Mobile Commons Zapier integrationAutomate Mobile Commons with Zapier.
The Mobile Commons Zapier integration gives you 0 triggers, 2 actions and 1 search. A Zap therefore starts in another app and hands the work to Mobile Commons. It runs on the free plan; here is what each step does, costs and breaks.
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What the Mobile Commons Zapier integration actually does
Zapier links Mobile Commons, the text messaging software non-profits use for mobile outreach and fundraising, to the tools where supporters first show up. A Zap (the automation you build on Zapier) starts on an event in one app and writes the result in another, so nobody copies phone numbers by hand.
Three results stand out with this app. First, sign-ups that become text subscribers: a form submission feeds Create or Update Profile, which records the person and can also enter them into an opt-in path. Second, a text that goes out on cue: Send SMS writes to a phone number within a campaign, for example once someone registers somewhere else. Third, a check before you write: Find Profile looks up a supporter by phone number, so later steps know whether the profile exists.
Now what Zapier does not do for Mobile Commons. It offers no trigger at all: nothing that happens in Mobile Commons can start a Zap. Every Zap starts in another app. There is no delete action either, and the only search works from a phone number. Keep in mind that each of the three steps asks for that phone number, so the app that starts the Zap has to carry one.
If you need Mobile Commons events to start your automations, see our Make vs Zapier and n8n vs Zapier comparisons before you settle on a tool.
Zapier vocabulary in one minute
Eight words come back all through this page. Here they are in plain English.
- Zap
- The automation you build on Zapier: one trigger, then one or more actions that run each time the trigger event happens.
- Trigger
- The event in an app that starts the Zap. With Mobile Commons, it always comes from another app, since it has none.
- Action
- What the Zap does after it starts: the step that writes, sends or updates something for you in an app.
- Task
- The unit Zapier bills. One task is one action your Zap completes successfully, and your plan is a count of those.
- Polling vs instant
- A polling trigger is checked by Zapier on a timer; an instant one is reported by the app the moment the event happens.
- Search step
- A step that looks up something that already exists in an app, so the steps after it can use what it found.
- Filter
- A step that lets the Zap go on only when the incoming data meets your condition, and stops it otherwise.
- Multi-step Zap
- Any Zap beyond one trigger and one action. A search, a filter or a second action makes one, and it needs a paid plan.
What Mobile Commons on Zapier really costs
Mobile Commons is not a premium app (an app Zapier keeps for paid plans and free trials), so it works on the free plan. You pay in tasks, and only actions produce them.
- Free plan100 tasks a month
- Zaps on the free planUnlimited, two steps each
- Search stepMakes the Zap multi-step
- Failed actionNot counted
The trigger, which comes from another app here, never costs a task. Each action that succeeds costs one; one that fails is not counted. The free plan gives you 100 tasks a month and unlimited Zaps, each limited to two steps. That matters with Mobile Commons: adding Find Profile before an action makes the Zap multi-step, and it then needs a paid plan. The grid below applies to the trigger of the other app when Zapier checks it on a timer.
Connect Mobile Commons to Zapier in three steps
- 01
Open the Apps page
In your Zapier account, open Apps and click + Add connection. A connection is your Mobile Commons account linked to Zapier once, then reused by every Mobile Commons step.
- 02
Pick Mobile Commons
Search Mobile Commons in the dialog, select it, then click Add connection. You need a Mobile Commons account, plus read or write access on anything you do not own yourself and want the Zap to touch.
- 03
Sign in and grant access
A tab opens on Mobile Commons. Sign in with the account your Zaps should act for, then grant Zapier access to it. The account can then be picked in any Mobile Commons step.
Your first Zap: turn form sign-ups into text subscribers
GoalEach person who signs up through your web form gets a Mobile Commons profile, so your next text campaign reaches them.
- 01
Create the Zap
From your Zapier dashboard, start a new Zap. Mobile Commons has no trigger, so pick your form tool as the app that starts it, with its new-submission event and its connection.
- 02
Test the trigger
Run the trigger test. Zapier brings back the three most recent submissions of the connected account, so you map the next step on a real sign-up and not on a blank example.
- 03
Add Create or Update Profile
Add the Mobile Commons action Create or Update Profile. Map the required Phone Number to the phone field of the form, then the other values the step offers.
- 04
Test the action
Run the action test once and open Mobile Commons to read what came back. Check the phone number first: it is the one value every Mobile Commons step depends on.
- 05
Publish
Click Publish to switch the Zap on. It has two steps, so it fits the free plan; how soon each sign-up arrives depends on the type of the form tool's trigger.
Mobile Commons actions
Mobile Commons gives you 2 actions. For each one: what it does for you, when to reach for it, and what to watch out for.
Create or Update Profile
ActionIn Zapier“Creates or updates a recipient's profile and optionally enters them into an opt-in path”
Records a supporter in Mobile Commons, or refreshes the profile that already exists, from a phone number your trigger carries. It can also enter the person into an opt-in path.
Send SMS
ActionIn Zapier“Sends an SMS message”
Sends a text message to one phone number, inside a campaign you choose. Campaign, Message Body and Phone Number are all required.
Mobile Commons search
1 search step looks for data that already exists in Mobile Commons, so a later step can use it.
A search step finds something that already exists and hands it to the next steps. Mobile Commons searches sit at the bottom of the action list in the editor, under SEARCH. Three settings decide what happens when the result is not clean.
Find Profile
SearchIn Zapier“Finds a profile based on phone number.”
Looks up a Mobile Commons profile from a phone number, the one required field, and passes what it found to the steps after it.
The three settings every search exposes
- Successful if no search results are found?Left on its default, a search that finds nothing stops the Zap there, and the steps that depend on it are skipped. Switched on, the Zap carries on empty-handed.
- Create X if it doesn't exist yet?Ticking it turns a search into a find-or-create. Mobile Commons offers no such variant on Zapier; to add a missing profile, use Create or Update Profile.
- If multiple search results are found?Three ways out when several items match: keep the first one, which is the default, stop the Zap, or hand all of them on at once.
When a Mobile Commons Zap breaks
Zapier ties no help article to Mobile Commons, so the limits below are the general ones that apply to any Zap built on it.
These cases depend on what the Zap expects, not on Mobile Commons itself. Four are worth knowing before you publish. For anything else, see our Zapier troubleshooting guide.
Past sign-ups never come through
A Zap reacts only to what happens after you switch it on. People who signed up before are not picked up; moving that backlog is a separate job.A Zap that keeps restarting
A Zap that writes into the very place its own trigger watches can set itself off again and again, and burns through the task count fast. Check at test.A bulk import held back
When the trigger app suddenly returns a huge batch, after a bulk import or a migration, Zapier's flood protection can hold those items back.A search on the free plan
The free plan builds two-step Zaps only. Putting Find Profile before an action makes the Zap multi-step, and it then needs a paid plan.
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