An SMS sent through Agillic can consist of multiple message parts. The number of parts determines how much the SMS will cost to send. Learn more about how SMS characters are calculated here.
You can check the number of message parts an SMS is made from by performing a Flow prediction before you execute the Flow.
How to Test an SMS and Predict the Number of Message Parts in a Flow
- Log into Staging.
- Open the Flows module.
- Create a Flow.
- Add a Target Group to your Flow containing one or more test recipients.
- Insert an SMS Step.
- Save the Flow.
- Predict the Flow.
- Publish to Staging.
- Execute the Flow manually.
If you don't have a Target Group containing your test recipients, you can create a new test recipient and create a Target Group with Conditions finding the test recipient. This would look like:
- Person Data - EMAIL - Equals - 'The email address of your test recipient' - Condition met.
Perform a Flow prediction in order to calculate the number of SMS parts pr. SMS before a Flow execution
How to Get the Activity Data
- Open the Data module.
- Open the Export subsection.
- Create an Export Profile if you don't already have one.
- Create an Activity Export where you check the 'SMS' checkbox.
- Select the period where you ran your test.
- Run the Activity Export.
Now, you've generated an Activity Export containing data on how many message parts your test SMS was.
An Activity Export set up to export Activity Data for SMS. The Export profile used exports the data to the Activity Export folder and includes data for 1 day. The Execution chosen is 'Period' and the date where the test ran is set as the min. and max. date.
- Access the Activity Export either from your email inbox, FTP/SFTP server, or through WebDAV depending on your set up Export Profile.
- Unzip the contents of the Activity Export.
- Open the file ending with '_SMS'.
- Locate your test recipient in the file.
- Find the 'H' column containing the SMS Message Parts.
You now know how many message parts your SMS consisted of for your test recipient. If you need an overview of how many message parts you sent throughout a longer period, you can calculate your total sent here.
An Activity Export opened in Excel showing that the SMS received by the test recipient consisted of 2 message parts
It's important to know that the length of your SMS can change greatly if you insert Person Data or Global Data into your SMS. Therefore, be mindful that the total message parts is the total for the specific recipient you tested with.