Twilio cutting SMS url short

4
votes

I use twilio to send sms messages but in the message I am trying to create it is a very long url and therefore won't send in 160 characters so twilio cuts the message off and url doesn't work.

If I use the automated twilio Shorten SMS the same thing happens.

I assume there is a limit to the amount of characters Twilio will send and I believe it cannot join concatenated messages in Australia from Twilio.

2
smstwilio
It's more a SMS protocol limitation than Twilio, try a url shortener, there are plenty out there, or create your own redirect (search about base62 encoding). - Alex Baban
Thanks Alex, the SMS program we use through Salesforce sends the complete SMS without cutting it and when I use Twilio either with url shortener on or off it cuts the url short. - Jason Bright
What is the SMS program you're using? Did you write it or is it available somewhere? There shouldn't be restrictions on concatenation based on geography, but if the program is using the deprecated SMS/Messages endpoint then it won't do concatenation and maybe that's the problem? - philnash

2 Answers

6
votes

Edit: as of August 2019 Twilio has discontinued its URL shortening service. You should consider using a 3rd party service that allows you to set a unique base URL.

Sharing a static base-URL for a link shortener can cause unexpected carrier filtering issues with U.S. 10-digit long codes (short codes are not carrier filtered). Carriers sometimes spam filter messages by content, and the base-URLs of the links being shared appear to be one way that they categorize spam.

Twilio is working on a next-generation URL shortener that provides randomized base URLs as an add-on to a messaging service. If you are interested in this functionality contact Twilio support.

4
votes

You should check to see that URL shortening is explicitly enabled in your account before attempting to send messages.

https://www.twilio.com/console/sms/settings

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