SMS - ClickSend Help Docs

SMS

Country Specific Features and Restrictions

We provide these guidelines to help our customers comply with applicable regulations and requirements in different countries. The guidelines represent our current understanding of regulations and requirements which generally apply to ClickSend and our customers. These guidelines do not constitute legal advice. Customers should seek independent legal advice where necessary. Whilst reasonable care has been taken in providing these guidelines, the information is provided without any warranty of any kind, either express or implied. ClickSend makes no representations as to the accuracy, currency or completeness of the information. As the regulations and requirements change and evolve, we may update these guidelines without notice and you should therefore check these pages regularly. ClickSend accepts no liability or obligation to inform the reader of changes. As stated in our Terms of Service, customers must comply with all applicable regulations and requirements when using ClickSend services. Reading and complying with these guidelines does not ensure legal compliance, or limit your obligation to comply with all regulations and requirements in any jurisdiction applicable to you.

126 articles by 9 authors

Sending out short urls

We support URL shortening for both SMS and SMS Campaign, making it easier to craft a more digestible message for your recipients and also allowing you to save characters in your messages at no additi…

Smart Assign

What is Smart Assign? Smart Assign is an intelligent system that ensures your SMS messages are sent from the most compliant sender. Phone carriers only deliver messages if they come from a compliant…

How to Schedule a Quick SMS or SMS Campaign

Please be aware that there is a 4 Month limit for scheduling SMS in ClickSend, if you schedule for anytime longer the system will not send, this is something we are working on. When scheduling your S…

How do I receive SMS Delivery Receipts (Delivery status updates)

When sending a SMS, our API will respond with status=SUCCESS. This isn't the final state (it means that the message has been sent to the networks for delivery). A few seconds later (up to 3 days late…

Group text messaging

The Group SMS feature allows you to set up a “group chat” in which responses are sent to the whole group within a contact list. This can be a useful feature for team collaboration, emergency notifica…

How do I start sending SMS from my email?

To start sending SMS from your email account, follow these steps. Setup:. Firstly you will need to add you email as an allowed email address. 1. Go to SMS and then ' Email SMS ' 2. Click on 'ADD' All…

How do Inbound Rules work? – Incoming/Reply SMS options

How do Inbound Rules work? Inbound rules offer you a set of preset automations that will trigger when receiving replies to your messages. In other words, “when someone replies to my campaign, do ‘x’.…

How to remove failed contacts

There are a heap of reasons why an SMS doesn't reach its destination. All of these are out of our control. When an SMS is sent using our platform, we forward it onto the mobile networks nearly instan…

How many inbound SMS/MMS/Fax rules can I have?

You can have an unlimited number of inbound rules , however only 10 matching rules will trigger. If you want to create a large number of inbound rules, make sure you make the rules as specific as you…

Outlook Plugin Troubleshooting

Install Visual Studio 2010 Tools. Follow the installation steps here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=48217. Restart your computer after the installation. Reinstall the Plugi…

How to send SMS via our Outlook plugin

About Microsoft Outlook. Microsoft Outlook is a personal information manager from Microsoft, available as a part of the Microsoft Office suite. Though primarily an email client, Outlook also includes…

UK shared shortcode keyword

If you want to receive inbound messages with a certain keyword, there are a few options. For example: "text 'CAR' to 81273". Dedicated Shortcode. If you purchase a dedicated UK shortcode, you can set…

What is Sender ID?

What is a Sender ID? A Sender ID is a unique name or regular phone number that appears as a Sender of your text messages. Instead of getting messages from a random number, you can use an 11 character…

How to validate an "own number/mobile"

Depending on the destination country, you have the choice to verify your own number/mobile as the sender ID. This allows your number to appear on the recipient's handset when the message is received.…

Why can't I send to the US?

With recent changes in the US, all messages sent to US numbers will require to be sent on a registered TFN before being able to send. What does this mean? When you sign up, your number will be unregi…

How to send an SMS Campaign

Follow these steps to start sending out SMS campaigns. Make sure you have recharged your account with enough credit here: https://dashboard.clicksend.com/#/account/billing-recharge/top-up-account Upl…

Generic SMS gateway setup

These settings can be used to integrate ClickSend into software which supports a generic SMS gateway. Type 1 - URL containing all the fields. https://api-mapper.clicksend.com/http/v2/send.php?method=…

How do replies work with shared numbers?

