How long can my text message be?

Text messages are sent in various message 'parts', with a standard SMS being able to contain 160 characters for one text message, and 153 characters for each additional message part. This means that usually, if you send a message that is 200 characters long, it will send as 2 text messages. Phones in today's day and age are smart enough to convert these message parts and put them back together so they display as 1 text message to the end user.

How will healthTxT charge me for message parts?

It's important to know that as a 2-part message has to be sent as two separate text messages, you will be charged for 2 text messages per person you send the message to - so if you're sending a 2-part message to 100 people, you'll be charged for 200 text messages. Your text messages should be concise but also easy to understand, so if your messages are often going into 3 message parts, check out the tips at the bottom of this article. 

Is there a limit to the number of message parts I can send?

When sending a message from healthTxT, you have a limit of 4 message parts that you can send. However, please note that this can be changed in My Settings or Company Settings. 

Sending messages with emojis and different languages

When SMS was created, it was based off the standard English alphabet, which was called UTF-8.   So, 160 English characters = 1 text message. Because of this set up, when non-English characters are used (UTF-16 characters), they take up more space in the text message. This means that when you send a message with a UTF-16 character, the character count per message will half.

This rule applies to emojis, different alphabets, and any characters that have a macron. The below table shows the character count for each message when using UTF-8 (English) characters, compared to UTF-16 (macrons & emojis) characters.

Contact Support if you require more message parts 

Tips to help reduce characters in your messages 

Create templates

If you're sending the same kinds of messages each time - for example, appointment reminders - make sure you create a template for this. Having a template not only makes it quicker when sending a message, but it ensures you don't get carried away and send a message that is 3 parts long, when it could just as easily be 1 part.

Use the web portal

Email2SMS is a great tool and has many benefits. However, the downfall with sending an SMS through your email client is that there is no indication as to how many message parts your SMS is sending as. Emails tend to be long and it's easy to get carried away when sending an Email2SMS as it's hard to tell how long the message will be when someone is reading it on a phone. Not only that, but when sending an Email2SMS message it's easy to forget to insert your regex, and your email signature could be included in a message (leaving in your signature usually adds 2-3 parts to a message)!

Replace macrons with other characters

If you're typing a message and using letters that have macrons, consider replacing them with an alternative. For example, if you have a 100-character message that contains ā, the message will be sent as 2 parts. However, changing the ā to 'aa', a common alternative, your message will be 101 characters, but only sent as 1 message part!

Keep your message short and sweet

When typing a text message on your computer, it's easy to forget that sending an SMS can be a bit less formal than an email. For example, instead of typing "Hi there, this is Sally from ABC Health. You have an appointment with Dr. Jones tomorrow at 10am. Reply yes to confirm. Thanks and see you tomorrow.", you could put "Hi there, reminder for your appt tomorrow at 10am with Dr Jones. Reply Y to confirm. Sally from ABC Health". The messages have the same effect, but you'd save 40 characters with the second message.

Use attachments

If there is a lot of information that you need to get out to recipients, you could write it on a document and add it to a text message as an attachment. Adding an attachment takes up 22 characters, but the attached document could give a whole page of information. 

Send both an email and a text

One of the biggest benefits of text messaging is the open rate of a text message compared to that of an email, which is why it's such a popular method of communication. However, if there is a lot of information that you need to get out to people in a timely manner, using a combination of text and email can be incredibly beneficial. If you have a lot of important information to get out to everyone, send them an email. Then, follow up by sending a text to everyone, saying "Hi all, I've sent you an important email about X. Please read this ASAP and reply Y once you've read it. From Michaels Construction". This message is only one message part long but has all the information that people need to know.