Are you aware that the amount of message parts you send determines the costs of your message to your contacts? In this article, I’ll tell you everything you need to know about message characters.
Sending text messages is a great way to communicate with people because they have short attention spans and frequently check their phones while on the go. Your messages will be received quickly and effectively.
That raises the question: What is the maximum character limit for a text message?
When composing a message, you will notice the numbers in the message composer's lower corner. Yes, that’s the message character count that guides you as you type.
Standard Message
A single-part text message can have a maximum length of 160 characters, including spaces. Not that an SMS message can't have more than 160 characters, but it will eventually split into multiple parts.
Are you aware that the Global System for Mobile (GSM) character set is the only one included in standard messages? The Latin letters A through Z, the digits 0 through 9, and a few special characters like the '@' or '£' sign are included in these character sets.
Your text becomes a multipart message when it has more characters than 160, with each part having characters ranging from 160 to 153. This is because creating a sequence of messages requires more data.
Don't worry, your recipients will only see one message in their inbox, no matter how many parts you include at the end of your message text. It is imperative that your texts are informative, succinct, and captivating.
How Message Character Count Works
Emojis can have up to 92 characters, but any regular letter, symbol, or space counts as one character. Emojis, in actuality, can help emphasise a point and establish a relatable connection between you and the reader, but you should use them sparingly, based on how much SMS credit you have available.
A standard GSM message consists of 33 parts, with a text message body limit of 5000 characters. While a Unicode message also has a 5000-character limit, it consists of 75 parts.
Unicode Message
The maximum character length for a message that contains any non-standard GSM characters is 70. Like standard messages, they are divided into multiple parts after more than 70 characters. Then, each part may consist of up to 67 characters. This is because there is a need for more data storage because of the increased complexity. With Unicode, you can use any character that is recognised in your message, including emojis, mathematical symbols, dashes, arrows, brackets, and characters from languages other than Arabic and Chinese that are included in the GSM character set.
Note: As soon as you add one technical symbol to the body of your message, it will be regarded as a Unicode text message.
A Unicode text message can have a maximum of 5000 characters, or 75 message parts.
Keep in mind that communicating with customers via SMS is a very effective way to engage them; open rates are higher and, generally speaking, shorter messages work best.
Send more with Termii, and keep making each character worth it!