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Channel

SMS

The channel every mobile phone can receive, with no app and no sign-up.

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SMS is the plain text message built into every mobile phone network. Businesses use it for one-time codes, reminders, delivery updates and urgent alerts, because it reaches almost anyone with a phone number without asking them to install anything. People read it in the same place as messages from friends, so it feels personal and easy to trust, and it is just as easy to resent when it is misused.

Start with the 101SMS 101: the whole pictureHistory, how it works, where it is used, what it costs, the rules, its limits, and when to choose it, with every claim sourced.Read the 101

Need help implementing this? Ask members who have done it.

What matters when choosing

  • Direct or well-documented routes to the mobile networks in the countries you send to, with delivery measured per country.
  • Help registering sender names, numbers and templates wherever local rules require it.
  • Delivery receipts returned to your systems, with clear error codes when a message fails.
  • Correct handling of non-Latin scripts such as Arabic, Hindi or Chinese, and a clear count of message segments.
  • Protection against fraud such as artificially inflated traffic, especially on sign-up and login forms.

Questions to ask providers

  1. In our main countries, do you connect to the mobile networks directly or through other providers, and how would we know?
  2. Which sender registrations do we need in each of our countries, how long do they take, and who files them?
  3. How do you charge for long messages, messages in non-Latin scripts and messages that fail?

Common mistakes

  • Comparing price per message without checking how many segments your real messages use; a single character outside the basic alphabet, such as an emoji, changes the encoding and the count.
  • Launching before sender registration is approved, so messages are filtered or blocked on arrival.
  • Sending marketing from the same sender as codes and alerts, so complaints about one put the other at risk.

What it is good at

  • Reaching almost any mobile phone, with no app required.
  • Short, time-sensitive messages such as codes and reminders.
  • A dependable fallback when richer channels are not available.

What to watch for

  • Sender registration rules that differ from country to country.
  • Fraud that triggers paid messages to numbers fraudsters profit from.
  • Plain text only: no buttons, no images and no proof the message was read.

How it is priced

Charged per message segment, at a rate set by the destination country and sometimes the network; long messages and messages in non-Latin scripts use more segments. Some countries add registration or monthly sender fees.

Sources 3GPP ↗

Typical channels: SMS WhatsApp RCS Voice Email

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