SMS

From VoIP.ms Wiki

Latest revision as of 22:23, 6 November 2020

SMS Service

Short Message Service (SMS). This feature will allow you to send and receive messages with your DID Number (US and Canada DID Numbers Only).

Please note that this feature is for regular customer usage. No automation, telemarketing, bulk sending or receiving will be allowed.

 Our SMS service is no longer in BETA. Starting August 1st 2020, SMS messages will be charged at a rate of $0.0075 per messages.

Blog Articles

Benefits of SMS/MMS Campaigns vs. Email Marketing

How to Generate Leads with SMS/MMS?

Important information to know about the SMS Service

• The SMS Service is only available for US and Canadian local and Toll-Free DID Numbers marked with the distinctive SMS Icon.

• SIP SMS messages will only be delivered to and accepted from SIP trunks using username/password authentication.

• SIP SMS messages use the SIP MESSAGE method. See RFC 3428 for details.

• The SMS Service can only be used to send SMS Messages to Canadian and US 10 digit numbers at this time. We also cannot guarantee that International SMS will be properly received.

• VoIP.ms reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to limit or disable the SMS service from any account that may present marketing patterns / automation patterns / bulk sending or receiving.

• At this time we cannot guarantee that Short Code SMS Messages, which are usually 6 digits or less (e.g.: Skype, Bank Codes, TV Commercials etc...) will work.

• We cannot guarantee that accents or special characters including non-Latin letters will be properly delivered.

• For Ported In Numbers compatible with the feature: The SMS Functionality will be available up to 48 hours after the porting process is marked as Completed.

If you have further questions don't hesitate to contact the Support Staff on the Live Chat or Ticket System.

Identifying a SMS DID Number

You will note that some numbers have a little icon of a cellphone device, this indicates that the number supports SMS. Please note that not all locations support SMS at this time.

You can start ordering a DID Number from your portal >> DID Numbers >> Order DID >> Local Numbers >> (US or Canada) Numbers and you will be able to purchase your desired number, just make sure it supports the SMS feature.

Configuring the SMS service

Once purchased the SMS Service needs to be activated on the DID settings, from your portal >> DID Numbers >> Manage DID >> Edit Selection >> SMS.

On that section you can activate and configure some forward options for the SMS service.

The first action to take is to mark the Short Message Service (SMS) service, by enabling this field the SMS Service will be active and have a charge of $0.0075 per SMS.

• VoIP.ms SMS Portal: This is enabled by default and it can't be modified, that means that you will be able to create and send messages from the SMS Message Center.

• SMS Email Address: By activating this option all the SMS Messages will be sent to the email address you configure in this field. The advantage of this option is that you will receive your SMS Messages directly to your email and you will be able to Reply to these messages from your email too. You just need to click on reply to the email. Please note that e-mail responses are as well limited to 160 characters and if they exceed this limit, they'll be split in two (or more messages if applies) when sent.

 To reply the SMS Message via your email it is important to click on Reply and DON'T change or modify 
 the destination mail "TO"  
 (sms@voip.ms)and the subject E.G [#USXXX] Message sent to 5555555555.

• SMS Forward: You can have your SMS Messages forwarded to your cellphone or any other number that supports SMS, with this option you will receive the SMS Messages from our system to the configured phone number.

 The CallerID sent to the Call Forwarded Cell Phone will be the DID Number that received the SMS Message. Is not possible to forward the original Caller ID at this time.

• SMS SIP Account: You can have your SMS Messages forwarded to your selected SIP account. They will be sent through our SMS/SIP gateway as a SIP MESSAGE.

 The destination ("To" header field) of the SIP MESSAGE will be your account name, instead of the destination number of the original SMS.

• SMS URL Callback: By enabling this option you will be able to send the messages to another destination e.g. your own server. If selected SMS Messages received by your DID will Send a GET request to the URL Callback provided. Available variables for your URL:

 {ID} The ID of the SMS message.
 {TIMESTAMP} The date and time the message was received.
 {FROM} The phone number that sent you the message
 {TO} The DID Number that received the message
 {MESSAGE} The content of the message
 Example: http: //mysite.com/sms.php?to={TO}&from={FROM}&message={MESSAGE}&id={ID}&date={TIMESTAMP}

• URL Callback Retry: When selected, we will be expecting an "ok" output (without quotes) from your URL callback page as an indicator that you have received the message correctly. If we don't received the "ok" (without quotes) from your callback page, we will keep sending you the same message every 30 minutes.

