bottom Line
You no longer have to guess what your customers experience. Simulation Mode gives you their exact view so you can troubleshoot issues, verify your setup, and ensure every pet owner has a smooth booking experience.
4. Care Colouring Mode: See Your Schedule in a New Light
The Feature
Your calendar just got a lot more readable. Care Colouring Mode lets you colour-code appointments by care type, so you can see at a glance what kind of appointment each slot is. A full groom shows in one colour, a bath and tidy in another, daycare in a third.
This works across the scheduler and Mission Control, and complements the existing service category colours with a dedicated care-focused view. When you are managing a busy day with multiple service types, the ability to visually distinguish appointment types from across the room saves real time.
Use Cases
- A grooming salon with 4 stylists uses Care Colouring to see at a glance that the morning is dominated by full grooms (warm coral) while the afternoon has a mix of bath and tidy (soft blue) and puppy introductions (green). The salon manager spots a gap and slots in a walk-in nail clip
- A multi-service facility switches between service category colours (which type of business) and care colouring (which type of care) depending on whether they are doing capacity planning or operational management
- A daycare with enrichment and standard tiers uses care colouring to visually separate the two groups, ensuring enrichment dogs get their scheduled brain games
Bottom Line
More colour options means more clarity. Your calendar is already your most-used tool. Care Colouring makes it even easier to parse at a glance.
5. Cancellation Fee Management: Protect Your Revenue
The Feature
Late cancellations cost pet businesses thousands of dollars a year. Petboost now supports cancellation fee collection directly from the appointment view. When a client cancels late, you can charge a cancellation fee, send a payment link via SMS, and track collection status, all without leaving the appointment.
The fee amount is configurable per service and integrates with your existing Stripe payment setup. Payment links are sent via SMS so clients can tap and pay instantly. The system tracks which fees have been sent, paid, and outstanding.
Use Cases
- A grooming salon has a 24-hour cancellation policy. A client cancels 2 hours before their appointment. The groomer applies the $30 cancellation fee, and the client receives an SMS with a payment link. The client pays within minutes
- A daycare operator reviews outstanding cancellation fees at the end of the week and sees 3 unpaid fees totalling $75. They resend the payment links with one click
- A boarding facility charges a 50% cancellation fee for bookings cancelled within 48 hours. The system calculates the fee based on the booking total and sends the payment request automatically
Bottom Line
Your cancellation policy now has teeth. Collecting fees is no longer awkward or manual. It is built into the workflow: cancel, charge, collect.
6. Convert to Recurring: One-Click Recurring Series
The Feature
You no longer need to create recurring appointments from scratch. Convert to Recurring lets you take any existing single appointment and turn it into a recurring series with one click. Set the frequency (weekly, fortnightly, monthly) and Petboost generates the series from that appointment forward, complete with conflict checking.
Use Cases
- A client's first groom goes perfectly. The groomer says "Same time next fortnight?" The client agrees. The groomer opens the appointment, taps Convert to Recurring, selects fortnightly, and the next 6 months of appointments are created in seconds
- A dog walker finishes a trial walk with a new client. The client wants to book Monday, Wednesday, Friday ongoing. The walker converts the appointment to a recurring series and is done
- A daycare enrols a new dog for regular Tuesday and Thursday sessions. Instead of manually creating each booking, the operator converts one session to a recurring series
Bottom Line
Your most loyal clients book regularly. Now you can set up their recurring schedule from an appointment they have already had, instead of starting from scratch every time.
7. Communication Preferences: Professional Consent Management
The Feature
Petboost now supports per-business communication preferences and marketing consent management. Pet owners can manage their opt-in status for different types of communications, and businesses can view and respect those preferences from the CRM.
The system includes a dedicated marketing consent card in the pet owner profile view, SMS communication preference controls, and idempotent consent updates so preferences are always consistent.
Use Cases
- A client calls and asks to stop receiving marketing communications but keep appointment reminders. The business updates their communication preferences in Petboost, and the system respects the distinction
- A business reviews their client list and can see at a glance which clients have opted in to marketing, which are reminder-only, and which have opted out entirely
- When sending bulk communications, the system automatically filters recipients based on their consent status so you never message someone who has opted out
Bottom Line
Professional communication management is no longer optional. With communication preferences built in, you stay compliant, respect your clients' wishes, and maintain trust.
8. More Improvements Across the Platform
Beyond the headline features, March brought a stack of quality-of-life improvements:
- Quick Copy Links: Instantly copy your booking link, showcase page URL, or review request link from Settings. Share your business with one click
- Upcoming Appointments PDF: Generate a printable PDF of upcoming appointments for any date range. Perfect for daily run sheets, team handovers, or keeping a paper backup
- Bank Transfer Payment Confirmation: Mark transactions as paid via bank transfer and send confirmation to pet owners. Full support for businesses that accept direct deposit
- Team Member Password Reset: Reset team member passwords directly from the team management page. No more email chains or manual resets
- Improved Appointment Conflict Handling: Smarter proactive conflict detection when creating or editing appointments, with clearer messages explaining what the conflict is and how to resolve it
- Mobile Performance Upgrade: Significant layout updates that improve loading times on phones and tablets, resolving occasional white-screen issues
- Admin Bookings Confirmed Status: When you create a booking from the admin side, the confirmation email now correctly shows "Confirmed" rather than "Pending"
- Simultaneous Edit Handling: When two team members edit the same appointment at the same time, the system handles it gracefully with clear conflict resolution
The Full Picture
In this Autumn update, Petboost shipped:
- 2-Way SMS & Messaging Pro with dedicated numbers, threaded inbox, and delivery tracking
- BoostGPT AI assistant with business data querying and communication drafting
- Simulation Mode to see exactly what pet owners experience
- Care Colouring Mode for visual appointment management
- Cancellation fee collection with SMS payment links
- Convert to Recurring for one-click recurring series creation
- Communication preferences with professional consent management
- Quick Copy Links, PDF generation, bank transfers, team password resets, and a stack of performance and reliability improvements
This is not just a product update. This is the platform pulling further ahead.
What's Next?
We are deep into building the next wave of features: notification centre for centralised operational alerts, custom form builder for collecting the information you need from clients, and deeper AI capabilities that move BoostGPT from answering questions to proactively surfacing insights.
If you are already on Petboost, explore Messaging Pro and BoostGPT AI today. If you are not, there has genuinely never been a better time to see what this platform can do for your business.
Start your free trial at business.petboost.com/register
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I activate 2-Way SMS?
Navigate to Settings > SMS in your Petboost dashboard and click Activate Messaging Pro. Complete the identity verification and your dedicated number will be provisioned.
Is BoostGPT AI included in my subscription?
Yes. BoostGPT AI is available to all Petboost users during the beta period at no additional cost. Opt in from your sidebar to start using it.
How do I access Simulation Mode?
Open any pet owner's profile and click the Simulate button to enter Simulation Mode. You will see exactly what that pet owner experiences when they interact with your business.
Does Care Colouring replace service category colours?
No. Care Colouring is an additional viewing mode that works alongside service category colours. You can switch between them depending on what you need to see.
How do cancellation fees work with Stripe?
Cancellation fees are processed through your existing Stripe connection. Payment links are sent via SMS, and when the client pays, the transaction appears in your Petboost financial records alongside regular appointment payments.
Related Petboost Features
- SMS Messaging: Full details on SMS capabilities, pricing, and 2-way messaging
- Reporting & Intelligence: Analytics with forecasting and period comparison
- Mission Control: Your operational command centre
- Pro Automations: Automate confirmations, reminders, and payments
- Self-Service Booking: Let clients book themselves 24/7