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Email and SMS setup

Before you can send campaigns or automated messages, the app needs a verified place to send them from — a verified domain for email, and a phone number with the right approvals for text messages. This is where you set both up, on the Email and SMS tabs in Settings.

Steps

Set up email sending

Email sends from your own domain, which you verify once by publishing a few DNS records. This proves to inboxes that mail really came from you — without it, nothing can be sent.

  1. Go to Settings → Email.
  2. Under "Verified domains," enter the domain your business sends from — for example acme.com. A subdomain like mail.acme.com works too, and keeps marketing mail separate from your everyday email. You can't use a Gmail, Outlook or Yahoo address here: verification needs a domain whose DNS you control.
  3. You'll get a short list of DNS records. Add each one exactly as shown with your DNS provider (the company you bought the domain from). There are three CNAME records, which handle signing and delivery, plus a recommended DMARC record — Gmail and Yahoo require DMARC from anyone sending in volume. If your domain already has a DMARC record, keep the one you have.
  4. DNS changes usually appear within minutes but can take up to 48 hours. Once they're live, click Verify now. Each record shows its own status, so if verification doesn't pass you can see exactly which record needs attention.
  5. Once the domain shows Verified, any address at that domain can send.
  6. If you verify more than one domain, one is your primary domain — shown with a "Primary" label. This only controls where automated emails with no specific sender (notifications, confirmation emails, journey steps that don't name a from-address) appear to come from, as noreply@ your primary domain. It doesn't restrict anything: any verified domain can still be used as a from-address for a campaign or automation. Your first verified domain becomes primary automatically; to change it later, open the ⋯ menu next to a verified domain and choose Make primary.
  7. Optional: set up email link branding so the tracked links inside your emails show your own domain (like links.yourdomain.com) instead of a generic one. This adds a small amount of trust and polish for recipients. Add the domain, publish the DNS record it gives you, then verify.
  8. Optional: set up subscription lists so contacts can opt in or out of specific types of email (like a newsletter versus product updates) rather than all-or-nothing. Each list can also require a confirmation click before someone's fully subscribed — see Double opt-in.

Which address a send uses

Every email needs a from-address on one of your verified domains — the assistant always confirms it before creating a draft, never picking one silently.

  • If your own email address sits on a verified domain, the assistant offers to send from it, and asks whether you'd rather use a different address on that domain instead.
  • If your own address is on a different domain (a common setup — your inbox might be you@yourcompany.com while you send campaigns from a dedicated domain like yourcompany.io), the assistant suggests the closest match: your own name at the front of one of your verified domains, e.g. you@yourcompany.io, rather than a generic noreply@ address. You can accept that suggestion or name any other address on a verified domain.

Which list a send uses

Every email goes out under exactly one subscription list — that's what the unsubscribe link in the footer acts on, and contacts who opted out of that list are excluded from the send.

  • One list: you're never asked. Sends use your default list automatically.
  • More than one list: when you ask the assistant to compose an email, it asks which list the send belongs to before creating the draft.

The list assigned to a send is shown in the Subscription list row of the email's preview, alongside its audience. When it appears in grey italics, no list was explicitly chosen and the send will use your current default.

To move an existing draft to a different list, just ask — for example "move this email to the Product Announcements list."

Contacts who unsubscribed from the list a send uses are left out of that send — whether you picked the recipients yourself or sent to a segment. The email's stats show them as skipped rather than sent, so a send that reached nobody reads as "0 sent · 1 skipped (unsubscribed)" instead of looking like it went out.

The same applies to contacts who unsubscribed from all email, or who are marked do-not-contact.

