Using Marketing Cloud Publication List for SMS

Question

Is it really possible to use publication list for SMS?

AFAIK, there is this documentation saying "If the list is used for SMS, name your publication list with no spaces. Add information to the description that identifies this publication list is used for SMS." https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.mc_es_create_publication_list.htm&type=5

But when I'm configuring a SMS send either via MobileConnect or Journey Builder, I don't see an option to select a publication list like I do for email messages.

So that's why I'm asking if it's really possible to use publication list for SMS.

I've never seen somebody doing that, and I can't find any example of this on the web.

My guess is that is an old feature that's currently retired, and they forgot to remove from documentations.

Answer 1

I ran into the same use case today, and despite testing in my client's account, could not find any method of applying a Publication List to an SMS send. Web searching brought me back to your question, which was left unanswered. So, I created a support case referencing the same Knowledge article you referenced (and the same that lead me down this rabbit hole on behalf of a client) to confirm if perhaps there was some method of applying a Publication List to an SMS send.

The reply from Support was as follows:

These docs appear to have been overlooked when SMS interactions were deprecated in Email Studio and replaced by MobileConnect. I've brought this up to our mobile knowledge folks so hopefully that will be addressed soon.

So, Mario, you are correct in your hypothesis that this was a legacy feature, and the documentation is out of date.