Guides

Create SMS Message

In this area you'll learn how to send a message using Notificare.

To access this area, in your app's menu, expand the Messages menu item and click in New SMS Message:

menu

This will take you to a wizard divided in five different tabs like shown below. Some sections are optional and you will notice that they are marked as ready by default.

tabs

Additionally, once you have reach a minimal message configuration, you can check the actual API payload that will be sent to our servers. To do that, click the following icon:

api payload icon

It will show the resulting JSON object for your content:

api payload

This can be a great jump start if you will ever need to compose messages via our REST API.

Audience

Start by selecting who you are going to send the message to, by opening the Audience tab. In this tab you start by selecting the scope of your audience by pick one of the several options available in our platform.

You'll notice that as soon as you select an option, we will automatically show you the number of devices you will be reaching:

audience count

This will be calculated with every change you make to your audience selection.

Broadcast

If you want to send to all your users select the option shown below:

broadcast

For this type of audience you can also define a specific location:

map

If you do add a location, you will send to all the devices inside that location and ignore all the rest. To add a location you can manually draw a shape in the map or simply search for an Address or a previously created Geo-Zone, POI, city or Country.

Private User Message

If you want to send to single user and all its phone numbers, select the option shown below:

single user

Then search for a user by using its name or ID:

search users

And finally select the user you wish to send the message to:

selected user

Private Phone Number Message

If instead you want to send to single phone number, select the option shown below:

single phone number

Then search for the email address you are looking for:

search phone number

And finally select the address you wish to send the message to:

selected phone number

Segments

If you wish to send a message to a group of users that belongs to a certain segment, select the following option:

segments

You can select one or more segments, first you need to search for segments like shown below:

search segments

You can then click in one or more segments to select them:

select segments

When you are done selecting segments, click in Done and your selection will look like the following:

selected segments

For this type of audience you can also define a specific location:

map

If you do add a location, you will send to all the devices inside that location and ignore all the rest. To add a location you can manually draw a shape in the map or simply search for an Address or a previously created Geo-Zone, POI, city or Country.

Tags

If you just need to send to a group of devices in one or more tags, you should select the option below:

tags

Then search for one or more tags you wish to send the message to:

search tags

Then in all the tags you want to select them:

select tags

When you are done selecting tags, click in Done and your selection will look like the following:

selected tags

Event Based Criteria

If you want to send a message to all the devices that executed a certain event during a period of time, select the option below:

event based

This can be extremely useful if you want to create a follow-up message to all the users that previously interacted in some way with your campaigns, app or website.

For this type of audience you will need to select which event you want to use:

event

Learn more about events by reading our guides located here.

Then select the start and end date for your criteria:

date range

For this type of audience we will automatically fetch all devices that executed the event between those dates and use it as the recipients of the message.

Additionally, for this type of audience, you can further provide fine-grain audience selection by using a custom criteria:

criteria

Learn how to set up a custom criteria by reading our guides located here.

Custom Criteria

With this type of audience selection, you can combine tags, segments, location and device properties to achieve a fine-grained selection. Start by selecting the option below:

custom criteria

Additionally, for this type of audience, you can further provide a fine-grained selection using a custom criteria:

criteria

Learn how to set up a custom criteria by reading our guides located here.

Content

To actually create the content your users will see when you send a SMS message, click in the Content tab. If you are using our inbox functionality, you may localize your content in multiple languages. For that toggle the switch Use localized content to start creating content in other languages:

use localized content

Automatically a new tab called Default will appear, which will allow you to create the content that we will use as a fallback when the device that receives the message does not have a language provided by the localized content you create.

default tab

Make sure you create the default content before proceeding to add more languages, as other localized content must share the same message you use in the default content. When you are ready to add more languages, go ahead and click in the following button:

add language button

This will open a new window where you can select a language/region combination. Note that region is a property that is only available in SDK 2.0 or higher, so it's important your apps use this version if you would like to have use a language/region combination. If your apps do not support this version or you simply don't need to create content based on a language/region combination, you can leave the region option unselected.

add locallized content modal

Adding languages will eventually add new tabs to the message composer, as shown below. Make sure you localize all fields accordingly in each tab:

new language tab

Some fields in this section support placeholders. Placeholders make it possible to personalize your content with data stored in devices, email contacts or SMS numbers. For example, you can use {{userName}} to include the name assigned to a device. Placeholders also accept modifiers. These help you format the content before it is displayed (eg. {{deviceID|urlencode}}). Currently you can use escape (useful when included in HTML content) and urlencode (useful when a placeholder is used in a URL).

