Bulk SMS

What it is

Bulk SMS sends one text message to a list of phone numbers you supply. You paste the numbers in (or upload a spreadsheet), type the message, pick which of your business numbers it comes from, and press send. Joby then works through the list one message at a time and shows you a live count of what went out.

Open it from the left sidebar: More›Bulk SMS. The page has two tabs — New Campaign and Campaign History.

When to use it

• A seasonal promotion or price change going out to past customers.
• A storm, holiday, or closure notice to everyone you serve.
• A "we're in your area this week" message to a neighborhood list.
• A one-time follow-up to a list of people you exported from somewhere else.

Use Conversations instead when you want a back-and-forth chat with one person. Bulk SMS is a one-time blast, not a conversation tool — although every message it sends does show up as a normal thread in Conversations, so replies come back to you in the usual place.

Before you start

Bulk SMS will not send until all four of these are true.

1. Your account is on the Pro plan. On Starter or Free, the Bulk SMS page shows an upgrade prompt instead of the campaign builder. Owners and admins see an Upgrade to Pro button; everyone else is asked to check with the account owner.
2. Phone Registration is complete. Go to Settings›Phone Registration. Until it is approved, sending is blocked and you will see the message "SMS sending is disabled. Complete Phone Registration in Settings to enable."
3. You have at least one active business number. Check Settings›Phone Numbers. Only numbers marked active appear in the From Number list.
4. You have credit available. If your balance runs out mid-list, sending stops with "Out of credit. Add credit in Billing → Credits to send bulk SMS." Top up under Billing›Credits.

You also need your list ready. Bulk SMS accepts US and Canadian numbers written as 10 digits, or 11 digits starting with 1. Anything else is marked invalid.

Step-by-step

Open More›Bulk SMS and stay on the New Campaign tab. Optionally type a Campaign Name at the top so you can recognize this send later in Campaign History. If you leave it blank, Joby names it with the date and time.

1. Recipients

Pick one of the two ways to build your list.

• Paste phone numbers — type or paste into the big box, separated by commas or one per line. Click Parse Recipients (or just click outside the box) to process them.
• Upload CSV — click Upload CSV and choose a spreadsheet saved in CSV format. Your first row must be column headings. Joby reads a phone column, and will also pick up first_name, last_name, company, and up to five extra columns named custom1 through custom5. Those extras are what let you personalize the message.

Leave Auto-dedupe switched on so the same number never gets the message twice. After processing you'll see four counts — Total, Valid, Invalid, and Duplicates — plus a table listing the first 100 entries with the number you supplied, the cleaned-up +1 version, its status, and a short note explaining anything rejected.

If any came back invalid, click Remove Invalid to strip them out. Only valid numbers are ever sent to.

2. Message

Type your text in the SMS Message box. Under the box, Joby shows a live characters and segments count. A text up to 160 characters is one segment; longer messages are split into several, and you are charged per segment, so keep an eye on that number.

Under Insert variable there are clickable tags that get replaced with each person's own details:

• {{first_name}}, {{last_name}}, {{company}}
• {{custom1}} through {{custom5}} — whatever you put in those spreadsheet columns

These only fill in for people whose details came from an uploaded CSV. If you pasted bare phone numbers, the tags come out blank.

Leave Append opt-out text (Reply STOP to opt out) switched on. It adds "Reply STOP to opt out" to the end of every message, and that wording counts toward your character and segment total.

Once you have both a list and a message, a Preview appears showing the finished text exactly as the first three recipients will receive it. Read it before you go any further.

3. Sending Settings

• Delay between messages (seconds) — the pause between each text. Drag the slider or type a number from 1 to 60. The default is 2 seconds.
• From Number — click the selector and search your active business numbers. Each is shown with its nickname if it has one. This is required; the send button stays greyed out until you choose one.
• Batch Size — how many recipients are handled per run before Joby picks the list back up. The default of 200 suits almost everyone. You can set it from 1 to 1,000.

4. Send

Click Start Campaign. The button shows the exact count it is about to message, for example "Start Campaign (312 recipients)". It stays disabled until you have at least one valid recipient, a message, and a From Number.

There is also a Send Test button next to it. It does not deliver a test text — clicking it just reminds you to try individual messages from the Conversations page. To genuinely test wording, text yourself from Conversations first, then come back here.

How to check it worked

1. Watch the Campaign Progress panel. When the status reads completed and Remaining is 0, the whole list has been worked through.
2. Switch to the Campaign History tab. Your campaign is at the top of the list showing its name, status, a Sent / Failed / Total breakdown, the number it came from, and when it was created. The tab keeps your 50 most recent campaigns.
3. Click the eye icon on the right of any row to open Campaign Recipients. This lists every single number with its status, the exact time it was sent, and the reason for any failure.
4. Click Export CSV inside that window to download the full result list as a spreadsheet — useful for cleaning bad numbers out of your source list.
5. Open Conversations. Every message that went out has created or updated a thread, so replies land there like any other text.

Common mistakes

• Expecting Send Test to send something. It doesn't. Text yourself from Conversations to check wording, then return to Bulk SMS.
• Using personalization tags with a pasted list. {{first_name}} only fills in from an uploaded CSV. Pasted numbers produce "Hi ," instead of "Hi Dana,". Always read the preview.
• Naming CSV columns something else. A column called "Mobile" or "Cell" is ignored. Name it phone.
• Leaving invalid numbers in the list. They are never sent to, but they inflate your Total. Click Remove Invalid so your counts mean something.
• Turning off Append opt-out text. Do this only if your message already contains its own opt-out wording.
• Forgetting the extra characters. The opt-out line is added to your message, so a text that looks like one segment while you type can tip over into two.
• Starting a big send with a low credit balance. Sending halts partway through. Check Billing›Credits first.
• Cancelling when you meant to pause. Cancel permanently skips everyone remaining. Use Pause if you intend to continue later.
• Sending at a bad hour. There is no quiet-hours setting. Whatever time you press Start Campaign is when phones start buzzing.