Guides | Communicator

Clickatell Communicator is a web based messaging tool. This Guide is designed to help you through the registration process and to provide assistance with using Clickatell Communicator.

Each of these is described in more detail on its own. To go directly to a particular section, click on the appropriate link.

Registering for a Communicator Account

Click on "Register for FREE" button on Communicator Homepage.
Follow the three easy steps to complete the registration form.
Once registered you will be ready to send your first message.

Note:

You can change your preferences by clicking on the Message Preferences link in the Messaging tab. It includes the following:

Sender ID - Identification of sender that appears on recipient's phone (remember, if you change this setting from the default you will not be able to receive reply messages in your Inbox).
Concatenation - Whether you would like to split content across multiple messages.
Delivery acknowledgements - receive notifications that a message has been delivered.
Prefix - 2 digit international code to be used in front of numbers (e.g. 44 if you only send messages to the UK).

You may also select your routing profile by clicking on the Routing Profile link in the My Settings tab. The default is "all profiles" which allows you to reach any destination network but may cost you more than one credit per message. For more information on routing profiles, click here.

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Changing your personal preferences

Your Communicator

Default Sender ID:
Sender ID is the number or company name that a message will appear to come from on a recipient's phone - if a delivery route that supports this feature is available. If a route is not available, then a default sender ID will be used to deliver the message.

IMPORTANT:

If you change the sender ID from the default you will not be able to receive reply messages in your Inbox.
A maximum of 11 alphanumeric characters are allowed.

Customized sender ID's need to be registered and approved. If a sender ID is set that is not approved, then the sender ID will be automatically overridden by a default number assigned by Clickatell when a message is sent. You can register Sender ID's by logging into your Communicator online account, selecting "My Settings" from the menu at the top and then selecting "Manage Sender ID" from the menu on the left.

PLEASE NOTE: This feature will only apply to network operators who support this feature. For example, customers cannot use custom Sender IDs when delivering messages to the US due to certain limitations with US network operators. For a full list of network operators that support this feature, please go to basic coverage and click on the relevant country. Please note that alpha and numeric must be supported in order to enable the Sender ID feature.

Also refer to the Sender ID document.

Splitting Long Messages: (concatenation)
Enables one to span a message across multiple SMSs. Each SMS is charged separately. Useful for longer messages. Defines the maximum number of SMSs that it will span across if necessary. This only applies to a message greater than 160 characters.

Delivery Acknowledgements
In order to determine whether an SMS has been received by a handset or not, we offer delivery acknowledgement. Select this option if you wish to receive delivery acknowledgements. The ability to receive reliable delivery acknowledgements varies between mobile networks.

Default Country Prefix
This is the 2-digit country code you would like to use as your default for mobile numbers (e.g. 44 if you want to send in the UK only). Not essential to fill this in, as you can add this in front of your numbers in your address book (e.g. mobile number = 448311234567).

User Details

Enables you to edit your personal details, including your username and password. Other options include signing up for Clickatell news emails and weekly account status emails.

Routing Profiles

The purpose of routing profiles:
The main purpose of profiles is to control the cost of messages you send by setting how much you are prepared to pay for them.

Changing Profiles:

Currently all profiles will be automatically selected for all users when they register, by default. Therefore users will be able to send to all destinations (0.8 to 3 credit destinations). In order to change your routing profiles (i.e. deselect certain profiles), simply un-tick the appropriate credit bands in your "routing profiles" preferences, and click "Save Profiles".

View by Country

If you have changed your routing profiles and would like to view the networks that are covered with particular bands ticked, then you can use the dropdown tool below the profiles manager. Simply select a country and press "Submit".

FAQ's:

How do I use the profiles?
If you choose to deselect profiles, only the default profile A (0.8 credit per SMS) cannot be deselected. If you deselect all other optional profiles, messages that cost 1 or more credits will not be delivered. Therefore if you need to send to a destination that costs more than 1 credit, your message will fail. To enable sending to destinations that cost more than 1 credit, please ensure that these destinations have not been deselected.

