The SMS layer in ActiveManage lets your application send text messages to mobile phones for transactional notifications, alerts, two-factor authentication codes, password resets and marketing communications. It plugs into your chosen SMS gateway (Twilio, Vonage, MessageBird, AWS SNS or a custom HTTP relay) and exposes a single sending API that the rest of the platform calls.
When SMS Is Used
SMS is the right channel any time you need delivery in under a minute and you cannot rely on the recipient having the app open. Typical use cases include:
- Two-factor authentication. When a user signs in from a new device, the 6-digit code is texted to their registered mobile number.
- Password reset. Instead of (or alongside) the email reset link, the user can request a reset code by SMS.
- Booking reminders. A reminder to a patient, a tradesperson or a workshop attendee 24 hours before their appointment.
- Operational alerts. A site supervisor receives a text when an incident form is submitted with severity “major”.
How Sending Works
Every outbound message routes through one configured gateway, identified by an SMS engine record. The platform formats the destination number into E.164 (with the country prefix), substitutes any merge tokens, then posts the request to the gateway and stores the gateway's message ID for status tracking.
Note: Numbers entered without a country prefix are normalised against the tenant's default country. If no default is set the message will fail validation rather than being silently misrouted.
Cost and Throughput Considerations
SMS is metered per-segment (typically 160 GSM characters or 70 Unicode characters per segment). The platform shows the segment count before you send a campaign and stores the per-message cost reported by the gateway. Common pitfalls:
- Using an emoji or a curly quote unknowingly switches the message to Unicode, dropping the segment limit to 70.
- Some carriers reject all-caps sender IDs in marketing messages — use mixed case.
- UK alphanumeric sender IDs cannot exceed 11 characters.
Compliance
You are responsible for ensuring all marketing SMS has consent and an opt-out mechanism (typically “Reply STOP to unsubscribe”). The SMS log includes opt-out tracking so you can demonstrate compliance during an audit.