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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2026-09-18
Set Up Workday Messaging

Set Up Workday Messaging

You might need to take additional steps to enable this feature based on your organization's subscription service agreement. Your organization is either on the Main Service Agreement (MSA) or the Universal Main Service Agreement (UMSA). To determine your organization's subscription service agreement:
  1. Select your profile avatar on Workday Community.
  2. Select
    Profile
    .
  3. On your profile page, select your organization's name, which is beneath your name and next to your job title.
  4. View your
    Subscription Service Agreement
     value.
If the value is:
  • UMSA
    , the feature is automatically available. You can skip the
    Enable Innovation Services Feature and AI Data Contributions for MSA Customers
     step. For more information on Machine Learning data contributions, see Concept: Workday AI for Universal Main Subscription Agreement Customers.
  • MSA
    , you must enable this feature through Innovation Services using the
    Enable Innovation Services Feature and AI Data Contributions for MSA Customers
    step.
Note: UMSA customers don't have Innovation Services tasks and reports in their tenants as these are for MSA customers only. UMSA customers can ignore all information regarding Innovation Services.
  • Create a privacy policy for your company that complies with A2P 10DLC campaign approval requirements to ensure approval of your messaging campaign registration. See Workday Messaging U.S. A2P Registration for privacy policy guidelines.
  • Review setup considerations for Workday Messaging.
You can use Workday Messaging to communicate with internal and external users through SMS and WhatsApp messages. Workday Messaging currently supports:
  • One-way SMS notifications for specific notification types and all custom business process notifications.
  • Two-way conversational messaging for:
    • Candidate Conversational Messaging for SMS.
    • Candidate Conversational Messaging for WhatsApp.
Workday Messaging is available for mobile phone numbers in select countries. You can have one active SMS or WhatsApp phone number for each country that the specific channel supports. You can have an active SMS phone number for each country that Workday Messaging supports. The length of time it takes to complete a configuration for one-way SMS notifications and two-way conversational messaging for SMS and WhatsApp varies based on each country’s requirements. See Workday Messaging Country Configuration.
You must set up Workday Messaging for SMS in your Production tenant before configuring it in a non-Production tenant. This requirement doesn’t apply to WhatsApp.
  1. You might need to take additional steps to enable this feature depending on your organization's subscription service agreement. For more information, see this Community article.
    On the
    Innovation Services Opt-In
     task, select the
    Workday Messaging
     service on the
    Available Services
     tab in the
    Cross Application Services
     category.
  2. Configure security policies for these domains in the System functional area:
    • Set Up: Tenant Setup - BP and Notifications
       (Required for or both SMS and WhatsApp.)
    • Manage SMS
       (Required for SMS.)
    • Manage: WhatsApp
       (Required for WhatsApp.)
  4. Set up SMS one-way messaging in your Production tenant for 1 or more countries and acquire Production and non-Production phone numbers for sending SMS messages.
  5. Set up SMS conversational messaging in your Production tenant for 1 or more countries and acquire Production and non-Production phone numbers for Candidate Conversational Messaging for SMS.
  6. Set up:
    • SMS opt-in options.
    • SMS help support information.
  8. Configure a routing rule that specifies SMS or WhatsApp as the channel for the notification type for which you want to make SMS or WhatsApp messages available.
  9. Access the
    Edit Tenant Setup - Notifications
     task.
    Security: Set Up: Tenant Setup - BP and Notifications in the System functional area.
    • In the
      WD Messaging Compliance
       section:
      • Use the
        Default SMS Configuration
         field to delete the copied Production SMS configuration that displays in a non-Production tenant after a tenant refresh.
      • Enter your customer name in the Customer Name field to let recipients know who a message is from.
      • Enter the terms and conditions for SMS and WhatsApp message recipients.
    • In the
      Notification Delivery Settings
       section, set up SMS notifications for any of these individual notification types.
      The only notification type available for WhatsApp notifications is Candidate Conversational Communications.
      • Benefits:
        • Benefits Notifications
        • Open Enrollment for Benefits
      • Business Processes:
        • Custom Business Process Notifications
      • Expenses:
        • Expenses SMS Messages
      • HCM:
        • Ad Hoc Worker Communications
      • Recruiting:
        • Active Candidate
        • Candidate Reminders
        • Candidate Conversational Communications
        • Recruiting Marketing
      • Student:
        • Academic Advising
        • Admissions
        • Financial Aid - General
        • Student Financials
        • Student Records
        • Student Recruiting - Marketing
        • Student Recruiting - Transactional
  10. Enable one-way and conversational SMS messaging configurations in your non-Production tenant for testing.
Access the:
  • All Outbound SMS Notifications
     report to view all SMS notifications sent from a tenant during a specific date range.
  • SMS Terms and Conditions History
     report to view when the terms and conditions changed and who changed them.