SMS
An SMS orchestration requires filling in a single field: the SMS message. Messages cannot be sent if this field is empty.
Sender ID
At the top of the SMS composer, one of your alphanumeric Sender IDs is displayed. This is typically the same across all countries.
However, in certain countries (e.g., Belgium and Italy), alphanumeric Sender IDs are not allowed. For these countries, SMS messages are sent from a Shortcode.
Countries
During the initial setup of the SMS channel with Batch, you must specify the list of countries where SMS should be sent:
- SMS sent to phone numbers in unsupported countries will fail and appear as bounces in the analytics.
- To add more eligible countries, contact us.
Marketing SMS & STOP Keywords
For marketing SMS campaigns, Batch automatically appends the appropriate STOP keyword and number based on the recipient’s country. For example, in France, the appended text is “STOP 36184” , which takes 11 characters in your SMS.
When a recipient replies with the STOP keyword Batch immediately updates all profiles associated with that phone number, setting their SMS marketing opt-in status to “unsubscribed.”
SMS Parts & Encoding
An SMS may consist of one or multiple parts depending on:
- Message Length: The number of characters in the message.
- Character Encoding: Either GSM-7 (default) or Unicode (UNI) if special characters are used.
Character Limit by Encoding:
- GSM-7:
- 1 part = up to 160 characters
- Multi-part SMS = up to 153 characters per part
- Unicode (UNI):
- 1 part = up to 70 characters
- Multi-part SMS = up to 67 characters per part
For multi-part messages, additional invisible data headers are added to enable concatenation, reducing the character limit per part.
Note: Batch does not allow sending SMS longer than 4 parts (approx. 612 GSM-7 or 268 Unicode characters) to ensure reliable delivery. For more details on character encoding and its impact, refer to this guide.
Batch helps you estimate the number of parts for a given message, However. when personalization is used, this estimate may not be accurate, as the length of attributes can vary between profiles.
Pricing
SMS pricing depends on:
- Recipient’s Country: The cost is based on the phone number’s home country, even if the recipient is roaming abroad.
- Number of Parts: Each part is charged as a separate SMS. For example, a 2-part message costs twice as much as a 1-part message.
You can view the number of SMS parts in:
- Orchestration Analytics: For each orchestration.
- Billing Section: Provides a detailed cost breakdown.
Delivery Speed
Delivery speed for SMS can be customized during the onboarding process to meet your specific needs, ensuring messages are sent at the optimal pace, whether for time-sensitive campaigns or large-scale orchestrations.