Will my SMS messages be sent from the same number each time I send a new text campaign?

It depends!

When sending an SMS message from any of our end-user services or through the Developer Toolkit, you send what is known as an Originator along with your actual message.

In traditional handset-to-handset (consumer) texting the Originator is set to the sending handset’s number. So when you receive a text message your handset will show that you have a message from a particular number, and it is this number that is known as the Originator.

When sending SMS messages from our applications, you have greater flexibility on what appears on the handset, and you can set the Originator to be one of three values:

1. Your choice of 11 characters. You can set the Originator to be your organisation’s name or a shortened form of it. Sending your name helps identify you to the recipient as the sender of the message. The downside to this approach is that the recipient cannot reply back to you.
2. Your chosen phone number. You could send your message appearing to come from your own mobile phone number. Any replies would then come back directly to your handset. If you would like the messages to come from a fixed, constant number, but not yours, then you can rent one of our virtual numbers. This is our TextInbound service. Any messages sent in to your TextInbound number would, most commonly, be relayed to you as emails.
3. One of our reply-path numbers. If you would like to receive replies to your text message, most commonly to your email or to your online inbox, then we send your message out from one of our semi-random mobile phone numbers. The recipient won’t recognise the number, but they will be able to hit reply on their handset and send a reply back to you.

You can choose which of the above three values you use for your Originator just before you physically send the message. Each message you send can have a different setting for the Originator.

So, to answer the original question, the number that the message appears to come from will only change if you elect to send your message with one of the reply-path options. If you choose this option, then our system will use one of our thousands of numbers as your message’s Originator.

Any replies will be received by our system and then passed to you through the medium you chose when you sent the message. This is likely to be through email, shown in your online inbox, stored online for you to later download, or, if you are using the Developer Toolkit, we can pass the message back to a particular web page of yours.

For more information on our TextInbound (SMS Long Number) service, please visit our website or call our Customer Service team on 08451 221 302 who will be happy to help you.