Send a text message

Text messages reach people on their phones. Use them for urgent news at an event, such as a delay, a closed road or a change of start time, and for short messages to an audience. SMS is an add-on that you pay for in packs of credits. See Add-ons for how to buy credits.

Each part of a text uses one credit. A message of up to 160 characters is one part. A longer message is cut into parts of 153 characters each. If the message has an emoji or a letter outside the usual set, the limit drops to 70 characters for one part and 67 for each part after that. Your organisation's name is added to the start and a short opt-out link to the end, and they count too. The link opens a page where a person taps the opt-out button to stop all texts, without signing in. The cost shown before you send already includes it.

For an official notice to the field, use a bulletin as well: a text is a quick nudge, and a bulletin is the record. See Send a bulletin.

Who can be texted

Only people who agreed to texts. Each person gives a mobile number and ticks a box under "Text messages" in their notification settings, and that is recorded with the date. People can also choose which topics they want texts about. A person is left out if they:

have no account, or no mobile number
have not agreed to texts
used the opt-out link at the end of a text, or switched texts off, since they agreed
have not ticked texts for the topic (for messages to an audience)

You do not see anyone's number. The page tells you how many people each reason left out.

Send an urgent alert

Some services also send alerts to entrants who gave a mobile number but did not tick the box for texts. That is only for purely factual event information. People who have opted out are never texted.

Choose "Text messages" in the menu.
Under "Kind of text", choose "Urgent event alert". Pick the event under "Event".
Under "Groups", tick entrants, crews or officials. Tick classes under "Classes" to narrow it.
Write the "Message". Keep it short, factual and about safety or running the event. Tick the box that says the alert is purely factual information about the event. Never use an alert to promote or sell anything: use a message to an audience for that.
To point people to more detail, pick a published bulletin under "Link a bulletin (optional)". Its link is added to the text.
Choose "Check cost". The page shows how many people it reaches, the exact text, the number of parts per person and the credits it will use.
Choose "Send text".

Send a message to an audience

Under "Kind of text", choose "Message to an audience".
Choose "The whole organisation" or "One event" and tick the groups, as for a mailout. See Send a mailout.
Write the message, choose "Check cost", then "Send text".

Only people who ticked texts for "Newsletters and mailouts" get a message to an audience. Use it for news and invitations, not for official notices.

Reminders

People who tick texts for a topic also get a text with some reminders, such as a payment request, a roster offer, a scrutineering time, and "your event is tomorrow" the evening before. These use your credits too. If you have none left, the email still goes and the text is skipped.

Limits and what is never sent

A send is never partly sent. If the credits do not cover everyone, nothing is sent and the page says how many credits it needs and how many you have.
One send goes to a limited number of people, and your organisation can only text so many people an hour. The page says when you hit a limit.
A text is not sent if the add-on is off or SMS is not available yet.

Read the results

Open a text from "Sent texts". It shows the text as sent, the parts and credits, and one row per person with "Sent", "Failed" or "Opted out".

"Sent" means the text was handed to the sending service. We do not see whether it reached the phone.
"Failed" and "Opted out" texts are not charged: their credits go back to your balance.

If something goes wrong

The page says SMS is not available yet. Text messages have not been set up on this service.
The page says SMS is an add-on. Buy a pack of credits from the Add-ons page.
Not enough credits. Buy another pack, or choose a smaller audience or a shorter message.
Fewer people than you expected. The people left out did not agree to texts, or switched the topic off. You cannot text them.

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