In support, we often get a lot of good questions from our customers. In this article, I share the 5 questions we get asked most often. My hope is that you might find answers to some of the questions you have - and hopefully you'll learn more about how you can work with SMS in your organisation.
Question 1: How long can an SMS be?
An SMS message has always been limited to a maximum of 160 characters (including spaces), hence the name Short Message Service(SMS).
Fortunately, nowadays an SMS message of more than 160 characters is merged so that your messages are sent as one single message to the recipient. When you send messages through InMobile's SMS Gateway, the system can handle a message of up to 1377 characters. This corresponds to 9 intertwined SMS messages that are automatically combined before sending, so the recipient receives a single message.
If you like quick mental maths, you might be wondering. 9 SMS messages of 160 characters should result in 1440 characters, so what happens to the remaining 63 characters?
The answer is that the more characters you type, the more messages need to be merged when sending. Telcos use 7 characters to merge a message. This means that if you write more than 160 characters in an SMS, you have to sacrifice 7 characters for merging, leaving you with "only" 153 characters per SMS.
Fortunately, with the ability to send 9 times 153 characters via a merged SMS, you still have plenty of room to get your message across. Please note that you pay per SMS sent to - not per entire broadcast.
Read more about this in the article: How many characters can an SMS be? >>
Question 2: Can you send emojis in inMobile?
Most of us use emojis when messaging each other. For example, it could be a small character that is angry, happy or in between. Yes, there are now hundreds of emojis to choose from.
When you write a normal SMS, you generally have 160 characters to express yourself. This includes everything from spaces, periods and commas to exclamation marks, letters and smileys. An old-fashioned smiley like this :-), for example, takes up three characters.
Today, you can send everything from a cactus to a monkey covering its eyes and a myriad of other emojis - but is it smart?
The smartphone has given us a wealth of emojis that have a different structure than the good old parenthesis smiley. Emojis therefore take up far more space than you might think.
Where an old-fashioned parenthesis smiley takes up three characters, an emoji like this 😊 can now take up to 90 characters. The amount of characters for each emoji can vary from anywhere between 1 to 90 characters and depends on which one you choose to make and which mobile phone you are using.
If you use emojis in your text messages, the number of characters can add up quickly.
At the same time, your SMS broadcast goes from GSM7 to UCS2 encoding when you insert an emoji, as UCS2 encoding is required for emojis to be included in your SMS. When the message switches to UCS2 encoding, you only have 70 characters to work with per message and suddenly there aren't many characters to play with.
Therefore, before you start using emojis in your text messages, you should carefully consider whether it's profitable for you.
Read more in the article: Emojis in SMS: Go or No-go? >>
Q3: Can my text messages be replied to?
When you send an SMS message from inMobile, you can choose the sender. This means that you can decide who the sender is when the message lands on the recipient's mobile phone.
Can you choose between an alphanumeric or numeric sender? That's why you need to start by taking a stand.
Alphanumeric sender
An alphanumeric sender is a combination of letters. For example, you can select the sender "GolfShop". If you choose an alphanumeric sender, the recipient will not have the option to reply to the message. Therefore, you should include a number in the message that the recipient should write to if they want to get in touch with you.
Numeric sender
Another option is to choose a numeric sender. A numeric sender can be an 8-digit phone number or a 4-digit shortcode. If you go with an 8-digit number, you can choose a virtual phone number or e.g. the company phone number as the sender. When the recipient replies to the message, the reply will automatically end up on the phone containing the SIM card with the selected number. You can also choose to receive the return response in inMobile or via email.
If you choose a 4-digit shortcode instead, you must order a corresponding keyword. A keyword is the word you want the mobile user to send to your shortcode when they reply to your message. For example, it could be your BRAND NAME to 1245.
A keyword is therefore not suitable for longer correspondences, as the SMS message should always begin with your keyword.
There are pros and cons to both solutions.
With an alphanumeric sender, your brand is stronger and the message is more personalised. However, there is no option for the recipient to reply directly back to the message.
With a numeric sender, on the other hand, it's quick and easy to reply to the message. This makes communication and dialogue with customers easy, but the recipient only sees a phone number as the sender instead of, for example, a brand name.
This means that both an 8-digit virtual number and a 4-digit shortcode open up a response option and 2-way communication. However, if you use a name as your sender, there is no way to get a reply back from the recipient without including a phone number in the message that the recipient can write to.
Read more about keywords and virtual numbers >>
Q4: Does it cost anything to unsubscribe from SMS?
There is no extra cost to you or the recipient when they unsubscribe from your SMS list.
If you use an unsubscribe link in your SMS messages, the recipient simply needs to click on the link and confirm their unsubscribe. It doesn't get any easier than that.
If you use a shortcode and a keyword to unsubscribe instead, it only costs the regular SMS rate.
⚠️ ATTENTION.
If you are an Android user, please pay attention. Then you may have seen a message like the one below when sending SMS messages to a shortcode like 1245. This can be confusing for good reason.
This is because the warning appears regardless of whether the service costs money or not. When you send KEYWORD to 1245 it only costs the regular SMS rate. For most users, sending the SMS message will be free because they have free SMS in their subscription.
The Consumer Ombudsman has the following to say about unsubscribing from SMS messages for marketing purposes:
"It is illegal if a trader charges a fee to unsubscribe from advertising SMS messages, for example if unsubscribing can be done by sending an SMS to a premium rate phone number. On the other hand, it is legal if the person is charged the regular SMS rate by their telecoms company to unsubscribe from the adverts."
If the message is purely a service message, e.g. about changes to contracts/policies in ongoing customer relationships, such as insurance or subscriptions, this falls outside the spam rules.
For example, the Consumer Ombudsman has stated that it was legal for an electricity company to send SMS messages about planned power cuts to the affected customers. However, customers should have the option to opt out of the SMS messages in the future.
If you are unsure about the rules on spam, you can read the Consumer Ombudsman's guide to the spam ban.
Read more about the SMS unsubscribe options in inMobile here: link unsubscribe in SMS >> or unsubscribe via SMS >>
Q5: What is the difference between SMS marketing and service SMS?
Marketing SMS and service SMS. What is the difference?
As a general rule, marketing messages promote a product or service while service messages simply inform.
Now you might be wondering if it makes a big difference whether your SMS is one or the other? The big difference lies in the legislation that comes into play when using SMS marketing messages. In the following, we provide examples of service and marketing messages so you don't run afoul of marketing law.
Service messages
The primary purpose of a service SMS is to inform. This type of SMS message must therefore not contain marketing-related content.
On the other hand, service messages can contain an infinite number of other things - depending on your business or organisation. You can alert people in case of danger, breakdowns, malfunctions and planned maintenance. You can also inform about delays, cancellations or changes to the transport schedule.
Using SMS within your organisation, you can also send important messages to your colleagues and employees.
Examples of service SMS messages:
Marketing messages
Before you send an SMS with marketing-related content, your customers must first actively sign up for your SMS list. This is called an SMS permission or an SMS authorisation.
When they do, they allow you to send SMS messages with advertising content, and that means you need to make sure that:
- You (i.e. your company or organisation) are clearly stated as the sender of the message.
- The recipient can easily unsubscribe from the SMS list again either via SMS or link unsubscribe(you can read more about this in the previous section).
Examples of marketing SMS messages:
Learn more about the possibilities of SMS marketing >>
Learn more about the possibilities of SMS service messages >>
