Limitations

Limitations of the SMS sending system

There are limitations on the SMS system both technically and legally.

Country Limitations

Different countries have limitations on the type of phone numbers that SMS can be sent from. This may have an effect on the number of messages that can be sent, the price of service, and the time it takes to set up a new account.

Alphanumeric SenderID numbers display as text i.e. "Fanplayr" instead of a numeric phone number. They are limited to 11 Latin characters and numerals.

We currently support the following countries for SMS:

We are working on support for:

  • Australia

  • Belgium

  • Chile

  • Mexico

  • Brazil

  • Argentina

  • Peru

  • Japan

  • New Zealand

Technical Limitations

  • Each domain in Fanplayr, which is normally linked to a different country / language, to have its own phone number.

  • No support for MMS, including sending of photos, videos or audio.

  • No support for "smart" responses to messages sent from users. Subscribing and unsubscribing is handled, and only a general response such as "Please call us on +1XXX for customer service" can be sent as a reply to other messages. This is not meant as a chat service.

  • There is a limit to the size of messages. The larger the message the more it will cost, but there is also a hard limit on the size a message and the number of messages that can be joined together. The limit for number of messages is 6. The size depends on the message content:

    • For messages that do not include extended Unicode (Japanese, Emojis etc) the maximum length is 918 characters. This may be less as the following { } ~ [ ] | ^ € take up two characters.

    • For messages that do include extended Unicode (even if it's a single Emoji) the maximum length is 402 characters.

  • Unlike Notifications, there is no ability to add a product / category placeholder to template messages as the length of these are wildly variable and could lead to drastic increases in cost.

Legal Limitations

  • Toll-free numbers are, by default, limited to sending only 3 messages per second. This is in part to lower the chance they will be used for spam (unsolicited messaging). This limit can be extended per phone number but is charged at a higher rate and requires approval which may take a few days to a week.

  • Messages can only be sent between 8am and 10pm so they are not a nuisance. Depending on the region the law may vary but this covers as many regions as possible.

  • Subscribing from a user's phone is required as they are not subscribing through SMS, but through a web form. In general, this means the user will receive a message asking them to reply with "Y" or "Yes" to subscribe before we can send them any other message.

  • We cannot send any messages to users who have not yet subscribed or have unsubscribed.

Limitations: Country Specific

Brazil

  • Messages can only be sent between 9am and 9pm, in the users' time zone.

  • Messages cannot promote politicians, political causes, gambling, contests, or telecommunication services.

  • Unicode is not supported by some carriers. This includes characters such as Emoji.

  • Concatenation of messages may also not be supported, and length is limited to 157 characters. This means that messages that are above 157 characters in length may show up as more than a single message to end users.

Australia

  • Every message must contain the business name this message is sent on behalf of. This name does not need to be included if an Alphanumeric ID is used as a phone number, and this AlphaID includes the business name.

  • Every message needs to include opt-out information i.e. "Optout reply N".

France

  • Messages will not be delivered on Sundays, public holidays or after 10pm. If they are sent after this time, they should be delivered the next day.

PreviousBest Practices

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