SMS reminders help ensure contacts receive text message notifications before their scheduled calls. This guide will show you how to enable this feature when adding or editing contacts in Togetherly.

## Prerequisites

- Your organization must have SMS reminders enabled (contact your administrator if you're unsure)
- The contact must have a valid mobile phone number

## Steps

### Step 1: Enable SMS reminders when adding a new contact

When creating a new contact, fill in all required information including their full name, preferred name, and primary telephone number. In the 'Select additional accessibility options' section, you'll see a checkbox labeled 'Receive SMS reminders before calls'. This checkbox is checked by default, meaning the contact will receive SMS reminders. If you don't want them to receive SMS reminders, simply uncheck this box before clicking 'Add contact'.

![Enable SMS reminders when adding a new contact](https://help.together.ly/rails/active_storage/blobs/proxy/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsiZGF0YSI6MTI2LCJwdXIiOiJibG9iX2lkIn19--a7bd994f65304c20c02676df7b550a7ac59fb6d5/step_0.png)

### Step 2: Save the contact with SMS reminders enabled

After filling in all the contact details and ensuring the SMS reminders checkbox is in your desired state, click the 'Add contact' button at the bottom of the form. The contact will now be saved with your SMS reminder preferences.

### Step 3: Enable or disable SMS reminders for existing contacts

To change SMS reminder settings for someone already in your contact list, navigate to your contacts page and click the 'Edit' button next to the contact's name. In the edit form, scroll down to the 'Select additional accessibility options' section. You'll see the same 'Receive SMS reminders before calls' checkbox. Check or uncheck it based on whether you want this contact to receive SMS reminders, then click 'Update contact' to save your changes.

![Enable or disable SMS reminders for existing contacts](https://help.together.ly/rails/active_storage/blobs/proxy/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsiZGF0YSI6MTI3LCJwdXIiOiJibG9iX2lkIn19--dd926ac136d332ccab793f5b0d6a83452c84186f/step_2.png)

### Step 4: Verify SMS reminders will be sent

For a contact to actually receive SMS reminders, three conditions must be met: they must have a valid phone number entered, the SMS reminders checkbox must be enabled in their contact profile, and your organization must have the SMS reminders feature activated. If any of these conditions aren't met, reminders won't be sent even if the checkbox is enabled.

## Tips

- SMS reminders are typically sent 15-30 minutes before a scheduled call, giving participants enough time to prepare
- Contacts need a mobile phone number to receive SMS messages - landline numbers won't work
- If a contact isn't receiving reminders despite having the setting enabled, verify their phone number is correct and in the proper format

## Summary

You can now control which contacts receive SMS reminders about their upcoming calls. Remember that both the contact-level setting and organization-level feature must be enabled for reminders to be sent successfully.