Objective

The SMS response service lets you send an SMS message that the recipient can reply to. You can thus create a reply exchange (booking a medical appointment, games, etc.) with your recipient.

The sender of the SMS response will be a random short number. Its use is included in your SMS offer and the reply is not charged at a premium rate for the recipient.

Requirements

• An OVHcloud SMS account with credits.

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Accessing the OVHcloud Control Panel

• Direct link: SMS
• To access your services: Telecom > SMS > Select your SMS account

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Instructions

How it works and limitations

Replies are possible from French mobile operators (Bouygues Telecom, Free, Orange, SFR and their associated virtual operators (MVNOs)).

This means that only numbers geolocated in France and associated with a subscription with one of these operators use compatible SMS messages and will have their replies processed.

Recipients can only reply to your SMS when you use the virtual number or the short number when sending. The latter, with 5 digits, is randomly assigned and is specific to the conversation. It therefore cannot be kept.

The SMS reply service works very simply:

The service lets the recipient reply to the SMS received within 48 hours. After this time, the reply will not be taken into account.

The reply (if you enable it) can then be:

• Automatic and unique: you define a reply (in the Control Panel) that will be sent systematically.
• Dynamic: you call a script that handles the reply.

Managing the reply options

Before sending your SMS response, we recommend that you configure the reply reception options.

In the tab bar, click Options then Reply options.

You can configure an action on reception (to reply to your recipient or trigger a script) and/or a notification on reception (to keep yourself informed of your recipients' replies).

Action on reception

From the drop-down menu, choose one of the options offered:

Once your option is configured, click the Confirm button.

Notification on reception

Click Add a notification to access the following menu.

Then configure a notification by email or by SMS.

• Email notification

  • Sender: you must enter a valid email address belonging to you.
  • Email address: enter the recipient email address of the notification.

• SMS notification

  • Sender: choose a sender from those already validated in your SMS account.
  • Number: enter the recipient number of the notification in international format.

Once your notification is configured, click the Confirm button. You can add several notifications, edit them or delete them.

Sending an SMS response

In the Control Panel, select the Home tab of your SMS account. Then click Send an SMS.

Make sure that your sender is the Number enabling replies (France only).

Then fill in the fields for the recipient(s) and your message. For more details, refer to our guide on sending SMS messages from the Control Panel.

Viewing replies

In the Control Panel, click the Message and campaign tab of your SMS account and select SMS management. Then click SMS received.

A table lists all the SMS messages received in reply to your sends. You can sort these SMS messages by clicking the column headers of the table.

Go further

Talk to our community of users.