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Sending an SMS Message

Compose a free-text SMS from Reach with a live character counter and Unicode-aware segment tracking.

Written by Tarek Khalil

Install Reach: Get the browser extension from the Chrome Web Store.

Before you start

To send an SMS from Reach you need:

  • An active SMS channel configured in your Octopods workspace.

  • A contact with a valid phone number loaded in the home screen. Reach pre-fills the recipient from the detected contact.

Unlike WhatsApp, SMS messages are free text — you type whatever you want to send and Reach delivers it exactly as written.

Step 1: Open the SMS composer

  1. From the home screen, click Send SMS in the quick actions — or click an SMS channel row in the CHANNELS list to compose on that specific channel.

  2. If your workspace has more than one SMS channel, pick the channel to send from when prompted.

  3. Reach opens the SMS Message screen with the recipient strip showing the contact’s name, phone number, and the channel you’re sending from.

Step 2: Write the message

  1. Click into the Message textarea. The placeholder reads Type your message….

  2. Type the message content. The textarea expands as you type.

  3. If the contact has a name, an Insert name link appears in the top-right of the Message label. Click it to insert the contact’s first name at the cursor position. This is useful for quick personalizations like “Hi Sarah, just following up…”.

Step 3: Watch the character and segment counter

Directly below the textarea, the encoding bar shows the live status of your message:

  • encoding — Either GSM-7 (green) or UCS-2 (orange) depending on what you typed.

  • segments — How many SMS segments the message will be split into. SMS is billed per segment, so a message that spans two segments counts as two SMS.

  • Character count — Shown as [count] / 1600 in the top-right. Reach caps individual messages at 1,600 characters.

  • A short reminder line below the progress bar showing the per-segment capacity for the active encoding.

Reach picks the encoding automatically based on what you type:

  • GSM-7 — Standard letters, numbers, and most punctuation. Fits 160 characters per single-segment message and 153 per segment in multi-segment messages.

  • UCS-2 — Triggered by emojis, accented characters, smart quotes, or other non-GSM symbols. Fits 70 characters per single-segment message and 67 per segment in multi-segment messages. Adding a single emoji shrinks your per-segment capacity.

When the message contains non-GSM characters, Reach shows a UCS-2 encoding detected warning below the encoding bar. The panel lists both the GSM-7 and the UCS-2 segment counts side by side, so you can see how many segments you would save by removing the special characters.

Tip: If you want to keep a message in a single segment, remove emojis, smart quotes, and accented letters — those are the usual Unicode triggers.

Step 4: Choose how the message threads

A toggle near the bottom of the composer controls how the SMS threads in Intercom. The label changes based on context:

  • Start new conversation in Intercom — When checked and no synced conversation already exists for this contact. Reach creates a new Intercom conversation alongside sending the SMS.

  • Send without conversation in Intercom — When unchecked. The message is still saved, but is not linked to a new conversation. If a conversation already exists for this contact, the message is added there.

  • Add to conversation #[ID] in Intercom — Locked on when a synced conversation is already linked to this contact. The SMS is added as a reply to that conversation.

Step 5: Preview and send

You have two options at the bottom of the composer:

  • Send SMS — Sends the message immediately. The button reads Sending… while in flight. Disabled while the message is empty.

  • Preview — Opens a read-only preview screen so you can see exactly how the message will look before committing. Disabled while the message is empty.

  1. (Optional) Click Preview to review the message.

  2. Click Send SMS to submit.

Reach navigates to the Message sent screen with a green confirmation and begins tracking delivery.

If the send fails

If the SMS provider rejects the message, Reach shows the Message sent screen with the delivery tracker and a red Delivery failed alert containing:

  • The failure reason.

  • An error code (if the provider returned one).

The confirmation screen also offers Send another message to start a new SMS right away. From the message history, you can open the failed message detail and use Edit & retry to resend with adjustments.

Common reasons SMS messages fail

  • Invalid phone number — The recipient’s number isn’t in a format the provider accepts, or the country is not served.

  • Blocked recipient — The recipient has unsubscribed or blocked messages from your sending number.

  • Channel misconfiguration — The sending SMS channel is not fully provisioned. Ask an admin to check the channel setup.

  • Carrier rejection — The carrier refused delivery, often because of content filtering or rate limits.

See Tracking Message Delivery for how to review delivery events and retry a failed SMS.

What’s next

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