Send SMS to a Group?

Questions & Suggestions
1

In lockdown, I'm often needing to send a message to a specific group of coworkers, some of whom are on android. We have a long text thread going in Messages, but I'd like to automate the process.

I have tried the SMS action in KM, which seems to work well for one phone number. I cannot figure out how to do it for multiple at once.

(I realize this may be a limitation of the underlying AppleScript action, as I've tried to also do it via AS, and can not crack it for multiple recipients either.)

I've also tried to automate finding this specific text thread in the Messages app, but I have not figured out a way to find a thread with more than one person.

Would love any suggestions!

2

I don't know of any solutions using Keyboard Maestro, but if no one else is able to offer an approach you may want to give the trial version of Cardhop a look (US $20 to buy). From the menu bar and (if it matters to you) only using the keyboard, you would be able to perform a task like you've described. You won't see it detailed on the app's overview, but the app would allow you to

  1. invoke the app, optionally with keyboard shortcut
  2. type something like text coworkers The meeting should start soon.
  3. send the message

For a comparable example of the behavior, view the demonstration video for sending an email.

3

You can use textbelt to send texts from the command line (bash script, etc.) using, e.g. curl. I bought 1000 texts for $10.

4

Thanks for the suggestion. That's one of those apps that I bought based on my love for Fantastical, but I don't use very often. This is promising, as it looks like Cardhop has some basic AppleScript Integration. But I'm still stuck.

I created a group called "Coworkers", and tried typing:
Message /Coworkers Good Morning!
The good news is that it did open up the Messages app specifically at the thread of my coworkers group text. The bad news is that it did not paste "Good Morning!" into the message. I have the same issue when I message one person. It opens up messages to the right thread, but does not paste the text.

BTW, I tried emailing a friend Good Morning via Cardhop and that did work, so I wonder if messaging is different?

5

If you want to send an SMS rather than an imessage or mms then you're probably not worried about it being in different threads. In that case, can you just chuck your existing actions into a for loop for each phone number?

6

That would also be my recommendation @NaOH :+1:

It does not always have to be an AppleScript @richtack :wink:

So you could do this with a group SMS in Cardhoop. It can be extended with text templates for iMessage if required:

2020_04_24_Support_1

09)iMessage <5437 200424T000341>.kmmacros (31,0 KB)

Macro Image

09)iMessage <5437 200424T000341>
09)iMessage <5437 200424T000341>964×3832 511 KB

7

Vincent - no, in this case there's a group thread that I want my messages to be included in, for my sanity and not to spawn separate discussions. But thank you!\

8

This is great! I built something similar. I did use the AppleScript:

tell application "Cardhop"
   parse sentence "Message /theGang" with add immediately
end tell

I did it to automate the Cardhop process, and take out a couple of potential break points. But, unlike your macro, this is meant to be hard coded to one group. It does not give me the option, which I am okay with, because it's less input.

All that said, I still wish I could find a way to automate the whole process. Like you, I've got it to the point where it's opening the proper Messages thread, and waiting for me to hit the return key before more macro-goodness is enacted. I just wish it were all in one. I'm not even sure why I want it all in one. Maybe so there's less chances of it going sideways in execution. Maybe it's my digital neurosis!