# SMS/MMS/RCS

SMS, MMS, and RCS messages reach customers directly on their phones, even without an app, for immediate engagement and time-sensitive communications.

## About SMS

You send SMS messages to an MSISDN (phone number) over the [SMMP protocol](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Message_Peer-to-Peer) to devices that have opted in for a specific [Sender ID](https://www.airship.com/docs/reference/glossary/#sender_id). SMS messages help you reach a wide audience quickly, without an app or development work.

SMS messages are text-based. MMS (multi-media messaging service) is an extension of SMS, and MMS messages are image-based. MMS messages can include fallback text, ensuring that users who can't view the original MMS message still receive a message that makes sense. Generally speaking, "SMS" is inclusive of MMS. Benefits include:

* **Immediacy** — Send time-sensitive notifications.
* **Reach** — Contact customers who don’t have your app, or re-engage customers who are inactive on other channels or at-risk.
* **Personalization** — Send transactional messages triggered by a backend system, e.g., order confirmation and shipment tracking updates.
* **[Mobile wallet](https://www.airship.com/docs/guides/wallet/getting-started/wallet/) integration** — Deliver personalized passes, tickets, coupons, and more.
* **Integrated platform** — Centralize all your engagement channels; manage personalization, scheduling, and deployment for all message types; and measure SMS alongside all your other channels, all in the Airship platform.
* **No app required** — If you do have an app, however, SMS notifications are an additional channel
   that you can use to engage your audience. You can decide which channel (app, SMS, etc.) is more important for different types of messaging, adjust your messaging for different channels, set priority per channel, and much
   more. See [Channel Coordination](https://www.airship.com/docs/reference/glossary/#channel_coordination) for details about priority channel and other cross-channel engagement strategies.

You can create SMS keywords in the dashboard. See [SMS keywords](https://www.airship.com/docs/guides/messaging/features/sms-keywords/).

### Use cases

**Sports Events**
* **Before the event** — Last-minute ticket offers, seat upgrades, parking coupons
* **During the event** — Coupons, promotions of venue facilities, promotion of sponsor experiences to increase partner activations
* **Mobile wallet pass delivery** — Coupons, tickets

**Retail**
* **Campaigns** — Location-aware promotions, promotions to drive in-store traffic, lifecycle marketing
* **Transactional** — Offer confirmations, order status updates
* **Mobile wallet pass delivery** — Loyalty card updates, coupons

**Airlines**
* **Day-of-travel** — Flight reminders, promotions, loyalty benefits
* **Mobile wallet pass delivery** — Boarding passes, loyalty card updates, coupons

**Media**
* **Campaigns** — Re-engage inactive or at-risk readers
* **News** — Preferred new categories

<!-- move any of this to /platform/sms/getting-started/ ? should anything stay on this page?

### SMS Users in Airship (Sender and MSISDN)

A mobile device is represented by an **MSISDN**. A *MSISDN* is the mobile phone number, including country code, of a device in your Airship audience. Each MSISDN represents an individual mobile device.

Your messages come from one or more **Sender IDs**. A sender ID is an originating phone number or string identifier used to indicate who an SMS message comes from. Members of your audience subscribe (opt in) to each sender ID they want to receive messages from. Your sender ID can be a standard phone number, short code, or a set of alpha characters representing your sender, like your company name.

Each MSISDN — or member of your audience — subscribes to the sender IDs they want to receive messages from. If your project has multiple sender IDs, you should take care when sending your message to ensure that you reach the right audience members. Use the sender ID to select your audience, so you can be sure that you reach the right MSISDNs when you send your message.

When using a short code sender in the API, you should provide the country code associated with your short code, similar to the way you prefix a phone number with a country code.

If your project has multiple senders, you can target specific users belonging to a **Sender ID** to determine the sender that the message comes from *and* ensure that your message only goes to members of your audience subscribed to that sender.
-->

## Appearance and behavior

![SMS](https://www.airship.com/docs/images/sms-content_hu_d8dcded000f7cf70.webp)

*SMS*

SMS and MMS messages appear in the recipient device's native SMS client. They are [Persistent](https://www.airship.com/docs/reference/glossary/#persistent), remaining viewable until deleted by the user.

   **SMS** messages require text, with a limit of 160 characters:

   * An SMS message over 160 characters appears to the user as successive messages.
   * If emojis and/or multibit characters are included, the message will be split into an additional message after 70 characters.
      
      We will ensure the delivery of split messages, and most modern phones will concatenate the messages for the recipient, displaying them as a single message as opposed to delivering message 1 of 2 and message 2 of 2 separately. The number of actual SMS message sends will be billed even though the receiving device may display a fewer number of messages.

![MMS with subject and text](https://www.airship.com/docs/images/mms-content_hu_5517c9f70771fdc5.webp)

*MMS with subject and text*

**MMS** messages require an image or [vCard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VCard). See [Media guidelines](https://www.airship.com/docs/reference/messages/media-guidelines/).

   Content options for MMS:

   * **Subject** — A heading that appears in bold. Subject might not appear if you are sending from a toll-free number. 80 character maximum.
   
   * **Text message** — Text that accompanies the image. 5,000 character maximum.

   * **SMS fallback text** — Users who cannot receive your MMS message will receive an SMS message with this text along with the image URL. 160 character maximum.

   Link shortening and tag actions are supported for both text options in MMS.

> **Important:** While MMS messages can include a subject and text, there is no guarantee as to the order in which text and the media in the message appear to the user. Media and text are sent separately.



<!-- https://urbanairship.slack.com/archives/CE6LUJN6L/p1561410282183800

this is what’s in place for MMS validation in the UI now:
fallback_text has a max length of 160 characters.
Subject has a max length of 80 characters. 
Slide text has a max length of 5,000 characters.

-->

### RCS branded sender

Use an RCS branded sender to enable richer, branded delivery with read events where available. Your message automatically falls back to SMS/MMS when RCS is not supported. See [RCS branded senders](https://www.airship.com/docs/developer/api-integrations/sms/rcs/) for more information.

## Link shortening

*Link shortening* converts HTTP/HTTPS URLs in your SMS messages to unique, shortened URLs for your recipients. The shortened URLs reduce the total number of characters that links consume and produce click tracking metrics, helping you determine how effective your SMS messages are in driving traffic to your links.

### Tag actions

You can add or remove tags from users who engage with Airship-shortened links in your SMS messages. Shortened links with tag actions are the same length as URLs without. You can also use tag change events to kick off automation rules or sequences, making it easier to integrate SMS messaging campaigns into your larger messaging strategy.

Tag actions add query parameters to your URL, but users will still see the shortened URL in your SMS messages.

### Custom domains for short links

Take advantage of your highly-recognizable brand and increase conversions while saving characters in SMS messages using Airship-shortened links with a custom domain. See [Custom domains for short links](https://www.airship.com/docs/developer/api-integrations/sms/custom-short-link/) in our developer documentation.

## Getting started with SMS

Follow these steps to start using SMS with Airship:

* <span style="font-size: 1.25em;"></span> **Add the SMS channel to your project**  <a href="https://www.airship.com/contact-us/">Contact Airship Sales</a> to provision your project for SMS messages.
* <span style="font-size: 1.25em;"></span> **Register users and set up keywords**  See [Getting Started](https://www.airship.com/docs/developer/api-integrations/sms/getting-started/) for SMS integration in our developer documentation.

Once your project is set up, you can start creating <span style="font-size: 1.25em;"></span> [SMS/MMS/RCS content](https://www.airship.com/docs/guides/messaging/messages/content/sms/).