Send basic message
Overview
SMS messages are sent by submitting a specially formatted email to the API. Each email can contain up to 100 000 messages/mobile numbers. To send larger numbers of messages, simply send multiple emails with 100 000 messages per email.
Emails should be sent to sms@messaging.clickatell.com
.
We recommend the following:
- Use plain-text formatted emails (not HTML).
- To send many messages, use one email (instead of thousands of emails with one message per email).
- Make use of the
reply
parameter to have an API response sent to your email address. - To send a unique/personalized SMS message to each handset, we recommend using template-based messaging for this API.
Some mail client applications wrap lines that exceed a certain number of characters. This may cause your message text to get cut short. If your mail client is doing this, your message text can be specified over multiple lines with the text
parameter. Using the text
parameter more than once also results in a new line being inserted after each use.
If you do not want new lines inserted, you can use the data
parameter instead of the text
parameter. Note that line breaks (new lines) use two character spaces.
Basic parameters
Parameter |
Required |
Description |
|
Yes |
Your API ID |
|
Yes |
Your API username |
|
Yes |
Your API password |
|
Yes |
The mobile number to which the message must be delivered. The number should be in international number format (no leading zeros or + symbol should be used). |
|
Yes (unless |
The text content of the message. Note that some characters take up two character spaces because of GSM encoding standards. |
|
No |
One or more email addresses that should receive an API response containing tracking IDs or errors for your messages. |
Many more parameters are available and listed on the send message parameters page.
Examples
Flash message
api_id:place API ID here> user:place username here> password:place password here> to:<place recipient number here> msg_type:SMS_FLASH text:This is my message that will be text:delivered to the above specified mobile text:number! reply:my-email-address @example .com |
Unicode message
api_id:<place API ID here> user:<place username here> password:<place password here> to:<place recipient number here> unicode: 1 data: 00540068006900730020006900730020006100200073006100 data:6d0070006c00650020006d0065007300730061006700650020 data:00730065006e007400200061007300200055006e0069006300 data:6f0064006500200064006100740061002e reply:my-email-address @example .com |
Use callback and sender ID
api_id:<place API ID here> user:<place username here> password:<place password here> to:<place recipient number here> callback: 3 from:<place your mobile number here> text:This is my flash message that will be text:delivered to the above specified mobile text:number! reply:my-email-address @example .com |
Single recipient, multiline message
api_id:<place API ID here> user:<place username here> password:<place password here> to:<place recipient number here> text:This is a sample text:message that gets displayed text:on multiple lines on text:the handset reply:my-email-address @example .com |
The SMS will be displayed on the handset as:
This is a sample message that gets displayed on multiple lines on the handset |
Multiple recipients, with one very long line
api_id:<place API ID here> user:<place username here> password:<place password here> to:<place recipient 1 number here> to:<place recipient 2 number here> to:<place recipient 3 number here> data:This is a test data:message. data:On multiple data:lines. reply:my-email-address @example .com |
SMS would have the following content:
This is a test message. On multiple lines. |
Example reply message for one recipient:
ID: fdb82af8e77b6b45082fee80212c180d |
Example reply message for many recipients:
ID: fdb82af8e77b6b45082fee80212c180d To: <Recipient 1 > |
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