# Texts in automations

An automation can text a contact as one of its steps, beside its emails. The step is `send_sms`, and it lives on the same canvas.

## The step

A Send SMS step:

```text
{
  "id": "text_reminder",
  "type": "send_sms",
  "config": {
    "text": "Your cart is waiting. Finish your order: acme.co/s/cart",
    "category": "marketing"
  }
}
```

- `text` is required unless `media_urls` has an image. Contact properties can be merged in, as in an email.
- `category` is `marketing` unless you set `transactional`, for a text the person needs because of something they did.
- `from` is optional; your default number for the contact's country is used.

## When a contact cannot get the text

A contact without a phone, without SMS consent for a marketing text, or who texted STOP skips the step, and the run carries on with the next one. The run's history says which step was skipped and why.

A marketing text that falls outside 8 am to 9 pm in the contact's time zone waits for the morning, and the run waits with it.