For Example:

It costs 2.5 credits to send an SMS to France - Orange.
If you send to France - Orange, and you have manually deselected all profiles, except the default profile A (0.8 credit), the message will fail.
You may see this indicated in your message report as a 'Routing error'.
To be able to send to France - Orange, you need to enable your 2.5 credit profile "E" by logging into Clickatell Central and clicking on "My Settings" on the menu at the top and then "Routing Profiles" from the menu on the left.
Once enabled, you will be able to send to all 2.5 credit destinations at a cost of 2.5 credits per SMS.

If I choose a more expensive profile, will all my messages be charged more?
No. Clickatell's message router will always select the least expensive route to any destination.

If you have not changed the current default selection and have profile "A" (0.8 credit destinations) through to profile "F" (3 credit destinations) selected, Clickatell will use the least expensive available route. The system will only select a higher route if there are no less costly routes available.

For Example:

UK - Vodafone currently costs 2 credits per SMS.
You also wish to send to France - Orange which costs 2.5 credits per SMS.
Messages to UK - Vodafone will be charged at 2 credits and not at 3 credits even though you have the 3 credit profile enabled.

How do I know what I will be charged?
The simplest way of determining this is to view the Clickatell Communicator coverage page.

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Creating & Managing Groups in your Address Book

Setting up Groups in Address Book

In order to manage your address book groups, please click on the "Messaging" tab along the top of your Communicator product and select "Address Book" from the menu on the left. The "Everyone" group is a default group where all your contacts can be viewed and edited. To set up a new group of contacts, click on the "Create New Group" link.

Once clicking on the "Create New Group" link enter a name and description for your new group. The group can be saved by clicking on the "Update" button.

In order to manage your address book groups, please click on the "Address Book" tab along the top of your Communicator product. The "Everyone" group is a default group where all your contacts can be viewed and edited. To set up a new group of contacts, click on the "Create New Group" link.

Once clicking on the "Create New Group" link the "New Group Manager" screen will be brought up, and you will be asked for a name and description of your new group. The group can be saved by clicking on the "Update" button.

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Creating & Managing Contacts in your Address Book

Managing Contacts

In order to manage your address book contacts, please click on the "Messaging" tab along the top of your Communicator product and select "Address Book" from the menu on the left. Click on the name of the group whose contacts you would like to manage. The "Everyone" group is a default group where all your contacts can be viewed and edited.

To add a new contact, click on the "Add Contact" button on the menu on the left. Note: To delete contacts from a group, simply select the appropriate tick box next to the contact and click on the "Delete Selected" link. To delete a contact permanently from your address book, delete the contact from the "Everyone" group.

Fill in the relevant details on the 'Add Contact' pop-up screen, and click "Done" to save the details.

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Uploading Contacts to your Address Book (via CSV)

In order to upload contacts into your address book, click "Messaging" on the menu at the top. Click on the name of the group you would like to upload your contacts to.

Using the "Browse" button select a CSV file from your computer (Note: if you have your contacts in any other format, e.g. Excel, you will need to save it as a CSV (comma delimited) file prior to upload).

Note: If you upload contacts that already exist in your address book (as determined by mobile number), Communicator will simply update the details of the existing contact. This will also be the case if a particular contact (mobile number) occurs multiple times in the CSV file you upload. If the contact does not exist the contact will only be created once.

In order to upload CSV files please ensure you have the correct descriptors at the top of each column. The two mandatory fields for a successful upload are Fname (first name) and Mobile (mobile number). Columns can be set out in any order. The list of all descriptors are:

Title, FName, Sname, Email, Mobile, Custom,

Example 1:

Example 2:

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Sending Messages

Selecting Recipients

To select your message recipients click on "To" or "Address Book" to select individual contacts or groups of contacts from your address book. Simply check the tick-box next to the individual contact or group and click the "Done" button. The number of recipients you have selected will show in the top right hand field of your compose message screen. If you prefer, you can simply type the number(s) into the "To" field. If you choose this option, numbers must be comma separated with no spaces.

