how to choose contacts in preset messages.

Great. Thanks for the help. Appreciate your response

I am new user. I have listed mt contacts but when I choose to send pretext message, it only comes to me.  Do you have to choose the contact first and then pretext message.  Or any other ideas on how to send to my contacts. 

Can't tell which type of message you are talking about.

PRESET messages have a fixed recipient list. You set that up on the server, Messages tab, at explore.garmin.com. When you send a preset message, you do not select recipients on the device. You just select the message. It automatically goes to all the recipients in the list on the server.

QUICK TEXT messages do not have fixed recipients. You must choose the recipient(s) on the device before sending the message.

Either way, the message should be sent to ALL designated recipients. If you are in the recipient list and you are receiving the message, then the device is sending it. If others in the recipient list do not receive the message, there are several possibilities.

Be sure that the recipient "address" is correct. In particular, the country code (for example, +1 for North America) must be included in SMS phone numbers. I don't remember how the explore.garmin.com UI handles this for preset messages or for contacts. But it needs to be included.

If the target is an SMS phone number, it MAY be that the recipient's cell provider is suppressing the messages as potential spam. This is usually due to the inclusion (in the SMS) of a shortened URL pointing to the "map page". Some providers assume that anything with a shortened URL is spam. You can omit the URL by changing the setting in the lower right corner of the Account tab at explore.garmin.com. 

If the problem is NOT with SMS recipients, or if omitting the URL does not fix SMS recipients, then you should probably open a support ticket.

The recipients are part of the message creation process. Cannot be changed on the mini, you set the recipients on the Explore web site and sync to the mini.

This most definitely does not work. I created contacts online under Contacts, synced and then they are there on my inReach Mini. I then send a preset and it ONLY goes to my personal email associated with the account. This has been extremely frustrating to say the least as it has been almost a half of a day with this.

Contacts are not necessarily where you want to look. At explore.garmin.com, Messages tab. Look at the Preset (or, these days, Check-in) Messages sections. Click the Edit button for each message to change recipients.

IF you still have Presets, you can set a separate recipient list for each of the three. If you are afflicted with Check-in Messages (instead of Preset Messages), it LOOKS like each one can have a different list. That is not true. Changing any one of the lists changes it for all three.

As before, it is not actually NECESSARY to sync the mess to the device. The device does not need to know the current recipient lists. Yes, it's confusing if they are not sync-d - because what you see on the device is not accurate. But that DOES NOT interfere with proper delivery.

I’m having the same problem. I’ve added 4 phone numbers with country code to the 3 check in messages but on the mini it only sends to my email account. I have synced the mini as well using the app on iPhone. 

Be absolutely certain that the country code is correct. Be sure to enter the + sign in front of the number. This appears to be required. See here for instructions:

https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=qSHk66gQnl3uwTW6wZxqx6

There are a lot of moving parts involved in delivering an SMS, let alone one targeted at a foreign country. There are lots of ways this can go bad. Garmin might not have a contract with a gateway that serves that country code. The gateway might not be able to reach the recipient's cell provider. The provider might block the message as spam. There might just be a LONG delay in delivery due to the complexity of the path. And so on.

Apparently, your own email address is in the recipient list. You get the message. So the message is definitely making it to the Garmin servers. 

If there are no errors in the country codes or SMS numbers, open a support ticket.