Scheduling SMS messages (and cancelling them)
Scheduling SMS messages, rather than sending them immediately, has distinct advantages, not least because you can set your communications to deliver at a time when they might have a greater chance of being read. It's also helpful when you need to set up some communications ahead of time, e.g. before going on leave.
Important
The option to schedule an SMS is only available to customers using the Textlocal or BulkSMS integration - Twilio does not support scheduled SMS messages.
Scheduling SMS messages
When working in the SMS composer pop-up, notice the Schedule SMS option in the bottom-right corner.
Use the Date Picker and Time Picker tools to select the sending date and time or type a future date and time.
Click to Preview SMS in the usual way, select the Recipients and click Schedule SMS to submit the message to the scheduled SMS queue.
Cancelling a scheduled SMS message
Unlike emails, scheduled SMS messages are processed by the SMS service provider, Textlocal or BulkSMS. Therefore, cancelling a scheduled SMS message can only be done from within your Textlocal or BulkSMS account control panel.
In this article, we explore how to cancel a scheduled SMS with Textlocal; however, the same principle applies to BulkSMS. We recommend you consult with BulkSMS online support articles for further guidance.
To cancel a scheduled SMS, log into your Textlocal account control panel via their website. From the TextLocal control panel, locate the Reports menu and select Scheduled Messages.
Note that each SMS is queued individually, so if you have sent an SMS to 20 contacts, you will see 20 scheduled SMS messages listed. To cancel messages, tick the checkbox on the left-hand side.
You can now Delete (or Reschedule)
Can I make changes to a scheduled SMS message?
It is not possible to edit a scheduled SMS once it has been submitted from ChurchSuite; it can only be rescheduled or deleted. It's also not possible to record in your ChurchSuite Communication logs that an SMS was cancelled outside of ChurchSuite.
Who is sent a scheduled SMS message?
The recipient list for a scheduled message is fixed at the time of scheduling. For example, if you schedule an SMS to a particular tag, the SMS is only sent to the people in the tag when the message was scheduled. If the tag or signup list subsequently changes, the recipient list of the scheduled message is unchanged. However, if a contact in the recipient list is later archived or deleted, they won't receive the message - scheduled SMS messages are only sent to people with a status of Active. The exception is when scheduling an SMS to Event signups - once scheduled, the list is fixed regardless of whether a signup is later cancelled or deleted.