If you're using our free shared numbers to send out SMS, replies will automatically come back to your account. We do this by looking at what account sent the last outgoing SMS to that number, from th…

Can I set a custom/alpha tag (from number) for email to SMS?

Yes, you can use any number or alpha tags when sending an SMS using Email to SMS product. Simply edit/add the allowed Email to SMS address and set an alpha tag under SMS will be sent from field. With…

What Sender IDs can I use with Outlook SMS Plugin?

You can use 4 sender IDs to send SMS from our Outlook SMS Plugin. Alpha Tag - register your 11 character Alpha Tag as a Sender ID. Alpha tags allow you to use letters and numbers. For example: BikeSh…

How do I purchase a dedicated number?

You can purchase a dedicated number using your account dashboard: Log into the dashboard. Open ' Sender IDs ' page. Look for Dedicated Number table and click on Purchase button to view available numb…

Cancel your account or a number (SMS, Voice, Fax)

To cancel your account, or a dedicated number, you'll need to submit a cancellation request to our Support Team. You can reach out to our 24/7 live chat support team to cancel your account or any of…

How to capture phone numbers from an inbound SMS

You can ask customers to SMS into a number to collect info/their mobile number. You can get this to trigger for any SMS, or only if they SMS specific keywords. This is all managed by Inbound SMS rule…

I want to send a marketing campaign. Is opt-out required?

If your messages are considered as marketing messages, you need to provide a way for your customers to opt-out from future campaigns. Opt-out Options. Reply STOP To Opt Out. The best option is to sel…

Can I hide the 'Your own number' and 'Your alpha tag' from number options?

Yes, you can adjust the settings on the dashboard under: Click on the username in the top right corner. Go to Messaging Settings>'SMS & MMS'> General. From Options. Disable 'From' options.

How to send SMS via the internet

To send an SMS via the internet simply access our ClickSend dashboard. To get started, you can sign up for a free ClickSend account here: https://www.clicksend.com/signup On the ClickSend dashboard y…

How Does Carrier Filtering Work?

The networks in the US and Canada heavily filter traffic. This is an issue all gateways face. How do carriers filter messages? There is no standard way practice for carrier filtering and depends on e…

Number Pool Settings

' Use a random pool of numbers ' By default, your account will send from a random pool of shared numbers. This is perfect when you're sending multiple messages to the same user. ' Use a fixed number…

How Does Carrier Filtering Work?

The networks in the US and Canada heavily filter traffic. This is an issue all gateways face. In summary, if you're sending a large number of identical messages you'll need to use a short code. Conta…

How fast can you send messages & SMS message throughput?

We can accept messages as fast as you can throw them at us! Typically, messages are delivered within 6 seconds. We start sending messages instantly to the networks. If you're sending a large amount (…

Email to SMS/Email to Voice from a generic or shared email address

Like all other providers, we use the 'from' email address as authentication for email to SMS or email to Voice. If you're using a generic shared 'from' email address (e.g mail-noreply@google.com) we…

OTP flood attacks

How to prevent and stop OTP flood attacks. In an increasingly interconnected world, businesses and developers increasingly need to use telecommunication services to interact with their customers. The…

SMS status - delivery receipt expired

Delivery receipt expired.. The SMS status 'delivery receipt expired' does not mean the messages were not successfully sent. This status basically means: "The sender's carrier timed out waiting for th…

Google Analytics 4 tracking for SMS campaigns

Looking for more detailed reporting for your recipients once they open the links in your SMS campaign? With Google Analytics, you can see a more complete picture of the journeys your users take once…

What messages will show up in the messenger

Message sources that will show up in the messenger.. With the new messenger, it is important to know that not all messages will show up in the clicksend Messenger. For example, users that use the cli…

Clicksend messenger

Introduction. Clicksend is proud to introduce the ClickSend SMS messenger with features designed to make the messenger more user-friendly while ensuring that you can easily manage conversations with…

SMS campaign analytics

Introduction. The purpose of this article is to help you understand the analytics page of the SMS campaign and the meaning of the different stats displayed. This data is collected when a contact clic…

How many characters can I send in an SMS?

