A contact list is a named group you can address a bulk campaign to. Lists are what Send SMS targets in its contact list recipient mode.

​
Import contacts from a CSV file

The fastest way to create a populated list.
1

Prepare the file

A phone column is required. Every other column becomes a personalisation variable available in campaigns.
Use international format for numbers, including the country code.
Remove commas and line breaks from your values, including inside quotes. The import splits on these characters, so a quoted value containing a comma is read as two columns and the remaining fields shift out of position.
2

Select Import from CSV

Provide a list name, and optionally a description. The name is how the list appears when selecting recipients for a campaign.
3

Upload the file

The file must be a .csv and under 5 MB.
4

Review the import result

The result reports how many rows were processed, how many succeeded, how many failed, and the reason for each failure.
Confirm the successful count matches your expected row count before using the list for a campaign.
Column names become variable names, so name them for how you want to write your messages. A column named firstname gives you {firstname} to insert into a campaign message.

​
Create an empty list

Select Create list and provide a name and optional description. An empty list is valid, and you can add members afterwards through Manage contacts. Useful when you intend to build a list gradually from contacts you already hold.

​
Manage list membership

Manage contacts opens a panel where you can search the list, add existing contacts to it, and remove members.
Removing a contact from a list does not delete the contact. It remains in All Contacts and in any other list it belongs to. Deleting a list likewise does not delete its contacts.
You can also import further contacts into an existing list rather than creating a new one, which is how you top up a list over time.

​
Delete lists

Individual and bulk deletion are both available. Deleting a list leaves its contacts in place.

​
Export

The export on this screen downloads your contacts as a CSV file. To export the membership of one specific list, open that list through Manage contacts and export from there.

​
Troubleshooting

Checked in this order: the file must be a .csv, under 5 MB, contain at least one row beyond the header, and include a column named phone. Capitalisation of the column name does not matter.
The result panel lists the reason for each. The most common cause is a phone number not in international format.
Almost always a comma inside a value. The import splits on commas without honouring quotes, which shifts every subsequent field on that row. Remove embedded commas and re-import.
Save the file as UTF-8 before uploading. Files saved in other encodings can import with corrupted characters.
The variable name must match the CSV column name exactly. An unmatched variable is left in the message as written rather than being replaced.