I'm trying to send out some sms messages via php, using twilio, that have some short text ads at the end, which include a link. I'm shortening the links with the google url shortener to keep the message length down. The problem, is that, twilio doesn't seem to want to send messages with goo.gl links in them. Other links work fine, including links shortened using tinyurl. Apparently, it has nothing to do with my code, because I have the same problem when trying to send the messages directly from the twilio web interface.
Can anyone tell me why this is happening? I can't find any reference to it in the documentation anywhere or on google.
To replicate just go to www.twilio.com and try to send an sms message like:
http://goo.gl/nqUc5
Note: The problem is not the length of the message. Changing just a single letter so that the url is not goo.gl will make it work.
I asked Twilio what's going on. Here is their response:
"goo.gl" links started being filtered by certain carriers very recently. we have escalated this issue to the carriers [and] have been working to try to get the filter removed. Unfortunately, we are [not] encouraged by the progress we are making and this could end up being permanent.
Really this is a question for twilio customer support team, perhaps there is some restrictions on that particular short url services as I suspect its sometimes used to masquerade dodgy links, they may be able to lift if for your account if they have such a system in place.
https://www.twilio.com/help/contact
There is also a community forum you could ask: http://forum.twilio.com/twilio/?from_gsfn=true
I'd like to add to Andrew McKinlay's answer.
I have an application that is working just fine on AT&T, but Verizon phones won't get the messages that contain goo.gl links.
(I don't seem to have rep to comment or up vote... sorry to put an answer instead, but hopefully this will help someone else with this issue.)
Related
I'm creating an app which will allow all users to initiate conversation with page owner using Chat-to-SMS service.
Problem is that I'm not sure how to track conversations since there would be one conversation chain from SMS Provider <-> page owner. When owner clicks reply, it needs to know which session user it needs to send the message to.
Basically, I need to do opposite what is being explained here: https://www.twilio.com/docs/quickstart/php/sms/tracking-conversations
How should I accomplish this? I can't quite wrap my head around this.
Twilio developer evangelist here.
If you are sending all the chat messages to just one SMS number then there is no easy way to tie replies back to the original message. (As a quick experiment, if you open an SMS conversation in your own phone and try to reply to any message that wasn't the latest one, you'll see it's not possible.)
There are workarounds though.
You could, when forwarding the message, generate an ID for it. Then get your page owner to include that ID when responding to that message, that way you can route the message back to the original sender and strip out the ID.
Alternatively, when replying you could always respond to the last message that came in. This relies on there not being much traffic, allowing the page owner to respond before the next message arrives. This is error prone though.
Another alternative is purchasing a new number for each new conversation. You could expire the number after a predetermined amount of time. This is made much easier with Twilio Proxy, which was announced recently and is currently in preview.
Let me know if that helps at all.
I am wondering whether i can add google analytic to an email.
I want to check my click rate , open rate of my sent mail. I have done some research on this and I learnt that there is a track code should be useful.
So,
Since now i am sending an html version email, is it possible to add the code into the mail?
Also,
If i want to see the result of it , is it possible i do not need to login to the google page, but connect to their server and retrieve the result and show them on my php page?
Thank you
I would say NO on this question. You could of course add the Google Analytics script-snippet to your HTML email, but I believe most e-mail clients will block the JavaScript for security reasons. Thus leaving you with inaccurate data, at best.
In your case, if you don't want to send your mails through MailChimp or some other third party service that does the tracking for you (they track both openings and clicks), I would implement my own "simple" tracking system. Each link in the email re-directs through a page that you are in control of, where you track the click and then redirect the user to the appropriate address.
Update
About getting data from your Google Analytics account, I believe you can use the Analytics Reporting API. Haven't tried it myself, but it sounds like what you are needing.
Yes , when you are sending the HTML code to the client , enclose an analytics snippet in the FOOTER of your page. That should do it. However you cannot modify the code.
You can use Google Analytics tracking code, but you will see the "visits" only.
"Visits" => When a user opens an email of you (and of course to be connected to internet)
I think this code will not work inside Outlook.
