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
replyparameter 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_FLASHtext:This is my message that will betext:delivered to the above specified mobiletext: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:1data:00540068006900730020006900730020006100200073006100data:6d0070006c00650020006d0065007300730061006700650020data:00730065006e007400200061007300200055006e0069006300data:6f0064006500200064006100740061002ereply: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:3from:<place your mobile number here>text:This is my flash message that will betext:delivered to the above specified mobiletext: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 sampletext:message that gets displayedtext:on multiple lines ontext:the handsetreply:my-email-address@example.com |
The SMS will be displayed on the handset as:
This is a samplemessage that gets displayedon multiple lines onthe 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 testdata:message.data:On multipledata: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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