---
title: "Prepared Messages"
slug: "messages-prepared-messages"
description: "Prepared messages in Mapp Engage: reusable email and SMS messages assigned to a group, for manual, automated, and API sendouts and system message templates."
status: "update"
updated: 2026-11-05T16:34:55Z
published: 2026-11-05T16:34:55Z
canonical: "docs.mapp.com/messages-prepared-messages"
---

> ## 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.

# Prepared Messages

## Overview

A prepared message is a saved email or SMS message that is assigned to a group. Mapp Engage gives every prepared message its own message ID (MID). You create a prepared message once and send it as often as you need, manually or automatically.

You can edit a prepared message at any time, even while a segment or a Whiteboard uses it. Future sendouts use the updated content automatically.

In Mapp Engage, you find prepared messages under *Messages > Prepared Messages*. To create one, see [Create a Prepared Message](/v1/docs/save-draft-as-prepared-message).

> [!NOTE]
> Note
> 
> Before you change or archive a prepared message, check where it is used. See [Prepared Messages: Current Use](/v1/docs/current-use-window).

---

## What You Can Use Prepared Messages For

- **Manual sendouts:** Send a prepared message to its group with **Copy & Send** in the [Prepared Messages overview](/v1/docs/prepared-messages-overview-window).
- **Automated sendouts:** Use prepared messages in time-based or event-based Whiteboards and automations, for example for a welcome or birthday program. See [Whiteboards](/v1/docs/whiteboards-1).
- **Transactional messages:** Use a prepared message as the template that an external system sends through the API. See [Transactional Messages](/v1/docs/transactional-messages).
- **Segments:** Build segments based on how contacts reacted to a prepared message, for example opens, clicks, and conversions. The segment covers all sendouts of that prepared message, past and future, single and group.
- **System messages:** Use a prepared message as a template for system messages. See [System Messages](/v1/docs/system-messages).

### Example

A marketing manager creates a prepared message named `BirthdayEmail` and uses it in an automated birthday campaign in a Whiteboard. He also builds a segment of contacts who click the birthday email.

Later, a content editor changes the coupon in `BirthdayEmail`. The Whiteboard keeps running, and the next birthday emails use the new coupon.

---

## Single and Group Sendouts

You can send a prepared message as a single message or as a group message. Which one you get depends on how the sendout starts. For an overview, see [Group Messages and Single Messages in Mapp Engage](/v1/docs/group-messages-and-single-messages-in-mapp-engage).

Mapp Engage handles the MID of a prepared message as follows:

- **Single sendouts:** All sendouts share the MID of the prepared message.
- **Group sendouts:** Each sendout gets a new MID. Mapp Engage also stores the MID of the prepared message for reference.

## Related

- [Create a Prepared Message](/save-draft-as-prepared-message.md)
- [Create Templates for System Messages](/create-templates-for-system-messages.md)