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Send SMS by email

Users on your Iflow account can send an SMS by sending an email. The email’s body becomes the text message.

Before you start

The email must come from an address that belongs to a user on your account. Emails from any other address aren’t recognised and aren’t sent.

Addressing

Send the email to the mobile number at the gateway domain.

  • Mobiles in the Republic of Ireland: start with 08 followed by the rest of the number. To text 0870000000, send the email to 0870000000@text.diarybook.com.
  • Mobiles in other countries: use the international format without the +. To text the UK mobile 07800000000, send the email to 447800000000@text.diarybook.com.

Message length

A single text message holds up to 160 characters, including spaces. A longer email is sent as two or more parts that are joined back together on the recipient’s phone, and each part is charged. See SMS message parts.

To cap the number of parts, use restrictSize in the subject line (below). With restrictSize=1; only the first 160 characters are sent.

Subject line settings

The subject line can carry settings that change how the message is sent. Write each one as:

parameterName=parameterValue;

There must be no spaces, and each setting must end with a semicolon.

NameValueWhat it does
restrictSizeMaximum partsLimits the number of parts the message is sent in
senderIdSender IDChooses which of your sender IDs to send from

For example, if your account has SHOP as an approved sender ID, put senderId=SHOP; in the subject. Without it, the message is sent from your account’s default sender.

Your account can instead be set up to include the subject line in the text. The first line of the message is then the subject, followed by the body of the email.

Securing the gateway

For extra security, add a gateway key header to every email you send. See Gateway keys.