SMS - FAQ

In this article, we will go through common questions about SMS. If you still don't get answers to your questions, you can contact support

We will go through the following:

Why don't some characters appear in SMS senders?
Calculating the number of characters in a text message
Own short links in SMS
How do I get a custom field into the SMS?
Can I send a preview by SMS?
How do links work in SMS?

1. Why are some characters not displayed in SMS senders?

The reason why certain characters do not appear in SMS senders even though they are visible in Rule is due to a limitation in the functionality of telephone operators. This is called Alphanumeric Sender, which is a collective name for the letters of the alphabet A-Z and the numbers 0-9.

2. Calculate the number of characters in an SMS

An SMS device consists of 160 characters

It refers to "normal characters", or so-called standard characters (read more below)
You can send multiple SMS devices consecutively and pay a fixed cost per unit
In Rule you can send up to six consecutive units, which corresponds to 800 characters.
Special characters like emojis and other exotic letters consume more characters than the standard characters do, so we've opted out of this.
Links that are in the text message are clickable – this applies to both Android and iPhone.
Example of SMS with clickable link in Android:

Character transformation

When you create an SMS with non standardtecken then Rule will convert these characters to the GSM-7 standard. An example of characters being converted is if you type the character "⦅" then Rule will convert the character to "(". This functionality helps you to avoid making your SMS too long with unnecessary characters. However, there may be characters in our reference list that we do not convert. Therefore it is good to use standard characters when sending SMS with Rule.

When you use special characters such as the Cyrillic alphabet, Chinese characters, etc. there is a risk that each special character corresponds to several characters and makes the 160 characters you have per SMS unit go faster. ( You can, as mentioned above, send several SMS units of 160 characters at the same time - then the message looks like an SMS when it arrives at the recipient, but since you pay per unit, this may be good to consider before sending...)

Here is an explanation of what signs and how we omvandlar dom

Example: The first Cyrillic character you type in your message takes 92 characters of your SMS. However, the following Cyrillic characters correspond to only one standard character each. By that logic, the Russian word for peace (мир) would consume 94 of your 160 characters in your SMS.

3. Own short links in SMS

Since an SMS is charged per 160 characters, Rule shortens links that are included in the SMS and are over 25 characters, they then get a short link from us. But it is possible to set up your own short links, so that the links get your own domain instead.

In some cases, this also results in more clicks as some people think they look safer.

The set has a one-time cost.

Option 1. With Cloudflare

Do you host your domain at Cloudflare just follow the steps below:

Click DNS Editor.
Click "Add Record".

Type: CNAME
Name: 'yourdomain.com' (Add your domain or subdomain here that you want to use as a short link. e.g. sms.dindomän.se)
Target: 'app.rule.io
TTL: Automatic

Remember to save your record and double check that it is active under your DNS Records.

If that doesn't work, also set SSL to Flexible:

Once it is set up, you email support@rule.se who will guide you through the next steps.

Option 2. Without Cloudflare

If you host your domain elsewhere, the instructions are as follows:

1. Email our support which domain you want to use.
In the example below we use sms.dindomän.se as the example domain and Loopia as the DNS provider.

2. You will receive an email from our support with a TXT record/code that you need to authenticate the connection.

3. In your DNS, add the following CNAME pointing to app.rule.io:

4. You also add the following TXT record _acme-challenge.sms.dindomän.se with the value code_as_given_to_you_by_our_support

4. How do I get a custom field in the SMS?

When you create an SMS and want to send a custom field – to make the message unique to the recipient, such as a discount code – we recommend that you first write the message in an email campaign.

Go to New Campaign and click on Email. Write your message there:

From the drop down menu custom field (see above) you choose which custom field you want your text to retrieve unique information from when the SMS is sent out. In this case we chose [CustomField:Subscriber.FirstName].

ATTENTION! By creating the text in an email, the member field is added automatically. By not having to enter it manually, you avoid any typing errors that would result in the fields not matching and thus not retrieving the correct member information for the message.

Then copy the text from the email:

... and paste into the SMS:

5. Can I send a preview by SMS?

You can send a preview SMS by simply sending a text message to yourself before the real mailing. To do this, follow these simple steps:

- Go to Campaigns, select "New campaign" and then SMS.

- Enter your phone number in "Add new recipients" and create the SMS content. Then you send this SMS to you as you had sent to your recipients. Then an SMS is sent to you for proofing and review before you go ahead and send the campaign to all your members.

You can then copy the sent SMS to Draft and go ahead and send it out to all your members by clicking on this icon:

6. How do links in SMS work?

Click Rate: To make it possible to track the percentage of clicks in Rule , the link must contain "https://". In this way, the link becomes traceable and click rate becomes possible to follow up in the statistics, after your mailing has been made.
Example: https://www.rule.se/nyhetsbrev/varfor-e-postmarknadsforing/
Link shortening: Since SMS costs per number of characters, there is a built-in link shortener in Rule that automatically shortens links. This is provided that you enter "https://" in the link.
Example: As above, i.e. https://www. rule.se/nyhetsbrev/varfor-e-postmarknadsforing/
Keep the original link: If you don't want the link to be shortened, remove the "https://" and just write "www".
Example: www.rule.se/nyhetsbrev/varfor-e-postmarknadsforing/
Own domain link: Rule can also create own/internal links, on request. Contact our support for help, support@rule.se.