The Message

Type your message in the space provided. The counter below the message field will count the characters as you type. Depending on whether you have concatenation selected (a message spanning multiple SMS), you can input up to 480 characters (at a cost of 3 SMS). Please note that some characters may extend the length of a message. These include | } { [ ] \ ~ ^

Custom/Merge Fields

Messages can be customised according to the data fields you have uploaded with each contact. The standard data fields appear as buttons on the right of the message box.

These are:
First Name (#FNAME#)
Title (#TITLE#)
Surname (#SNAME#)
Custom (#CUSTOM#)

By clicking the buttons the data field codes will be inserted into your message. Message recipients will see the actual data drawn out of your address book.

For example: Hi #FNAME#, hope you are enjoying the cricket.
Becomes: Hi Joe, hope you are enjoying the cricket.

Advanced Sending Features

Delayed Delivery
Schedules messages to be sent at a later stage. Days, hours and minutes can be set. The time is calculated from the moment one presses the "Send" button.

SMS Message Type
Choose the type of message you would like to send, Text or Flash.

Delivery Acknowledgements
Sends confirmations, via email, that a message was successfully delivered. Simply check the tick-box to enable.

Max Credits
The max credits feature allows one to set a lower max credit profile per campaign. For instance, if you only want to pay a maximum of 2 credits per SMS for a particular campaign (even with all your credit profiles still ticked in message preferences), then all you need to do is place a 2 in the max credits field. Please Note: You cannot raise your max credits to a higher band than has been selected in your "Routing Profile" preferences. To change this, select "My Settings" menu at the top and then select "Routing Profile" from the menu on the left.

Message Concatenation
Enables one to span a message across multiple SMS. Each SMS is charged separately. Useful for longer messages. Defines the maximum number of SMSs that it will span across if necessary. This only applies to a message greater than 160 characters.

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Receiving Messages on your Communicator Account

The new Communicator allows you to receive reply SMSs to messages sent to over 220 mobile networks worldwide. Click here to download the list of destinations. We are constantly updating this list to further improve our service to you.

If a message is sent to a number on a network that is not listed, you will not be able to receive a reply from this number. Note: These replies will be discarded.

You will only be able to receive reply SMSs if you do not change the default Clickatell sender ID. For example, if you change the default Sender ID to your company name, replies will not be sent to your Inbox.

To reset to the default Clickatell Sender ID you can just clear the Sender ID box. We will then automatically select the default sender id when sending your message.

Inbox

The Inbox allows you to view all reply SMSs you have received. For each SMS received you will be charged 1/3 of a credit. If you do not have enough credits you will not be able to receive messages.

The Inbox allows you to filter your received messages based on its Status. The default status will be "Unread" allowing you to see your new messages in your Inbox. You are also able to customize your search by clicking on the "Advanced Search" link.

Advanced Search

The following Advanced Search settings are available:

Date From & Date To: You can customize the time period within which to search.
Received From:

All - will display all the messages received
Known - will only display messages from numbers in your address book
Unknown - will only display messages from numbers not listed in your address book

Look For: You may search for a message or messages received based on Name, Surname or Cell phone number.
Clicking the Reset button resets your selected setting to the default Advanced Search settings.
Two-Way Numbers:

South Africa users
Your two-way messages will have local numbers (Vodacom, MTN and Cell C) allocated to them.
What does this mean for me? All messages sent to South African numbers will be charged at the standard local rates and all replies from South African numbers will be sent to a local allocated number, thereby saving on costs for you and your customer.
USA users
Your two-way messages will now be using allocated numbers which offers better coverage in USA.
What does this mean for me? Improved delivery and rates as a result of the new number allocation.

These setting will remain the same while logged in (unless you change them).

Reports

You are able to download all your received messages to CSV or EXCEL by clicking on the Export CSV or Export Excel buttons. All messages in your inbox, based on your search settings, will be downloaded.

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