> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.leaf360.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # AI SMS Builder > Describe a text message and LIA writes three variations with character and segment counts, then hands the one you pick to the SMS template editor. The AI SMS Builder writes text message templates. You describe the message, LIA gives you three different takes on it, and you pick the one you like. Open it from [SMS Templates](/mortgage-crm/sms-templates). Both the arrow and the **Templates** link at the top left take you back there. The left column is the brief. The right column shows the message in a phone preview with the three variations listed beside it. This screen builds drafts — it doesn't save one. A variation only becomes a template once you click **Use This** or **Edit Selected** and save it in the SMS template editor. ## Describing the message **Describe your SMS** is the one required field. The Generate button stays disabled until it has something in it. **Quick Start** offers twelve ready-made briefs that fill the box for you: welcome a new lead, rate drop alert, application follow-up, document request, closing reminder, pre-approval congratulations, realtor introduction, realtor deal update, referral thank you, payment reminder, birthday greeting, and market update. Picking one replaces whatever was in the box, so choose first and edit after. ## Tone and category **Tone** is **Friendly**, **Professional**, **Urgent**, or **Casual**. Friendly is the default here — the opposite of the email builder's default — since it suits a short text better. **Category** files the template for later and nudges the writing: **Lead Nurture**, **Transaction**, **Realtor**, **Marketing**, **Follow-Up** or **Reminder**. ## Variables **Available Variables** opens the same merge field list the email builder uses, with a **Search variables...** box at the top. Here each one shows as a plain name — **First Name**, **Lead Email**, and so on — and hovering over one shows the actual code it will insert. Click it to add that code to your description. As with email, you don't have to name any variables. LIA is instructed never to type your company name out directly, so `{{company.name}}` appears in generated messages, and she signs off with the loan officer's first name and the company. She also picks the right set of fields for who the text is going to, so saying whether it's to a borrower on a loan, a lead, or a buyer agent matters more than naming individual variables. ## The three variations **Generate SMS Templates** starts the run. The status line reads **AI is crafting your SMS templates...**, then the variations column fills in one at a time — headed **Generating variations...** while it works, and **Select a variation** once it's done. A banner confirms the count, for example **3 variations ready! Select one to use.** Each variation card carries: * Its name and a short internal description. * The message body. * A **chars** count and a **seg** count. * A copy button that puts the body on your clipboard. Click a card to select it — that updates the phone preview and reveals **Use This** on that card. ### Reading the segment count A text message is billed and delivered in segments. One segment is 160 characters. Past that, a message gets split and each part carries 153 characters, so a 200-character message counts as two full segments, not one and a bit. The count is color-coded: one segment, up to three segments, and more than three. There's no key on screen, so go by the number rather than the color. Keeping a message to one segment is the cheapest and most reliable option. The count assumes plain text. Emoji and other special characters make a message cost more to send than the number suggests, so a message loaded with emoji may split into more segments than the counter shows. ## Finishing the template **Use This** on the selected card, or **Edit Selected** at the top of the left column, sends that variation to the SMS template editor, where you name it, adjust the wording, and save it. Both do the same thing. **Regenerate** throws away all three variations so you can run again. Copy anything worth keeping first — nothing from the previous run survives. **Cancel** stops a run in progress. ## What is not here This screen doesn't send anything. The phone on the right is just a preview of what the message will look like, not a live conversation, and nothing here puts a message in front of a real recipient. Sending happens from a workflow or the contact's own conversation. Nothing adds opt-out wording for you. LIA isn't instructed to include STOP language or a consent line, and the builder doesn't check anything against your Do Not Call list, since it isn't sending anything. If your company requires opt-out wording in a text, write it into the description or add it in the editor. See Compliance overview, Consent Manager and DNC Manager. ## Common problems They were never saved. A variation only becomes a template once you click **Use This** or **Edit Selected** and save it in the editor. Ask for it shorter. Say "under 160 characters" in the description, or drop the sign-off and the call to action from one of the two. Say who it's for. A text to a borrower on a live loan, a text to a prospect, and a text to a buyer agent each pull from a different set of fields, and LIA chooses based on how you describe it. Regenerate. LIA is told to use the company variable instead of typing out a literal name, so a literal name in the output is a mistake rather than how it's supposed to work. Fix it in the editor if regenerating doesn't help. **Describe your SMS** is empty. ## Related * [AI Email Builder](/mortgage-crm/ai-email-builder) * [SMS Templates](/mortgage-crm/sms-templates) * [LIA Assistant](/mortgage-crm/lia-assistant)