A text message should only have a message (please note that this field allows placeholders):

message

SMS Character Limit

The character limit for a single SMS message is technically 160 characters. However, most modern phones and networks support message concatenation: they split large messages into individual SMS messages (called "segments") and then re-create the large message at the receiving end. Notificare supports long messages up to 1600 characters. However, we recommend sending messages that are no more than 320 characters to ensure the best deliverability and user experience.

The 160-character limit is for messages encoded using the GSM-7 character set. Messages not encoded with GSM-7 are limited to 70 characters. If you include non-GSM characters, such as Chinese script or Emojis, those messages have to be sent using the UCS-2 encoding.

When you send a message with more than 160 GSM-7 characters, it will be split into segments of 153 characters. This means that 7 characters are sacrificed per segment to help with concatenation. On the other hand, messages sent using UCS-2 with more than 70 characters will be split into 67-character segments. This means that 3 characters are sacrificed per segment to help with concatenation. Notificare will bill you per segment used.

Emoji support has not been standardized across carriers, as a result we cannot guarantee support for Emoji across all carriers. Using Emojis in text messages will force messages to be encoded as UCS-2, reducing message segments to 70 characters. Older 16-bit Emojis count as a single character and newer 32-bit emojis count as two characters in a message.

Options

In this tab, you can use the following option to ignore the messaging limit you've previously defined for your app:

ignore messaging limit

This can be useful for time-sensitive messages or particularly important communication.

Delivery

Finally, you can configure the delivery of this message by clicking in the Delivery tab:

delivery

If you wish to send the message right away, select the option below:

deliver now

If you wish to schedule a message to a date in the future, select the following option:

deliver scheduled

Then you have to options, send to all users at the same time by providing a date and a timezone:

schedule time

Or by sending to each user at their local device time:

schedule local

This delivery mode also supports recurrent scheduled messages. To repeat your message, toggle the following option:

repeat schedule

You can then select if you want to repeat it hourly (except if you have chosen to use the device's local time):

repeat hourly

Optionally you can select the specific hours and even the days of the week when the message is sent.

You can also select it to be sent daily:

repeat daily

Optionally you can increase the interval to repeat the message every x days.

You can also select it to be sent weekly:

repeat weekly

Optionally you can increase the week interval to repeat the message every x weeks or select more days of the week.

You can also select it to be sent monthly:

repeat monthly

Optionally you can increase the month interval to repeat the message every x months and select between sending it on that same day or that same day of the week each month.

Finally, you can also select it to be sent yearly:

repeat yearly

Optionally you can increase the year interval to repeat the message every x years.

You can also specify an end date for your recurrent schedule, by selecting a date in the following field:

repeat end date

As you configure your recurrent scheduled message, you will see a human-friendly summary describing your recurrent schedule job, like the one below:

repeat summary

If instead you wish to save this message and send it later, select the option below:

delivery later

This option will simply save the message in the drafts area. To learn about drafts read our guides located here.

Finally, if you wish to throttle the delivery of a message, you can check the box below:

throttle

This will allow you to specify the rate of how many messages should sent per second:

throttle rate

We will estimate for you the approximate delivery time based on the audience you've selected. This option might be useful to avoid messages from flooding your servers as users will open your app or website in response to a remote notification.

Before you roll out a message to your selected audience, you can always test it first by sending it to one or more test segments:

test button

This will open a window like the one below:

test message

In this window, you should search for test segments previously created:

search test segments

You can select one or more segments, by clicking on them:

select test segments

Once you select all the test segments you want to use, go ahead and click in the Done button. Your selection will then look like this:

selected test segments

And go ahead and send a test message by clicking in the Send Test Message button:

send test message button

When you feel confident that your message looks exactly like you want and have performed from tests, click in the Send button:

send button

You will have one last chance to review your message:

review message

If everything is OK and you want to proceed, go ahead and click the Continue button:

continue button

As a security measure, if you are trying to send or schedule a message to more than one user or device, we will request your authentication before actually send it. If you use 2FA, you will need to provide the 6 digit code:

send with 2fa

Otherwise you will be required to authenticate this operation with your password:

send without 2fa

After this your message will be sent or scheduled and shown in the Sent list where you can check its performance.