Guidance for building automatic SMS replies with Automations

Send messages in an automation now documents a complete pattern for auto-replying to an inbound SMS: start from an Incoming SMS trigger, map the reply's recipient to the incoming sender, and choose the receiving number as the reply's sender, noting that a number can accept inbound SMS without being eligible to send outbound. It also covers using a trigger filter to scope replies to one receiving number and to exclude opt-out and help keywords, so a STOP or HELP reply doesn't trigger your general acknowledgement. The SMS overview now links to this pattern as the no-code way to handle replies.

Also clarified in the same guide:

  • The WhatsApp messaging step can respond to incoming messages, but built-in steps can't label a WhatsApp conversation or assign it to a teammate, that's still a dashboard action under WhatsApp conversations.
  • The failure path on a send step now explicitly covers sends blocked by your workspace's send limits, not just channel rejections.

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