This link helps you calculate how many characters you can send in an SMS: http://smscharactercount.com A message can be classified as 2 types: Standard message - contains characters from the GSM Basi…

Do you support non-english characters?

Yes, we support any characters with utf-8 character encoding. You can use any characters you want in all parts of our system (API, dashboard etc.). To enable this on your account: login to your accou…

Issue when sending a Quick SMS by selecting individuals from the list

How to resolve. To resolve this issue, please try clearing your browser cookies and caches when you are on the contact list page..

How can I test delivery reports?

To test a delivery report: Log into your ClickSend account and go here: https://dashboard.clicksend.com/messaging-settings/sms/delivery-reports. Click the blue button that says ADD NEW RULE. Create a…

Can I export pricing for all countries?

Export Pricing. Yes, you can export a live price list for all countries. This includes default pricing and any price overrides on your account. To Download a CSV of all countries: This can be done by…

Turn off Email notifications on inbound SMS

Open the Dashboard. Click on the username in the top right corner. Go to Messaging Settings>'SMS & MMS'>Inbound Rules. Delete or disable the rule with action 'EMAIL_USER'..

Phone number validation / HLR Lookup

Is there a way to validate phone numbers before sending? Yes, when sending a SMS, we automatically check that a number prefix and format is valid. We do this automatically for no extra cost. If the n…

Short code vs Long code

Long codes are normal mobile numbers (normally 8-12 digits long). Short codes are like a normal mobile number, but are shorter (normally 4-8 digits long). Some people prefer short codes for advertisi…

Using ClickSend for Disaster recovery text messages

In this help guide we’ll work through setting up a ClickSend account, uploading contacts and sending out an SMS for your Disaster Recovery requirements. Create a ClickSend account:. Create a ClickSen…

Can I send messages over SMPP?

Yes you can. Please get in contact with us over live chat on our website to get this enabled on your account. We can set it up for you 24/7. They will ask you the following questions: Add a credit ca…

Can I cancel scheduled messages?

Canceling scheduled messages is easy SMS. For messages sent using Quick SMS. Log into your account dashboard. Select the 'SMS' menu. Select 'History'. Filter the status to 'scheduled'. You can cancel…

How to create an auto-response campaign with SMS keywords

We’ve assisted a lot of our customers in setting up auto-response campaigns, it’s actually simpler than you'd think. So we thought we’d do a help article so you can try it yourself (but we’re always…

How do I export message history?

You can easily export your account history using our online dashboard. Login to your account dashboard. Click on the 'SMS' menu. Click on 'History'. Select the date range and click 'Export'. All your…

How do I add a line break in my SMS message?

API. You can use the official REST API documentation for ClickSend and search Send SMS, find the code sample and change and run it according to your data. To add a new line in the message body of out…

Do you charge for failed messages?

We don't charge for messages sent to invalid mobile numbers (invalid country code/format). Our system will try and detect these faults and not allow them to send to the network. When you try sending…

How to send a vCard in a SMS

1. Create/Generate the vCard. If you already have a vCard, you can skip this step. For best results, you want to use an online generator for this task. There are a few tools that do this online. One…

I'm not getting inbound web hooks/push inbound/delivery reports

Basic Troubleshooting. Login to your account dashboard. Click on your username in the top right corner. Click on the 'Message Settings' sub-menu. Select 'Inbound Rules' or 'Delivery Report Rules'. Ma…

Can I insert a URL/hyperlink into an SMS message?

You can't insert HTML into an SMS, however if you use a valid URL in the message body, most modern devices automatically convert it to a tappable link. For example on an iPhone: We also offer a free…

Can I remove/strip the email signature from email to SMS/Voice?

Yes, you can. You can adjust the settings here: https://dashboard.clicksend.com/messaging-settings/sms/email-sms How to Stop the Message at a Certain Point. Based on Email Signature. Say if your emai…

How many recipients can I send to at once?

