[Using the Message Center](https://missblue.dev/help/collections/message-center) # Build an automation When somebody texts you, send a reply, wait, check whether they answered, and follow up. Miss Blue team Updated September 30, 2026 5 min read [Browse this collection](https://missblue.dev/help/collections/message-center) ## Five things can start a flow The first three wait for the customer to write to you. The last two do not, which is the point of them: they are how a sequence starts for somebody you added, rather than somebody who found you. Lists and tags are independent. A list is a group you send to; a tag is something you know about a person. Somebody can be on a list, carry tags, both, or neither. - A word they text, matched as the whole message. - The first message they ever send you. - Any new conversation on the line. - Somebody being added to a list — by hand, from an import, or through the API. - Somebody being given a tag. ## If it reaches people who never messaged you A flow started by a list or a tag can send a first message to somebody who has never heard from your line, so it carries two rules the others do not. It has to name the number it sends from — nothing about a list implies which of your lines should do the talking. And your project's first flow of this kind is read by somebody here before it can send, the same as your first announcement. After one is approved, the rest go straight out. **Keep in mind** People on the list who have never messaged that line are first contacts, so they are paced at 50 per line per day. A list of four hundred strangers takes about a week, and the screen tells you how many days before you switch it on. ## Switching one on: everybody, or only new arrivals A flow attached to a list can either start everybody already on it or only the people who join from now on. It asks every time and defaults to only new arrivals, because the two answers differ by however many people are already there and there is no safe guess between them. Adding the same people to a list twice does not start them twice. Only somebody actually arriving counts, so re-uploading yesterday's spreadsheet starts nobody. ## Start with one you already do by hand The best first automation is the message you have typed from memory more than ten times. Somebody texts "hours", you send your hours. That is one step and it never needs touching again. The second best is the first-time welcome: somebody messages the line for the first time and hears back immediately, even at eleven at night, and a person picks it up in the morning. ## Build one 1. Open Message Tools in your project and choose Automations. 2. Choose New automation and give it a name your team will recognise. 3. Pick what starts it: a word they text, the first message they ever send you, or any new conversation on the line. 4. Add the steps in the order they happen. Send a message, wait a number of hours, only if they have or have not replied, or stop. 5. Use the arrows to move a step that ended up in the wrong place. 6. Save. A new automation is off, so nothing goes out while you are still deciding. 7. Turn it on when you are happy with it.  Each flow, what starts it, and how many people are partway through.  The builder. Steps run in order and can be moved with the arrows. **Keep in mind** A keyword has to be the whole message. "hours" triggers a rule for hours; "what are your hours?" does not. It is the same rule STOP follows, and it exists so a word in the middle of a sentence never fires something. ## Only if they have not replied This is the condition that earns its keep. It is a gate rather than a fork: the sequence carries on while it holds and finishes with a reason when it does not. So a two-day follow-up meant for people who went quiet never lands in a conversation that is already going. Anybody who answered is out of the sequence and in a conversation with a person. ## When it sends: quiet hours or your own Under When it sends, every flow starts on Quiet hours: each message reaches its person only between 8 AM and 9 PM in their own time, or tighter where their state requires it. A step due at night waits for their morning. A reply to somebody who wrote to your line in the last hour is not held, so a keyword answer at 10:30 PM goes at once. Choose My own hours to set one window, in one time zone, for everybody instead. Your hours replace quiet hours, and following the texting laws where each person is becomes yours to answer for. Changing when it sends moves the people already in it at once: anybody waiting is looked at again, and a message about to go outside the new hours is held for them. The People tab shows when each person hears next, in their own time, and what they are waiting for. - [How quiet hours work](https://missblue.dev/help/articles/quiet-hours) ## What off means Switching an automation off stops new people joining and ends everybody already partway through, with a reason on their run. A flow you switched off does not keep sending for another two days. Turning it back on starts fresh for whoever triggers it next. It does not resume somebody's sequence from last week, because "just checking you got everything you needed" a fortnight later is its own kind of wrong. ## An automation cannot route around the rules Every step sends through the same path as a message you type: the do-not-message list, the block list, the rate limit, and the new-contact cap, all evaluated at the moment the step fires. A refusal ends that person's run and records why. Editing an automation does not move somebody already inside it. If the step they were standing on is removed, their run ends honestly rather than guessing at a replacement. - [Automations reference](https://missblue.dev/docs/automations) ## Related articles - [Quiet hours: reach people at a decent hour in their own time Automations, scheduled messages and announcements wait for 8 AM–9 PM where each person is, or their state’s stricter hours. What that means, how their time is worked out, and when to turn it off. 6 min read](https://missblue.dev/help/articles/quiet-hours) - [Schedule a message for later Write a text now, pick the moment it arrives, and change or cancel it until then. 3 min read](https://missblue.dev/help/articles/schedule-a-message) - [Send one message to a list of people Reach a list from your business line as a separate conversation each, at a pace that keeps the line healthy. 3 min read](https://missblue.dev/help/articles/send-an-announcement) - [Stop messaging somebody How STOP is handled, how to add a number by hand, and why an opt-out is not a block. 2 min read](https://missblue.dev/help/articles/stop-messaging-somebody) ## Still need a hand? Send us your question, or text the team at (929) 272-7048. [Contact the team](https://missblue.dev/contact) [Text us](sms:+19292727048)