SMS length
How many characters is one SMS?
One SMS holds 160 characters of plain text, or 70 if the message has emojis or some accented letters. Longer messages are split into parts, and your carrier counts every part as one SMS from your plan. On DroidSender, a message counts as one on your plan whatever its length.
| Your message | Counts on your mobile plan as |
|---|---|
| Up to 160 characters, plain letters and numbers | 1 SMS |
| Up to 70 characters, with emojis or some accents (like ã, õ, á or ç) | 1 SMS |
| Longer | Split into parts of about 153 characters (67 with emojis or those accents), each part = 1 SMS |
Example: a 1,600-character message counts as 11 SMS on your mobile plan. Sent to 500 people, that is 5,500 SMS from your plan. Your customers still see one message.
How DroidSender counts
On your DroidSender plan, we count messages, not parts. A message of 1,000 characters counts as 1. Your mobile plan still counts the parts, so long messages use up your carrier's SMS faster. One message can be up to 2,000 characters.
Why shorter is better
- Your mobile plan lasts longer.
- Short messages go out faster and fail less often.
- People read them.
What we see: messages of 1 to 5 SMS are the sweet spot. Above that, sending large volumes can start to cause errors, even on an unlimited plan.
Tips
- Keep each message between 1 and 5 SMS, ideally under 160 characters.
- Leave out emojis.
- For details, add a link to your own website (not a link shortener) or ask people to reply.
DroidSender shows how many SMS each message uses while you write a campaign. Below the message box you see, for example, "320 characters = 3 SMS per contact" and the total for the whole list. It also points out the characters that cut a message down to 70 per SMS, with a Remove accents button.
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