Dashboard. Quick SMS. You can send up to 1,000 recipients or contact lists at once. SMS Campaign. You can send to a single list with up to 20,000 recipients at once. API. /sms/send endpoint. You can…

Email to SMS cut off at date

If your email to SMS is cutting off at the date, you will need to update your settings. In the email to SMS settings here: https://dashboard.clicksend.com/messaging-settings/sms/email-sms Choose "Get…

How can I test incoming SMS or replies?

You can either test replies by sending to your own live mobile and replying or by generating a test reply using your account dashboard or API. To generate a test reply using the dashboard: Login to y…

Will my new contact be added to my scheduled message?

Yes, when you add a new contact into your contact list that already has messages scheduled, the new contact will also be sent the scheduled message

Sending a Concatenated SMS & User Data Header (UDH)

Sending a Concatenated SMS & User Data Header (UDH). Definitions. Concatenated SMS: In the cellular phone industry, mobile phones and their networks sometimes support concatenated short message servi…

My message is being cut short

If your message is being cut short, this may be due to an account setting within your ClickSend account. You can update your character limit setting here

What’s the difference between A2P and P2P messaging?

Application-to-Person (A2P) messages are typically generated via a software application. Person-to-Person (P2P) messaging refers to a conversation or dialogue between two individuals, P2P has low vol…

How do I find the message price in the API?

You can use the official REST API documentation for ClickSend and search Calculate SMS Price, find the code sample and change and run it according to your data. This is the Response of running cURL C…

SMS Templates for different Industries

View a wide range of Industry designed SMS templates created by our very own Marketing Team here. Scroll down to "Industries" and click on your industy. A few of our most popular industries and templ…

Can I receive inbound SMS to my url?

Yes, you can. Simply add a rule here: https://dashboard.clicksend.com/#/sms/settings/inbound-sms with action='URL'. Docs can be found here under 'Push inbound SMS'. You will receive x-www-urlencoded…

Can I be notified when a message is delivered or fails?

Yes you can, it's called a delivery report. If you're using the email action, we recommend that you only use it for 'Only on failure', otherwise you'll receive an email for every message sent. You ma…

Security for inbound web-hooks - replies and delivery reports

Many clients ask us how the can ensure security when we push replies and delivery reports over HTTP to their web server. Here are a few tips: Use HTTPS. We recommend that you setup and use https on y…

How can I setup a SMS auto-responder?

You can set up an SMS autoresponder quickly and easily with ClickSend. An autoresponder allows your customers to SMS something to a number and have our system automatically respond with an SMS. Here'…

How to send text messages from your computer?

ClickSend allows you to send text messages from any device. Individual and SMS campaigns are simple to send via the ClickSend dashboard or API. There are many ways to send text messages from your com…

SMS One Time Password (OTP) / 2 Factor Authentication (2FA)

How to send a OTP via SMS. You can use ClickSend to setup 2 Factor Authentication for your App/website. To do this: Generate the OTP in your code e.g. "1234" and store it (in a database on your serve…

Forward Google Mail (Gmail) emails to a SMS

You can't use email-to-sms to forward gmail emails as an SMS because the emails are sent from 'forwarding-noreply@google.com' which is a generic email address used for all Gmail accounts. Since we us…

How to Personalise Messages with Placeholders

Placeholders are great for adding a personal touch to your SMS text messages. They may also be known as merge tags or merge fields. Setting Up Your Contact List. In this example, you want to send a m…

Can we shorten a URL automatically?

Yes you can do this using our SMS campaigns system. To do this: 1. Create a new SMS campaign on the dashboard here: https://dashboard.clicksend.com/#/sms/campaigns 2. Fill out all the fields as norma…

Viewing Inbound Messages via the API

Inbound messages are removed from an accounts inbox 1 day after being added if they have been marked as read. If they have not been marked as read they are removed after 7 days. Viewing on the dashbo…

Not receiving Delivery Receipts/DLR via the API

If you are not receiving delivery receipts/DLR via the API, please check that you have set up the Delivery Report Rules in your dashboard here. If you have set up these rules within your ClickSend ac…

Using the Opt-out rule with sub-accounts

If you wish to keep contact lists seperate within your sub-accounts, you will need to create each sub-account it's own opt-out method. Here's how: 1. Turn off share contacts on all accounts- this inc…

How many characters can be used in a contact field?