Set up SMS sending

  1. Go to Settings → SMS. If texting hasn't been set up for your account yet, click Set up SMS to get started.
  2. Under Numbers, search for and purchase a phone number to send from. The number-type choices update to match the country you pick (a US number can be local or toll-free, a Canadian number local or toll-free). US and Canadian local numbers can't be purchased until their carrier registration is approved (see the next step — Canada uses the same Brand + Campaign registration, with a CBN instead of an EIN). US and Canadian toll-free numbers work the other way around — you can purchase one right away and verify it afterward (see Verifying a toll-free number below); carriers block texts from an unverified toll-free number to both countries, so verify promptly. UK mobile numbers can be purchased once your UK carrier registration is approved (see UK numbers below) — until then the purchase button stays disabled with a note pointing you to the Registrations tab. The number search currently lists the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom — other countries aren't offered in this release. Your plan also sets how many numbers you can hold: the Numbers tab shows your count against that limit (e.g. "3 of 5"), and once you reach it the purchase button is disabled until you release a number or your admin raises the quota. If your plan includes no phone-number quota, you won't be able to buy a number until your admin adds one.
  3. Under Registrations, submit the carrier registration your number type requires. For US local numbers this is required before you can purchase the number; for every type it's also what lets carriers deliver your texts. The Registrations tab is a guided hub: a Business details card at the top shows whether your business name and address are on file — every registration's first step collects it inline if it isn't yet, in two quick sub-steps: Identity (name and address) and Registration (business type, industry, registration number and authority, and an authorized representative). Fill the registration sub-step once and every carrier form pre-fills from it. Pick your Industry from the list — US toll-free and 10DLC registration require it, and the carriers reject a business profile without a valid one. A local US number needs a Brand registration followed by a Campaign registration, submitted here before you can buy the number. The Brand form's tax ID works for a business registered in any country — pick your country from the Tax ID country list (it holds the full country set, not just the US and Canada) and enter your business's tax or registration number; we translate it to the identifier the carriers expect (an EIN for the US, a CBN for Canada, an RN for Israel, and so on — a country the carriers don't list separately is registered as Other). If your business details already include your registration number and representative, those fields come pre-filled. Sole proprietors without a tax ID can't complete Brand registration in-app yet (carriers verify them through a separate text-message passcode flow) — contact support to register one. A UK mobile number likewise needs the UK numbers registration on this tab approved before you can buy it — see UK numbers below. Toll-free is different: there's no form to submit here before buying — a note on the Registrations tab points you to the Numbers tab, where verification happens per number after purchase (see below). Each registration form can be revisited anytime to check status or resubmit. Registrations go through a review and show as draft, submitted, approved, or rejected — a number can't go live until its matching registration is approved. Editing an already-approved US 10DLC registration warns you first, since it may require carrier re-verification.
  4. Once your number is active and its compliance bundle is approved, use Send a test message on the Overview tab to confirm everything works before sending to real contacts.

UK numbers

To send from a UK mobile number, UK carriers first require your business to be registered with them — a one-time registration, separate from the US ones. Set it up under Settings → SMS → Registrations, on the UK numbers card:

  1. Click Set up. The first step is your business details — the same name, address, and registration information every other carrier form uses, so if you've filled it in before it's already done.
  2. The second step is the UK registration form itself. Its questions come straight from the UK carriers' current requirements, and anything you've already entered in your business details — website, registration number, authorized representative — is filled in for you automatically; you only type what's still missing. The Registration Authority field lists the national IDs the UK carriers recognise directly (UK, US, Canada, Australia); if your business is registered elsewhere, choose Other / my country isn't listed and enter your own registration number — a foreign business can register for a UK number this way.
  3. Submit. The card shows Submitted while the registration is reviewed — approval typically takes 1–3 business days — then Active once approved. From that point the Numbers tab will let you buy a UK mobile number.

If the review turns something up, the card shows Needs attention with the carrier's reasons listed when you reopen the form — correct the flagged fields and resubmit. Occasionally UK rules change after you're registered: the card then shows Update required with a deadline, and its Update action reopens the same form to submit the updated details. Your existing registration (and any numbers you hold) keep working while the update is reviewed.

