SMS Overview
This guide explains how SMS works in Bullhorn Automation, including how phone numbers are selected, how messages are counted, and how multi-account sending is managed.
Phone Number Selection
When Bullhorn Automation sends an SMS, it looks for the contact’s Mobile field in the ATS first. If that’s empty, it will use the Phone field instead. This way, your messages still send even if mobile numbers are stored in the Phone field.
Validation
TextUs, our integrated messaging service, checks every number to see if it can receive SMS.
If a number is flagged as a landline, we’ll still send the first message, just in case it was flagged by mistake. If it’s then confirmed to be a true landline, the number will be marked "Invalid" so it won’t be used for future messages.
SMS Message Counting
Bullhorn Automation and TextUs count SMS messages differently:
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Bullhorn Automation: Each SMS step in an automation counts as one action, no matter how long your message is.
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TextUs: Longer messages that exceed the SMS character limit are automatically split into multiple parts, and each part counts toward your billable total.
As a result, a single automation step may result in multiple billable SMS messages through TextUs if the content is long.
Multi-Account Selection Process
If you have multiple TextUs accounts, Bullhorn Automation will always display that the message was sent from the selected owner. However, behind the scenes, our messaging service uses the following order to decide which TextUs account actually sends the message:
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Primary: The default account linked to the contact owner in TextUs.
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Secondary: If there’s no default set, the system uses the account that last had a conversation with the recipient.
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Fallback: If there’s no conversation history, the system uses the backup user account set at the client level in TextUs.
If the secondary or fallback account belongs to a different user, the message will send from that user’s TextUs account. Bullhorn Automation will still show the selected owner as the sender, even if the actual message is delivered from another user’s account in TextUs.