There are limits on the amount of characters you can use in a contact field. Name. Length. First Name 50 Last Name 50 Custom 1-4 255 Organisation Name 125 Email 80 Address Line 1 60 Address Line 2 60…

Why does the status of my messages show as "WaitApproval"

Some messages may be flagged for approval if your account is new or your sending patterns change. This is an automated process to detect and fight spam. Any messages flagged for approval will be appr…

Inbound Polling - only pull the new messages and not the ones already seen

Inbound SMS Polling. Docs can be found here - scroll to 'Pull inbound SMS'. To fetch inbound SMS: Call the GET /sms/inbound endpoint ( docs ). The messages show in the response. The next step is to m…

Do you support Emoji in SMS?

Yes we do! We now support emojis for inbound/outbound SMS. We recommend testing first because not all handsets/carriers support emojis. Emoji characters normally take up more character space than 1 n…

List of SMS gateway error codes

Error Code Status Status Code Description / Error Text 1 Queued 200 Message is queued for delivery 2 Scheduled 200 Message is scheduled for delivery 3 Sent 200 Message sent to the network for deliver…

What happens if a recipient calls my dedicated number?

By default, it will say that the number doesn't exist, or will give a busy tone. We can set it up to forward the call to another number for a monthly fee in supporting countries. Please get in contac…

What is the difference between EMAIL_USER and EMAIL_FIXED?

EMAIL_USER forwards the inbound message via email to the sub-account that initially sent the message. EMAIL_USER will change depending on which user account sent the originating message so it can app…

SMPP Troubleshooting

Try to telnet to the server. Open up the command line/terminal and run each of these commands. Let our support team know what the response is for each of them: telnet smpp1.clicksend.com 2775 telnet…

Country Code/Calling Code list

You can download a list of country/calling codes here: Country code list

How to send and receive SMS online

To send and receive SMS online, is just like when you send it on a phone. On the ClickSend dashboard you can send and receive an SMS; simply follow these steps: Go to the SMS tab on the left hand sid…

My message is being cut off at the '&' character (ampersand)

If you're using our API , this is probably because you're not URL encoding the message body string. You need to URL encode the message body. Here's an example on how to do it in PHP: http://www.php.n…

What does the Throttled status mean

Sometimes you might see the status 'Throttled'. This means an identical message has been sent to the same recipient within 5 seconds. It's ok to send multiple different messages to the same recipient…

Stop inbound SMS being forwarded to email

You can adjust inbound SMS settings here: https://dashboard.clicksend.com/#/sms/settings/inbound-sms

What is the difference between A2P and P2P messages?

Person to Person messaging (P2P) is defined as two-way SMS or MMS messaging. For example, anonymous conversations between two users, surveys and group messaging are considered to be P2P messaging. Ap…

Mobile app distribution

Use SMS to deliver direct links to your app store download page. Compatible with all app stores such as: Apple App store (iOS). Google Play (android). Microsoft store. Blackberry Appworld. Amazon App…

What is the difference between links opened and unique links in SMS Campaigns?

When using our URL shortener we give you details on how many times the link has been opened and how many of those are unique. Unique is unique opens, we will only count how many individuals have open…

How to send appointment reminders via text

By sending out an SMS appointment reminder between twenty four hours and a week before the appointment time, your customer is not only reminded of their appointment, but they have plenty of time to c…

What's the difference between the Completed and Sent status?

Completed: the message has been forwarded to the network Sent: the message has been delivered to the handset (or network if handset delivery notifications aren't supported). If messages are stuck on…

Why aren't my placeholders working?

