Short Code Best Practices

Send or receive text messages from your website or application with short codes. A short code is a special 5-6 digit number (e.g., 75195) that allows your customers to subscribe to any type of SMS communication. It is the carrier-preferred method for sending text messages to your end-users.

CDYNE dedicated short codes can send up to 35 outgoing messages per second, and are available for U.S. and Canadian text messaging.

Short Code Uses

 * Marketing Messages
 * Alerts
 * Customer reminders, updates, and notifications
 * Two-way text messaging
 * One-way text messaging
 * SMS Broadcasts
 * Bulk SMS

Short Code FAQs
Short Code FAQs links to a PDF document.

SimpleSMSSend Method
SimpleSMSSend is recommended for sending single, immediate text messages.
 * Your short code will be assigned to a unique license key. When this license key is passed using SimpleSMSSend, it will automatically send text messages from the assigned short code.
 * You can also assign a DID to the same license key to enable backup text messaging if the short code sends to an unsupported carrier. When this happens SMS Notify! will send the text message from the DID.

AdvancedSMSSend Method
AdvancedSMSSend is recommended for sending scheduled text messages and allows multiple numbers with one message, or multiple numbers with individual messages.

U.S. SMS
U.S. Carriers are standardized and all text messages are 160 characters (including spaces) in length. When sending a text message to a recipient in the U.S. with more than 160 characters, the SMS Notify! API will automatically split the message into two or more messages for delivery.

Canadian SMS
Canadian Carriers vary from 136 to 160 characters (including spaces) in length. CDYNE sends to Canada the same way as the U.S. To ensure complete message delivery, CDYNE advises that your application only send messages to Canadian recipients in 136 character increments. If the message is longer than 136 characters, the best practice is to split the message on your application side at the 136 character mark to avoid data loss that may occur from Canadian Carriers that truncate anything over 136 or 140 characters.

API Request

 * 1) Your server or application makes a CDYNE SMS Notify! API Request
 * 2) Message is sent to CDYNE through the API.
 * 3) Example GET Request: http://wiki.cdyne.com/index.php/SMS_Notify!#Calling_via_REST_.28POST.2FGET.29

API Response

 * 1) CDYNE replies with an API response
 * 2) In the Response, any errors immediately noticed are returned in the Response.
 * 3) Example Response: http://wiki.cdyne.com/index.php/SimpleSMSSend#SimpleSMSSend_Response

Send Message

 * 1) CDYNE sends message to appropriate aggregator
 * 2) Message is sent to aggregator
 * 3) CDYNE sends HTTP POST to your PostBackURL indicating we sent the message to be delivered.
 * 4) Example Sent PostBack: http://wiki.cdyne.com/index.php/SMS_Message_Sent_Postback

Deliver Message

 * 1) Aggregator delivers message to appropriate carrier

Carrier Acknowledgement

 * 1) Carrier acknowledges receipt of message
 * 2) Carrier acknowledges to aggregator that they have received message.
 * 3) Aggregator sends CDYNE Delivery Receipt indicating delivery to carrier.
 * 4) CDYNE sends HTTP POST to your PostBackURL with DR information.
 * 5) Example Delivery Receipt Postback: http://wiki.cdyne.com/index.php/SMS_Delivery_Receipt_Postback

Handset Delivery

 * 1) Carrier delivers message to cell phone

Delivery Receipt

 * 1) Carrier sends delivery receipt back
 * 2) If available/supported, carrier relays delivery receipt back to aggregator
 * 3) Aggregator sends CDYNE Delivery Receipt updating status of message
 * 4) CDYNE sends HTTP POST to your PostBackURL with DR information.
 * 5) Example Delivery Receipt Postback: http://wiki.cdyne.com/index.php/SMS_Delivery_Receipt_Postback
 * 6) ''Delivery Receipts are sent through the network with low priority.  You may receive them out of order.
 * 7) Not all carriers support the handset delivery receipts. You may or may not receive a delivery receipt indicating delivery to cell phone.  However, you should receive a delivery receipt indicating delivery to the carrier.''

PostBackURL System
Know when your SMS was sent or received with the PostBackURL System. CDYNE SMS Notify! API will automatically post information to a URL you specify when text messages are sent or received via DIDs and short codes. PostBackURL data is posted behind the scenes, and is not visible on your webpage. Code samples are provided on how to capture this data to store in a database. CDYNE recommends that the data returned to be stored within your systems for reporting and reference information.

API Throughput
Dedicated short codes send up to 35 messages per second per short code.

Coverage & Area Codes
Short codes are country specific. A U.S. short code will only send messages in the U.S., and a Canadian short code will only send messages in Canada.


 * Supported short code carriers by country

SMS and Daylight Savings Time
SMS Notify! recognizes the date and time in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time). When clocks move forward 1 hour in the spring, most time zones will need to remove one hour from their UTC offset. For example, Eastern Standard Time (EST) is UTC -5 hours but Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) is UTC -4 hours.