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Sending Proactive Messages from HubSpot

Use the Octopods extension cards inside HubSpot to send a one-off SMS or WhatsApp message to a contact without leaving the HubSpot record.

Written by Tarek Khalil

Which channels can you send from HubSpot?

Proactive messaging from HubSpot supports two channels:

  • Twilio SMS — free-text messages up to the SMS provider’s length limit.

  • WhatsApp Cloud API — pre-approved WhatsApp Business Platform templates.

If you need another channel for proactive messaging (for example, Viber Business Messages), send from the Octopods API instead.

Opening the proactive messaging card

Open any HubSpot contact, company, or deal record. The Octopods extension card appears on the right-hand panel alongside HubSpot’s other CRM cards.

  1. Scroll the record sidebar until you see the Octopods card. It opens on the Choose a Channel step.

  2. Octopods pulls the contact’s phone number from the HubSpot phone or hs_all_associated_contact_phones property to use as the default recipient.

Note: If the contact does not have a phone number on file, add one to the HubSpot record first. Octopods needs a phone number in E.164 format (for example, +14155552671) to deliver the message.

Sending a free-text SMS

  1. On the Choose a Channel step, click Twilio.

  2. In the Send From dropdown, pick the sender phone number for your Twilio SMS channel.

  3. Type your message in the Message field.

  4. Click Send.

The card confirms the send and begins tracking delivery. Use Back to return to the channel picker.

Sending a WhatsApp template

WhatsApp proactive messages must use a pre-approved template from your WhatsApp Business Account (WABA).

  1. On the Choose a Channel step, click WhatsApp.

  2. In the Select Template step, choose the sender channel and then pick a template from the list. Only approved, active templates appear.

  3. Fill in any required template variables. Each {{1}}, {{2}}, placeholder in the header or body gets its own input, and a URL input appears for media headers (image, video, or document).

  4. Click Send.

Checking for an existing conversation

After a successful send, the card checks whether a HubSpot conversation already exists for the recipient. If one does, the card opens it automatically so replies land in the same thread. If none exists, the card creates a new conversation.

Viewing message history

To see what was sent to a phone number recently:

  1. On the Choose a Channel step, click View Message History.

  2. The card shows a table of proactive messages to that phone number with columns Date, Channel, Status, and Details. The Status column uses coloured tags — Delivered, Pending, or Failed — and the Details column shows the failure reason if the send failed.

  3. Click Back to return to the channel picker.

Note: Message history covers sends made through any method (extension card, workflow, or API) — not just the card on the current record.

What’s next

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