Send a broadcast SMS

What is a broadcast?

A broadcast sends the same message to multiple contacts at once—but personalized for each recipient. Use it for appointment reminders, customer-care follow-ups, or approved promotions. The message reaches each contact's phone from your business number, and a copy is recorded in every contact's conversation thread so your team can see what went out.

Before you send

Three things need to be ready:

1. Your phone number is approved to send marketing/transactional SMS. Your admin will see a green status on the 10DLC Status tab under Phone Setup.
2. The contacts you want to reach are tagged. Broadcasts target groups by tag—like vip, dec-promo, or follow-up-week-3.
3. You know which category your message fits: Reminder, Customer Care, or Marketing (more on that below).

If you're in demo mode, no real texts are sent. Messages still appear in each contact's conversation thread so you can preview the behavior end-to-end before going live.

Step 1—Tag your contacts

You tag contacts so the system knows who the broadcast is for.

1. Go to Contacts and click a contact to open their details.
2. In the Tags area, click the tag field.
3. Pick an existing tag from the list or type a new one and press Enter.
4. Repeat for each contact you want in the broadcast group.

Step 2—Open the broadcast composer

1. On the Contacts page, open the tag filter at the top.
2. Pick the tag you just applied.
3. A banner appears above the list — something like "12 contacts tagged vip" — with a Send Broadcast button. Click it.

The composer slides in with those contacts already loaded as recipients.

Step 3—Pick a category

Categories describe what kind of message this is. This is important because carriers (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile) treat each category differently, and your number is only approved for certain types.

If you pick a category your number isn't approved for, the broadcast won't send and you'll see a message telling you which use case is missing. Your admin can request that use case be added to your campaign.

Step 4—Write the message

Type your message in the body field. You can personalize it with variables like this:

Example:

Hi {{contact.first_name}}, reminder that your appointment is tomorrow at 2pm.
Reply to reschedule.

For Jane Doe, that sends as:

Hi Jane, reminder that your appointment is tomorrow at 2pm.
Reply to reschedule.

If a contact doesn't have a first name on file, the message still reads naturally—you'll get "Hi, reminder..." (no awkward double space or leading comma).

Load a saved template instead

If you've saved templates before, pick one from the dropdown next to the body field. Only templates in the selected category and SMS channel show up.

Edit a template and save changes

Load a template, edit it, and you'll see two buttons:

• Save changes—updates the existing template. Click it and you'll get a quick inline confirm ("Overwrite template X?") before the change lands. Use this when you want to improve the template for future use.
• Save as new—creates a separate template with a new name, leaving the original alone. Use this when you want a variant.

Step 5—Check the indicators

Below the message body, a few things tell you whether the broadcast is in good shape:

• Character and segment count. Long messages split into multiple segments—hover for details.
• Personalization detected. A green check shows which variables you're using.
• Warnings in amber:
  • Shortened links (bit.ly, t.co, tinyurl.com, etc.) will be blocked—carriers reject them. Use your full website domain instead.
  • For marketing broadcasts, "Reply STOP to opt out" is added automatically if you haven't included it.
• Personalization required (for broadcasts over 10 recipients). Carriers flag identical messages to big lists as spam. You'll need to include {{contact.first_name}} plus at least one of {{contact.last_name}}, {{appointment_time}}, or {{business_field}}.

Step 6—Check your number's health

On the right side of the composer, the Number Health card tells you how your sending reputation is doing:

• Daily capacity—how many more messages your number can send today before hitting its limit.
• Delivery rate (last 24 hours)—what percent of your recent messages actually got delivered. Below 85% is a yellow warning; below 70% blocks new broadcasts until it recovers.
• Inbound ratio—how much conversation is flowing both ways. Too low looks to carriers like you're blasting one-way promos, which hurts reputation.

Hover any number for a plain-English explanation.

If anything's red or you're close to a limit, hold off and send fewer messages, or let the number rest for a day.

Running low on daily capacity? Each broadcast send counts against your plan's communications credit wallet. If you're routinely hitting daily capacity limits, grab a credit pack from the Credits tab to raise your monthly allowance. See Purchase credit packs for details.

Step 7—Preview and send

• The preview panel shows exactly how the message will look for the first contact in your list—variables filled in, auto-appended STOP text visible, everything.
• Click Send Broadcast.
• A confirmation modal shows how many recipients will receive the message. Confirm to send.

After the send

• You'll see a success message: "Broadcast queued: N messages" (plus "demo mode—no carrier calls" if you're in demo mode).
• Open any recipient's conversation (Contacts → click the contact → Messages tab)—the broadcast appears as an outbound message in their thread, like any other SMS you'd send them.
• Replies from recipients arrive in the normal inbox and are handled by your AI or routing rules like any inbound message.

Limits to know

• 25 recipients per broadcast. Larger audiences will be supported once your business moves to higher TCR vetting tiers.
• 1,600 characters maximum in the message body.
• Your 10DLC brand, campaign, and phone association all need to be approved for production sending. (Demo mode works any time.)
• Scheduled sends (send later at a specific time) aren't available yet.
• opt-outs are always respected—if a contact has replied STOP, they're skipped automatically.

Common issues

"Campaign not approved." Your 10DLC registration isn't fully green. Ask your admin to check the 10DLC Status tab on Phone Setup and click Refresh to pull the latest status.

"Use case not approved." The category you picked isn't one your campaign is registered for. Either change the category to one that matches your approved use cases, or ask your admin to add that use case to your 10DLC campaign.

"URL shortener blocked." Replace bit.ly, t.co, tinyurl.com, etc. with your full website domain (like yourcompany.com/offer). Carriers block shorteners outright.

"Personalization required for broadcasts over 10 recipients." Add {{contact.first_name}} to your message, plus at least one of {{contact.last_name}}, {{appointment_time}}, or {{business_field}}.

I sent a broadcast but can't find where to review it. Broadcasts don't have a dedicated "Broadcasts" page yet. Each recipient's conversation thread shows the outbound message. A history view with per-recipient delivery status is on the roadmap.

See also

• Templates—create and manage reusable message bodies for broadcasts, nurture, and 1:1 sends
• SMS compliance—what to know about TCPA, HIPAA, and opt-out rules