Once you configure the desired option, click on Apply Changes.

Send and Receive Messages (Web Interface)

SMS Message Center

To start using the service you will need to use the SMS Message Center, from your portal >> DID Numbers >> SMS Message Center.

For Mobile Devices please use sms.voip.ms as a complete all in one solution.

From the SMS Message Center you can check your SMS History, send and receive SMS messages.

• Search Range: Select a Date Range of your SMS History. You can select a time period by marking the "Show Details" field and the text messages will be displayed.

• Search Filter: You can filter your Search by DID, Contact and Type (Sent, Received and Both).

• Send New SMS Messages: Another window will open by clicking here in order to create a new SMS Message.

• Delete Selected Messages: This action will delete any messages that you have selected, by clicking on the box next to them. This action cannot be undone.

• Delete All Messages: Delete ALL your SMS Messages, both sent and received. This action cannot be undone.

• Checking a Message: To check a received SMS Message just click it directly in order to display the information.

Create a New SMS Message

You can create a new SMS Message we will explain you all the parameters you can find on this section:

• DID: If you have more than one DID Number you can select any of the numbers available to send your message.
• Contact: The destination phone number or if you have a Phone book entry start typing the name and the system will display the information if available.
• Message: You can create your message on that field, please note that you have up to 160 characters.

Then click on 'Send Message' to send the SMS.

Send and Receive Messages (SIP Protocol)

SMS via SIP service is only available through SIP Protocol and user/password authentication. IP Auth and IAX2 are not available at this time.

Please refer to our guide SIP/SMS with FreePBX for instructions on how to configure the service with a FreePBX

Sending

• DID must have the "Short Message Service (SMS)" service option enabled. This option can be enabled from the Manage DIDs > Edit DID page.

• To send an SMS from your SIP account, it is required that you set your Caller ID number to one of your SMS enabled DIDs. This will be the number you will be sending the message from. You can configure the Caller ID number from your customer portal for the specific subaccount if you are using a softphone or directly from your extension or trunk if you are using an Asterisk or PBX server.

• It's important to note that if you configure your caller ID name in your SIP client to be a 10 digits number, this will override your caller ID number. If the caller ID name is anything different than a 10 digits number this will be discarded and the Caller ID number will be used.

• If you are an asterisk or PBX user, please make sure to use the latest version of Asterisk (v12 or higher) and use chan_pjsip for the trunk. This is an asterisk limitation.

• The Desktop version of Zoiper requires the user to have the PRO version activated to be able to send SMS messages as well as to enable SIP Presence. Please contact Technical Support to request SIP presence to be enabled for your account for the VoIP.ms POP you are using. While normally not required, there may be other cases not documented of softphones or apps requiring SIP Presence to be enabled. Please contact technical support if you encounter any issue with your specific software.

• The free Desktop version of Zoiper cannot send SMS messages and is only capable of receiving SMS.

• The mobile version of Zoiper is completely free of these limitations. Free version already works for sending and receiving without the need of SIP presence.

• When sending an SMS message, the recipient number must be 10 digits. Avoid using the prefix '"1"' since is not supported at the moment. The system will recognize the numbers as in 10 digits.

• The current characters limit for a single SMS is 160. If a message is bigger than 160 characters it will be split into blocks of up to 160 characters each and be sent as independent messages. The maximum total message length for SMS via SIP is 2000 characters.

Receiving

• DID must have the "Short Message Service (SMS)" service option enabled. This option can be enabled from the Manage DIDs > Edit DID page.

• Enable the option "SMS SIP Account" and select the account destination for your SMS messages to this number.

• The account receiving SMS must be registered successfully in any of our POPs.

• To ensure the best results receiving the SMS messages, do not register the same SIP account on more than one softphone or app at the same time, this can lead to unexpected results.

• For SIP devices that require this information, such as a trunk or PBX, we encode the original destination number in a custom SIP header field named "X-SMS-To".

• 3CX softphone currently does not support any third party SMS service. It will only work by having a direct connection to the 3CX PBX system. Please contact 3CX for more details.

Send SIP/SMS with FreePBX

It is possible to configure a FreePBX system to send SMS, please refer here for detailed instructions.