Merge fields · iMessage · SMS · Email
Mail merge, except the letters are text messages
One template, one table of people, one finished message each. The idea is fifty years old and works perfectly well; it has simply never been available for the channel most people actually use.
What it looks like
You write the tag. Each person reads their own name.
What you type, once
Hey ::firstname:: — we’re doing something small for my mum’s 70th on the 14th. Would love to have you there. No gifts, just people.
What three people receive
Hey Maya — we’re doing something small for my mum’s 70th on the 14th…
Hey Dele — we’re doing something small for my mum’s 70th on the 14th…
Hey Auntie Grace — we’re doing something small for my mum’s 70th on the 14th…
Three separate conversations, three separate messages, from your own number. Not one thread with three people in it.
Where the fields come from
Your address book, or any spreadsheet you already keep.
Sync the macOS Address Book and the standard fields come with it — first name, last name, company, and the groups you have already organised people into. That covers most sends without any setup at all.
For anything beyond that, use a CSV. Every column in the file becomes a merge field named after its header, so a spreadsheet with firstname, church and last_met gives you three tags to write with. There is no schema to define and no mapping screen to sit through.
The rule worth remembering is that a merge field should carry something you would have said anyway. A name earns its place. A city usually does. An inserted detail that exists to prove you remembered a detail reads exactly like what it is, and people are very good at spotting it.
Questions
What people ask about merging into texts.
›Is there such a thing as mail merge for text messages?
Yes, though nothing built into macOS does it. Mail merge is just the idea of one template plus a table of people, producing one finished message each. Human RM applies that to iMessage and SMS: your merge fields are contact details or spreadsheet columns, and the output is a separate text to each person rather than a printed letter.
›What can I merge besides a first name?
Anything you have. Contact fields come through from your Address Book, and every column of a CSV becomes a merge field of its own — a company, a city, a child’s name, the date you last met, whatever you keep. If it is in the spreadsheet you can put it in the sentence.
›What happens if a field is empty for someone?
You set what stands in for it, so a missing first name reads as whatever you chose rather than leaving a hole or printing the tag. The preview shows you every finished message before sending, which is where an empty field is easiest to catch.
›Can I merge into email as well as texts?
Yes. The same message and the same fields work across iMessage, SMS and email, so a list where some people have numbers and some only have addresses can be handled in one pass.
›Is this different from a mail merge in Word or Pages?
The idea is identical; the output is not. A word processor merges into documents you then have to deliver somehow. Human RM merges into conversations and delivers them itself, one at a time, from your own number.
One template. Two hundred messages that each read like the only one.
14 days free, the whole thing. Then $12 a month.