Managing Messages From Unknown SMS Senders

SMS Inbox users can receive messages from phone numbers that are not yet associated with a Salesforce contact record. This article explains how to view conversations from unknown senders and add the sender to your CRM.

Viewing Messages from Unknown Senders

When someone sends an SMS message to a Twilio number associated with an inbox, the message appears in the SMS Inbox even if the sender’s mobile number does not match an existing Salesforce contact.

Unknown-sender conversations:

Appear in the inbox as incoming SMS conversations.
Do not initially include an associated contact record.
Continue to receive inbound message updates while the conversation remains in an unknown state.
Display multiple messages from the same sender in the conversation thread as messages are received.
They are included in live polling, so recently received messages appear without requiring a page refresh.

Adding an Unknown Sender to the CRM

Use the Add to CRM flow to associate an unknown sender with an existing contact or create a new contact record.

The flow provides two options:


Option	Result
Match with Contact	Searches for an existing contact using the sender’s mobile phone number and associates the conversation with the matching contact. If no match is found, the user can locate and associate the conversation by searching for the contact's name. Note: searching by name will only return Contacts without an existing Mobile number.
Create Contact	Creates a new contact record when no matching mobile phone number is found.

Note: Lead creation is not currently supported for SMS Inbox messaging. This option may be available in a future release when lead messaging is enabled.

Creating a Contact

When creating a contact from an unknown-sender conversation, enter the following information:

First name
Last name
Email address

The sender’s received mobile number is prefilled in the mobile phone field.

Configuring Account Assignment

An account is required to create a contact. In Communication Planner Settings, your Administrator must select how contacts created in SMS Inbox are associated with accounts. The available options are:

User-selected: you must look up and select an account when creating a contact in SMS Inbox.
Use existing Account assignment process: new contacts will use your existing account assignment process, such as EDA administrative accounts or a custom trigger.
Use a default Parent Account: new contacts created in SMS Inbox are assigned to the account you select as the default parent account.

For additional information, see Account Selection.

Confirming the Contact Association

After you match or create a contact, the inbox updates the conversation to reflect the sender as the associated contact.

The following areas display the contact information:

The side panel displays the contact’s first name, last name, email address, and mobile number.
The conversation panel displays the contact’s name instead of “Unknown sender.”
The contact panel displays the associated CRM record.