The lightning component on the sidebar as shown below can be used to send SMS, schedule an SMS, create and send the SMS template.




Below sections explain how to achieve these:



I. Send SMS


It includes adding a new Contact in the org if not already present and then sending the message using the lightning component under that Contact.


User shall follow below steps to achieve this.



User can send the SMS using the lightning component (an interface, a small box, displayed in blue color shade on the right hand side of the page) available in the salesforce lightning mode.



Adding a new Contact:

  1. Click on Contacts tab.

  2. Click on New button.

  3. Fill all the fields with desired Mobile/Phone Number. 

  4. Click on Save button. User will be navigated to Contact's related page.






A success message will be displayed once the Contact is added.



Once the Contact is created, the message will be sent by using the Send SMS option on the right-hand side of the page which shows an interface with recently added Contact Name & Number. To achieve this:


  1. Click the same Contact as added (or avoid it if already on the same page).

  2. Enter the message in the message body on the component shown on the right-hand side.

  3. Then click the blue rightward arrow to send the SMS, as shown in the below screenshot.




The success message will be displayed once the message is sent.





All message exchanges will be displayed right below the Send SMS option as shown in red:


To send an MMS following steps will be followed:


1. Click on insert Files.


2. After clicking on the insert file upload files option will get popped up as shown below click on it.



3. Select the file which you need to send and click on done.



4. Type the message for that file and click on the blue arrow as shown below.



5. You can see that an MMS is sent successfully.


This is how the SMS and MMS will be sent through the side component on the Contact.



II. Schedule an SMS on the sidebar


Users can schedule the message to be sent on the pre-defined date/time.


To achieve, the user needs to click the icon as displayed below the side component, as shown.



The Schedule Message dialog will pop-up. The user then needs to select the desired Date and Time and click on the Schedule button.




A confirmation message will be displayed.


Once saved, the message will be automatically sent to the targeted number at the defined date and time.




III. SMS Template on the sidebar



It has two parts namely:



    A. Creating a message template and


    B. Using the message template:



User has a privilege to define and use message templates.


For this, click the template icon (+) as displayed below the sidebar component.




User can select a readily available message template by clicking on 'Choose one' or create a new one by clicking the blue + button as shown.




A. Creating the message template:


Once the user clicks the blue + button, the New SMS Template dialogue box will pop-up.



The user selects the object name, Field Name, Title, and the message body.


On clicking the blue + button above the {!Contact.FirstName} value or whatever other value is there in the API Names field will be auto-populated in the message body afterword 'Hi' and when the message is sent the actual First Name which was saved on the Contact object will be populated.


Click the Save button once it's done.


A success message will be displayed once saved.


Now, input the information as asked and then click Insert


The message template is thus created.



B. Using the message template:


Once the template is created, the user can now use it to send via SMS.


For this, click the + icon again.




Now click Choose one drop down and select the recently created template.



Note that the First Name field is populated as the user saved in the earlier steps. Then click the Insert button


Once the Insert button is clicked, check that on the right-hand side message body shows the selected template as shown below.



Users can now type a further message if required and then click the blue rightward arrow to send the SMS.



This is how the template will be created and sent via the Send SMS option.



The same steps can be followed to send the message, create a template from Leads or other objects.