Messaging

Email lands in an inbox. A text message lands in a pocket. Messaging is where you write SMS and WhatsApp campaigns and send them to the people who agreed to hear from you that way.

You'll find it under Emails then Messaging in your dashboard.

Before your first send

Each channel has one thing to sort out first.

For SMS, your sender has to be registered. Mobile networks require every business that texts people to be registered under its own name, and there is no shared number to fall back on. Until that registration is approved, the SMS option is greyed out and a banner tells you exactly what's missing. Registration lives under Phone & SMS in your dashboard, and the banner links straight to it.

For WhatsApp, you need a WhatsApp number. Sends go out from a number tied to your account, so you get your own sender identity and your own quality rating. You set one up on the WhatsApp templates page.

Who can actually receive a message

Only contacts who consented to that channel and haven't opted out, and who have a phone number on file. Nothing you do in the composer can override that.

You can see where any single person stands: open a contact and look at Messaging consent in the sidebar, which shows a row for SMS and a row for WhatsApp with the date they consented, or "no consent", or the date they opted out. Someone who unsubscribed from everything is suppressed on every channel at once.

Because consent is per channel, it's worth building a segment around it. The segment builder has rules called Can receive SMS and Can receive WhatsApp that capture exactly this test, so you can aim a campaign at people it can genuinely reach.

Writing a message

1. Go to Emails then Messaging.
2. Click New message.
3. Work down the form: Channel, Audience, the content, and When.
4. Click Send now, or Schedule message if you toggled scheduling on.

Channel

Pick SMS or WhatsApp. If a channel isn't ready yet, it's disabled and a note explains why rather than letting you build something that will fail at send time.

Audience

Two options:

• A segment. Pick one from the dropdown; each shows how many contacts currently match. Only the members with a phone number and consent for this channel are actually sent to.
• A single phone number. Type it in full international form, starting with the country code, for example +15551234567. Useful for a test to your own phone.

The message (SMS)

Write the text in the box. Underneath it you'll see a live count of characters and how many segments the message takes, because networks bill per segment rather than per message. Using accented characters or emoji switches the message to a format that fits far fewer characters per segment, and the counter says so.

Click any of the Insert chips to drop a merge tag into the text at your cursor:

• firstName
• name
• phoneNumber

Each one is replaced per recipient when the message goes out. Keep an eye on the counter while you use them, since a long name can tip a message into an extra segment.

The template (WhatsApp)

WhatsApp only allows a pre-approved template for this kind of message, so instead of a free-text box you pick from your Approved template list. The template's text appears below the picker so you can check it, and if it contains numbered placeholders you fill each one in order. A placeholder can hold a fixed value or a merge tag such as {{firstName}}, which is then resolved per recipient.

No approved templates yet? See WhatsApp templates.

When

Leave Schedule for later off and the message goes as soon as you submit. Toggle it on and pick a date and time; times are in your own timezone, and a moment in the past is refused.

The estimate panel

While you build the message, the panel on the right keeps a running estimate:

• Will receive it. How many of the audience can actually be sent to, out of the total. The gap between the two numbers is people with no phone, no consent, or an opt-out.
• Segments per message. For SMS, how many segments each copy takes and which character format it's using.
• Estimated debit. How many credits the whole send is expected to cost.
• Your balance. What you have right now.

If the balance won't cover the send, a warning appears with a link to buy more. Sending still works, it just stops when the balance runs out, so top up first if the whole audience matters. If nobody in the audience can receive the channel, the panel says that too, before you spend anything.

The messages list

Back on Messaging, everything you've created is listed with:

• The channel badge.
• A preview of the message, or the template name for WhatsApp. A scheduled one also shows when it's due.
• The audience, either a segment or a single number.
• The status.
• How many recipients it went to, and when it was created.

Filter with the search box, the All / SMS / WhatsApp buttons, and the status dropdown. Your current credit balance sits in the top right as a button that takes you to billing.

Statuses read as:

• Scheduled: waiting for its moment, or waiting for you to send it.
• Queued: handed over and about to go.
• Sending: going out now.
• Sent: finished.
• Failed: the send couldn't be completed.

From a row's More menu you can View delivery, and for anything scheduled or failed you can Send now to push it out immediately.

Reading the delivery report

Click any message to open its delivery view. Four counters sit at the top:

• Attempted: every recipient the send touched.
• Sent: handed to the network.
• Delivered: confirmed as arriving on the handset.
• Failed: didn't get there.

Below them, every recipient is listed with their name, phone number, status, a Reason when something went wrong, and the times it was sent and delivered. The reasons are in plain words: "No consent", "Opted out", "Unsubscribed from everything", "No phone number", "Out of credits", or a provider error.

That column is the fastest way to tell an audience problem (lots of "No consent") apart from a budget problem (lots of "Out of credits").

Message credits

SMS and WhatsApp draw on one shared pool of message credits. Each send debits based on what it actually costs: for SMS the number of segments and the destination country, for WhatsApp the template category and the country.

To top up, go to Billing and open the add-ons area, choose how many packs you want, and click Buy credits. The page shows how many credits a pack holds and what it costs before you commit. Credits never expire. See billing for the rest.

Sending from an automation

An automation can send a message as one of its steps, using the same credit pool and the same consent rules. See automations.

Where to go next

• Need an approved WhatsApp template first? See WhatsApp templates.
• Want a sharper audience? See segments.
• Prefer to reach the same people by email? See sending an email.
• Want to know what you're spending? See billing.