Where SMS and WhatsApp are, and who can receive them

2 min readChecked against the dashboard on 16 October 2026
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SMS and WhatsApp live under Marketing Manager → Email Marketing in the sidebar, beside Campaigns and Automations. They share your contacts, lists and segments with email.

SMS

The SMS area has these tabs:

SMS is paid for from a prepaid SMS credit balance in US dollars, separate from your Brainito plan credits. See SMS credits and what they pay for.

WhatsApp

The WhatsApp area has Overview, Campaigns, Templates and Inbox. You connect your own WhatsApp Business account, and Meta bills that account directly; Brainito does not charge per WhatsApp message. See Set up WhatsApp.

Who can receive messages

Both channels only send to contacts who have agreed to receive them and have a usable phone number. Everyone else is left out automatically, and the send screens show how many.

SMS consent is recorded per contact. Open a contact to see it under SMS:

  • Opted in — with the date, when known.
  • No SMS consent — they will not be texted.
  • Opted out — they replied STOP. Only they can undo this, by replying START.
  • Opted in, but for a different number than the one on file — texts are paused — their consent covers an old number.

Consent can come in with an SMS consent column when you import contacts from a CSV, or from a lead form's consent answer.

STOP replies are handled automatically: the contact is opted out at once and the reply is written to the consent log.

WhatsApp sends only to contacts marked as opted in to WhatsApp. If someone tells WhatsApp they want to stop marketing messages from your business, they are opted out automatically. You can build a segment on WhatsApp opt-in to see who is reachable.

A large list is not a large SMS or WhatsApp audience. Expect the reachable number to be much smaller than the list until you have collected consent.

Next: open SMS → Setup or WhatsApp → Overview and follow the setup checklist at the top.

Related articles

Set up SMS and buy a numberOpen SMS → Setup and click Set up SMS. This creates your sending profile, which your numbers attach to and which receives delivery reports and STOP replies. It is free; you are only charged when you buy a number or send Set up WhatsApp and get a template approvedOpen WhatsApp → Overview and click Connect with Meta. You sign in with Meta and choose the business and number to send from. It takes a few minutes. Meta bills your WhatsApp account directly; Brainito never charges per mSMS credits and what they pay forSMS runs on a prepaid balance in US dollars, separate from your Brainito plan credits. Open SMS → Credits to see it.Import contacts from a CSVContacts are imported against an audience list, so create the list first if you do not have one — see Create an audience list.

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