--- title: "Message Categories and Tags" slug: "message-categories" description: "Message categories and tags label email and SMS messages in Mapp Engage. Learn when to use which, and how to assign, manage, and search them." status: "update" updated: 2026-11-06T16:00:16Z published: 2026-11-06T16:00:16Z canonical: "docs.mapp.com/message-categories" --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.mapp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Message Categories and Tags ## Overview Message categories and tags are two ways to label email and SMS messages. Categories are a fixed list that you manage centrally. Tags are free keywords that you enter while you edit a message. Use categories to evaluate, segment, and automate messages across groups. Use tags to find, filter, and compare messages in Mapp Engage. --- ## Categories or Tags? | | Message categories | Tags | | --- | --- | --- | | **Per message** | One category | Up to 100 tags | | **Creation** | Created in advance under *Administration > Categories > Message* | Entered while you edit the message | | **Available in** | Statistics, Segmentation Builder, Whiteboards, exports, placeholders | Message search, message statistics, REST API | | **Typical use** | Evaluate, segment, and automate messages across groups | Find, filter, and compare messages | --- ## Message Categories A message category is a label that you assign to an email or SMS message, for example *Newsletter*, *Promotion*, or *Order Confirmation*. Each message can have one category. Message categories are not tied to a group. This makes them useful when you want to evaluate or automate messages across several groups, for example all newsletters, no matter which group they were sent to. ### What You Can Use Message Categories For - **Statistics and reports:** Message statistics and campaign dashboards show the category of each message, and you can filter by it. Message reports and statistics exports include the category. - **Segmentation:** In the Segmentation Builder, you can limit the criterion **Email Activity** to messages of a category, for example contacts who opened a newsletter in the last 30 days. See [Email Activity Criteria](/v1/docs/email-activity). - **Automation:** Whiteboard events and filters can be limited to messages of a category. This lets one Whiteboard react to messages from several groups. See, for example, [Reacts to Email Message](/v1/docs/reacts-to-email-message). - **Exports:** Raw data exports and simplified data exports contain the category ID and name. You can limit a simplified data export to selected categories. See [Raw Data Exports](/v1/docs/raw-data-exports). - **Personalization:** A placeholder inserts the category name into the message. See [Placeholders for Message, Group, and System Data](/v1/docs/placeholders-for-message-group-and-system-data). ### Assigning a Category You assign the category when you create the message: - **Email:** In the **Content** step, or in the **Configuration** step under **Advanced Options**. A CMS email template can predefine the category. - **SMS:** In the **Configuration** step. After a message has been sent, you cannot change its category. For the steps, see [Create and Assign Message Categories](/v1/docs/assign-or-remove-message-category#assign-or-remove-a-category). A group can require a category for every sendout. You set this under **Mandatory Fields for Sendout** in the sendout options of the group. The requirement applies to group sendouts and split sendouts, but not to group sendouts started by an automation. See [Group Creation: Sendout Options](/v1/docs/sendout-options-tab). ### Managing Categories You create, edit, and archive message categories under *Administration > Categories > Message*. See [Create and Assign Message Categories](/v1/docs/assign-or-remove-message-category#create-a-message-category) and [Message Category: Overview](/v1/docs/message-category-overview-window). --- ## Tags A tag is a keyword that you add to an email or SMS message, for example *SummerSale* or *Shoes*. You do not create tags in advance: you reuse existing tags or enter new ones while you edit the message. ### What You Can Use Tags For - **Finding messages:** Use tags as search criteria wherever Mapp Engage offers a message search, for example in the [Draft Messages overview](/v1/docs/draft-messages-overview-window). - **Comparing statistics:** Filter the [Group Message Statistics](/v1/docs/group-message-statistics-window) and the [Single Message Statistics](/v1/docs/single-message-statistics-overview-window) by tag. For example, tag all messages of a summer promotion with *SummerSale* and compare their performance. - **Organizing work:** Mark messages by campaign, product line, department, or owner, so that your team finds them quickly. - **Integration:** Attach, detach, and search tags through the REST API, for example to use the same keywords as an external system. The API also supports tags on groups. See [Attach tags](https://docs.mapp.com/apidocs/en/attach-tags) and [Find entities by tags](https://docs.mapp.com/apidocs/en/find-entities-by-tags). ### Adding Tags to a Message You add tags in the **Tags** field of the message information while you create or edit an email or SMS message, for example in the **Content** step. Each space starts a new tag, so use single words, for example *SummerSale*. Commas are not allowed: the field shows an error and the tags are not saved. You can also add tags to drafts and prepared messages. Whiteboards have their own tags. See [Manage Tags in Whiteboards](/v1/docs/manage-labels-in-whiteboards).