SMS automation for Australian businesses

What SMS automation does

SMS automation is a provider feature that sends texts without a person pressing send each time. It follows a rule you set once, applies that rule to every contact who meets it, and keeps sending until you switch it off. The trigger of an automated text is the event that starts it: a clock, a change in another system, or an incoming keyword.

A one-off send works differently. You write the message, pick the recipients and press send, and the job ends there. An automation keeps running after you log out, and it sends the next text whether or not anyone is at the desk.

Three patterns cover almost every automation an Australian business sets up.

Three ways a text sends itself

A schedule. The text goes out at a time you choose: once, on a recurring interval, or on a date tied to the contact. ClickSend schedules messages up to 4 months in advance, and Sinch Engage repeats a message daily, weekly, fortnightly, monthly or annually. MessageWorks attaches a trigger to any date field on a contact record, such as a renewal date or a birthday.

A trigger from another system. An event in your online store, CRM, booking system or form starts the send. Mobile Message listens to Shopify events and sends SMS automatically based on the notification types you enable. Notifyre connects through Zapier to send texts on events like new leads or appointments.

A keyword reply. Someone texts a word to your number, and the system answers without a person reading it first. Cellcast automates responses through keyword triggers, and Kudosity collects numbers and sends automated replies when people text a keyword to a dedicated virtual mobile number.

Four jobs make up most first automations.

What businesses automate first

Welcome texts greet a contact who joins a list or makes a first purchase.

They are commercial messages, and ACMA says automated welcome journeys are not exempt from the spam rules, so every message in the series needs consent and a working unsubscribe.

Appointment reminders are the most common first automation. A 2013 Cochrane review of 8 randomised trials found attendance rose from 67.8 per cent with no reminders to 78.6 per cent with text reminders. A reminder that carries only the appointment details and the sender's contact details is a purely factual message, which the Spam Act exempts from the consent and unsubscribe rules.

• "Bayside Dental: your check-up with Dr Nguyen is on Thu 12 Mar at 9:15am. Reply C to confirm." (92 characters, one SMS)

Order and delivery updates tell a customer where their purchase is. They stay purely factual while they carry no promotion, which keeps them outside the consent and unsubscribe rules.

• "Coastline Homewares: your order 48213 has shipped and arrives on Friday." (72 characters, one SMS)

Abandoned cart texts chase a sale, so they are marketing messages that need consent and an unsubscribe. The trigger is an event in the online store, such as a cart left at checkout, and the text exists to promote the goods in it.

Every one of these jobs sits under the same law.

The rules every automated text follows

Section 16 of the Spam Act 2003 bans unsolicited commercial messages with an Australian link. The ban does not apply when the recipient consented, or when the message is a designated commercial electronic message. ACMA says a business must hold consent before it sends marketing messages, and must be able to prove that consent. The Spam Act defines consent as either express, or inferred from the person's conduct and business and other relationships. ACMA says a purchase alone does not create inferred consent for marketing.

Every commercial message must clearly and accurately identify who authorised it and how to contact them. ACMA says those details must stay correct for at least 30 days after the send.

The message must also carry a clear and conspicuous unsubscribe, such as Reply STOP. ACMA says the unsubscribe must work for at least 30 days, charge no fee and ask for no account or extra personal information. An opt out takes effect at the end of the 5 business days beginning on the day the person sends it.

Outsourcing the sending does not outsource the obligation.

ACMA says a business that has someone else send its marketing messages still needs consent from every recipient. The business also cannot hand its spam law liability to the provider that sends for it.

The rules reach inside the automation itself. ACMA found customers who unsubscribed from an automated welcome journey kept receiving the whole series, because the unsubscribe did not take effect until the sequence finished. ACMA says that puts a business in potential breach. Each commercial message in a journey must let the customer opt out of the rest of the series at any time.

A message that consists of no more than factual information, plus the sender's name, logo and contact details, is a designated commercial electronic message. The Spam Act exempts these messages from the consent and unsubscribe rules, though they must still identify the sender. The ACMA Chair has said a factual message that also includes marketing content, or links to marketing content, can only be sent with consent. ACMA also warns that a bill or account message can breach the law even when it is mostly factual and carries a promotion.

The name or number an automation sends from also decides what it can do.

Sender ID or number for automated texts

A sender ID is a name that appears in place of a phone number on the recipient's screen. ACMA says people generally cannot reply to an SMS sent with a sender ID, because alphanumeric headers cannot receive return messages. Keyword automations and reply-to-confirm flows therefore need a sending number.

Klaviyo shows the choice in practice.

Its default Australian sender is a branded sender ID, which cannot receive texts, so its keyword replies need a sending number.

Since 1 July 2026, a sender ID must be registered on the SMS Sender ID Register, or texts sent with it are labelled "Unverified". ACMA says senders that use a phone number do not need to do anything.

With the sender decided, the provider comes next.

Choosing a provider for automation

The table on this page compares 16 Australian providers on six capabilities: scheduled sends, recurring sends, trigger workflows, keyword auto-replies, a Zapier integration and an SMS API. The differences between them decide how much you can automate without custom work.

SMS Broadcast and Telstra publish only scheduled sends and an API, with no trigger workflows or keyword auto-replies on their own pages.

Mobile Message states it does not support recurring messages, and its event triggers come through its Shopify app, while its own automations answer incoming texts.

Twilio builds its automation features through its API or a Studio flow you set up, with no ready-made scheduler or keyword setting. Esendex sets up its automations through its API or by its professional services team.

From shortlist to live automation takes five steps.

Setting up your first automation

1. Choose the message type. Decide whether the text is commercial or purely factual, because that decision sets the consent and unsubscribe rules. A reminder that states only the facts is exempt from both, and any promotion or a link to one moves the message back into the commercial category.
2. Confirm consent and the unsubscribe. For a commercial message, check that you hold express or inferred consent, record where it came from, and put a working unsubscribe such as Reply STOP in the message.
3. Choose a sender ID or a number. A registered sender ID suits one-way announcements, and a number is required for keyword replies and confirmations.
4. Connect the trigger. Link the automation to its event with a native integration, Zapier or the SMS API, and match the method to what your provider publishes.
5. Test on your own phone. Send the automation to your own number before it goes live, and check the message text, the sender line, the timing and what happens when you reply.