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Release: Australia · Updated: 2026-03-12 · Official documentation · View source

Send SMS action

Send an email-based SMS text message to specified users or groups using your instance email server. Recipients must have an SMS device configured to receive the message.

Roles and availability

Available as a Workflow Studio ServiceNow core action. Users with the flow_designer or admin role can add an action to a flow and define configuration details.

Deprecation of email-to-text gateway

Email-to-text service is now deprecated and no longer supported by service providers such as AT&T and Verizon. It is recommended to use Notify for sending SMS notifications.

Notify provides support for sending SMS notifications through integration of third-party services, such as Twilio, and requires configuration of supporting workflows. For more information, see How to setup a SMS email notification in ServiceNow [KB0712569] knowledge base article.

Fields

FieldDescription
RecipientsRecipients of the SMS text message. Specify a user or group by dragging a pill from the data panel.Note: Hard-coded addresses are not supported.
MessageContent of the SMS text message. You can enter text directly or drag a pill from the data panel.

Inputs

Provide a value for each input that your flow needs. To add dynamic values, you can also drag and drop pills from the Data panel or select them from the pill picker.

  • Recipients

    Data type: String

    Recipients of the SMS text message. Specify a user or group by dragging a pill from the data panel.

  • Message

    Data type: String

    Content of the SMS text message. You can enter text directly or drag a pill from the data panel.

Outputs

These outputs appear in the Data panel. You can use them as inputs elsewhere in your flow.

  • Email

    Data type: Record

    The Email record created for the SMS message.

Error messages

ErrorDescription
Recipients are required to send SMSAppears when no user or group is entered in the recipients field.
Message is required to send SMSAppears when no message is entered in the message field.
While parsing the recipients, found hardcoded addresses: %s which were ignored as they are not supportedAppears when hard-coded address is entered in the recipients field.
While parsing the recipients, no active users or groups were found for sys_id(s): %sAppears when one or more inactive users or groups are entered in the recipients field.
No active SMS device was found for users(s) with sys_id(s): %sAppears when no SMS device is configured and found for one or more recipients.
Email sending is currently disabled. Please enable it via the property to send SMS using email gatewayAppears when email sending is disabled.

Parent Topic:Workflow Studio actions