Verifying a toll-free number

Unlike a US local number, a US toll-free number is yours to purchase right away — there's no registration to submit first. Once you've bought one, find it in your list under Settings → SMS → Numbers: its Compliance column shows Not verified and a Verify action next to it. Click Verify to open the Toll-Free Verification form — it's the same kind of guided form as the other registrations, with your business name pre-filled. Your business address and the number itself are attached automatically behind the scenes, so there's nothing to enter for those.

The first time you verify a toll-free number, we also register your business identity with the carriers behind the scenes (a one-time step built from your SMS Business Profile — business name, address, and authorized contact). If that registration is still being reviewed, the verification shows a business profile pending verification message rather than submitting; it's a one-time wait (typically a day or two) — check back and click Verify again once it clears, and the toll-free verification proceeds normally. (This same one-time business registration also backs US 10DLC Brand registration, so you only go through it once.)

Once submitted, the column updates to Submitted while the carrier reviews it (typically a few business days), then to Verified once approved — or Rejected if the carrier turns it down. A rejected number shows the carrier's rejection reasons right under its row, and what happens next depends on the carrier's edit window (about seven days from the rejection):

  • While the window is open you'll see an Edit & resubmit action and a note with how many days remain. It reopens the verification form with your previous answers filled in so you can correct just what was flagged; an optional "What did you change?" note travels with the resubmission, which goes straight back into carrier review.
  • Once the window closes the action becomes Delete & start over: it removes the rejected verification, the number returns to Not verified, and the normal Verify action lets you submit a fresh application.

Carriers treat an unverified toll-free number as unproven, so don't rely on one for real sending until it shows Verified.

Releasing a number

To let go of a number you no longer need, find it in your list under Settings → SMS → Numbers and choose Release. Releasing frees a slot against your plan's number limit — so if you'd reached the cap, you can buy a different number in its place. A released number is returned to the carrier and can't be reclaimed, so only release one you're sure you're finished with. If your account is closed, all of your numbers are released automatically.

Texts get left out too, for their own reasons — a contact who has already hit your send limit for the period, or one whose data you erased. Those recipients stay listed in the message's Audience, greyed out, with the reason on hover, so the audience you picked is still the audience you see. A text that reached nobody shows that one greyed-out recipient rather than claiming no audience was selected.

Alongside the audience you'll see a note like "3 · 1 skipped (send limit)". Texts and emails now count this the same way: the number is everyone the message was addressed to, and the note says how many of them were left out and why. That holds whether you picked the recipients yourself or sent to a segment — a segment send lists no individual people, so the note is the only place its skips appear.

Tips

  • Once your domain is verified, you can send from any address at that domain (like hello@acme.com or sales@acme.com) without verifying each one separately.
  • SMS compliance review can take time, especially for carrier registrations, so start that process before you need to send, not the day of a campaign.
  • Check the "Opt-out" area under SMS to see how contacts who text back STOP are handled.

FAQ

Q: My email domain shows "Pending DNS" — what do I do? A: Log in to wherever you manage your domain's DNS and add the records shown on the Email tab exactly as displayed, then click Verify now. Changes usually take effect within minutes but can take up to 48 hours to fully propagate.

Q: Can I send texts without a compliance bundle? A: No. Carriers require an approved registration matching your number type before they'll deliver your messages, so submit compliance early.

Q: Can I use my main company domain, or should I use a subdomain? A: Either works. A subdomain like mail.acme.com keeps marketing mail separate from your everyday email traffic, which some teams prefer — but verifying your root domain (acme.com) is just as valid.

Q: My domain shows a warning that it's "already registered with a different return path" — what does that mean? A: This means the domain was registered before with a different (or no) custom subdomain under the "Advanced" option, so the DNS records currently shown won't match what you'd publish for the subdomain you just asked for — they'll never verify. Delete the domain and add it again: deleting now also removes the old registration on our end, so the re-add generates fresh records for the subdomain you actually want.