Placeholders will only work when sending to a contacts list. If you try to send to an individual contact it will ignore any placeholders used. You can check if it is sending with a placeholder on the…

Import contacts into the Outlook plugin

The Outlook plugin uses your outlook address book. This works with your local contacts and any shared distribution lists, or contacts on the network. To choose contacts, click the 'To' button. If you…

How to assign Email to SMS usage to a specific subaccount

You can now assign Email to SMS/Fax/Voice usage to a specific subaccount. This allows you to have more accurate reporting when viewing the usage breakdown screen. To do this: Open the Allowed Email A…

How to receive SMS on email?

It is simple to receive an SMS through your emails. To get started, you can sign up for a free ClickSend account here: https://www.clicksend.com/signup To receive an SMS to your email, you have the o…

Error: Number blocked by carrier

This error can occur if the recipients' phone number has a block enforced by the network. It isn't an error on our end - the recipient needs to contact their phone provider and have the block removed…

Can't access opt-out list - FORBIDDEN - Resource not found or you don't have the permissions to access this resource

This means that the user doesn't have access to the contact list. Normally this is because the contact list was created by another user. To give another contact permission to send to all contact list…

Can I use my shortcode number overseas?

Shortcodes are country-specific and cannot be used overseas. This includes countries with the same country code such as the US and Canada. For example, a USA shortcode can only be used to send to USA…

Can I send SMS from a random pool of numbers?

Yes you can. Log into the online dashboard. go to 'SMS' then 'Settings'. Select 'Number Pool Settings' and choose your preferred option.

Emergency Group Alerts

You can send Emergency Group Alert SMS using ClickSend. There are many ways this can be done using: Group Email to SMS - This option works by sending an email to a special email address. When the ema…

Email to SMS message cut off

If your email to SMS message is being cut off, try this: Open the Email to SMS settings page here: https://dashboard.clicksend.com/#/sms/settings/email-sms. Change the option 'Select Message Content'…

Can I use a wildcard in an email to SMS allowed address?

Yes you can, just use the star character e.g. *@mydomain.com. This will allow everyone at mydomain.com to send email to SMS messages. This is a security risk though, since it allows anyone to send SM…

Australian Spam Regulations

Spam Act 2003 The Spam Act was passed in 2003 by ACMA to regulate commercial electronic marketing and spam. It covers email, SMS, MMS and instant messaging. Conditions In summary, the Act states that…

Email to SMS: missing body

If you're sending an email to SMS message but the body is missing, it could be caused by a few things: Check the setting here: https://dashboard.clicksend.com/#/sms/settings/email-sms This should be…

Can I upload message body from a CSV/excel file to send?

If you already have the recipient number and pre-formatted message body saved in a csv/Excel file: Log into the dashboard. Add a contact list or click on an existing list. Click 'Import contacts'. Im…

Email to SMS: Missing Required Fields

You may get a bounce back email when sending Email-to-SMS: We've successfully delivered your SMS messages, however, there were some errors with these recipients: •xxxx - Missing Required Fields This…

Can I use a dedicated number to receive verification codes from other services?

In most cases sending from virtual number to virtual number is not allowed due to security restrictions. Messages are highly likely to be filtered if you are using our dedicated numbers to receive ve…

Can I stop/start an email to SMS at a certain point?

Yes, you can. Here's some more info: https://help.clicksend.com/SMS/can-i-remove-the-email-signature-from-email-to-sms

Can I send a SMS from a 1300/1800 number in Australia?

Yes you can. If sending from the dashboard: Choose the 'from your number' option when sending and enter the 1300 number. If sending from the API: Enter the 1300 number as the 'from' field with +61 at…

Can you access raw email to SMS for things like AWS notification confirmations?

Yes, if you need to access the raw HTML for email to SMS emails, please contact us.

Can I send SMS from my company name?

Yes we allow full sender ID (from number/name) customisation provided that the networks support it. You can view specific restrictions for each country here: Country specific restrictions

Setup inbound SMS as a conversion in Google Adwords or Google Analytics

You can setup an inbound SMS message to be counted as a conversion in Google adwords/analytics with ClickSend. Get in contact with us to have this setup.

Integrate SMS into your home security/alarm system

Send an SMS with your security/alarm system. There are 3 options: 1. Email to SMS. If your alarm system can send an email on alert we can convert that to a SMS. Simply send an email to mobilenumber@s…