To see the results, you need to login into your Google Analytics account.
PS: Be sure to setup a valid analytics tracking code.
You can only track link-clicks with Google Analytics if your target site has the Analytics Code in it:
You can read about it here:
http://analytics.blogspot.com/2009/03/tips-for-tracking-email-marketing.html
Yes it is possible to use google analytic's to track open rates.
If you have a pure text version of a email no it is not possible to track it as it need a call to a image so it is only possible using a html version. No you do not try and embed the standard javascript for the tracking you make a direct call to the tracking gif.
There was a free service that did do this
http://web.archive.org/web/20100828084217/http://email-tracking-with-google-analytics.com/index.php
Basically, I want my users to be able to just click a button and get a small popup-window that puts them in contact with me through one of the major communicationstools.
Does anyone know about any such services?
You'd need to cover a lot of different services, and hope they were running that app when they visited your site.
Use Live Chat or similar - you've probably seen the type of thing around:
http://www.imsupporting.com/
http://www.livezilla.net/home/en/ - free
http://www.chat4support.com/ - free version
http://www.craftysyntax.com/ - free (plus pointless following eyes on homepage).
I've not tested them so can't give any info on how good they are...hope this helps.
Make a link with the following href format:
SendMessage
Note: requires the client have the IM client installed, and is not supported by all IM clients.
For AOL:
Send Message
For Yahoo:
Send Message
For Google:
Send Message
For MSN/Windows Live:
Send Message
For ICQ:
Send Message
I was wondering if there was a way for a website to send an alert/notification to a cell phone (smart phone, android, iphone... stuff like that) where the notification will ask the user a question and they have to answer the question and the response is sent back to the website and their answer is logged in the database.
I would also like to know if this notification could have checkboxes? I am needing this for a project and would like to know if there is anything out there like this.
If you need more description, please let me know.
Thanks in advance!
Short of building an application for each specific phone to handle this alert, not really.
What I would do if I were you... allow users to subscribe to these alerts. When you send them, send them a link to a mobile web page. Now, keep in mind that most people don't have a data plan, or even know what to do with it. It would be best to allow replies over SMS as well. Without more details about what you are doing, it is hard to give a better answer.
Google around for an SMS Gateway. There are nearly infinite options with various pricing... so you will need to find the one best for you. Alternatively, you can send messages to the SMTP address. For example, 0123456789#vtext.com will send a text message to a Verizon customer with the number of 0123456789. SMS is more reliable though.
C2DM will solve this problem, for newer Android devices.
I currently have a php script that reads email messages sent from phones and then it posts them on the internet...
I want to do the same thing but instead of reading emails, I would like to process the data through a SMS.
so, if someone sends a sms to X number, my program would get the message through this X number and use it in the site.
What would I need?
You have a lot of options here. Generally speaking you need to first acquire the number that people can SMS to. Afterwards a callback will be issued to you when someone sends and SMS and your PHP script can process the message and figure out what to do with it.
You essentially have a few options for exposing the SMS
Go with a dedicated short-code. Eg someone sends a text to 53234 and you will get a callback to deal with it. This is an expensive option. It will cost you generally around $2500/mo minimum not including per messaging fees. You can requisition a short code through a provider such as Open Market. You have to get approval for the short code which might take as much as 6 weeks.
Go with a shared short code. This is a bit cheaper -- you pay per message and it usually costs anywhere from .02 - .10 /msg depending on your msg volume. You get a keyword such as DOLLY that people have to preface before texting. So they would text DOLLY INPUT TEXT HERE to 53234 now and you would receive the callback with INPUT TEXT HERE. Celltrust and others provide shared short codes.
Use a public api that allows people to text in through something such as TextMarks. Textmarks is like a shared short code requires keyword usage + users to subscribe. However it is free which is great and has a nice callback API. I believe a service called Mozes also provides similar service. Finally, if you want you can set up a Twitter account and have people text to their number. Facebook also a similar API that allows you to use their FBOOK shortcode.
Ish's answer was great. I'd like to point out an additional free option.
Most carriers allow you to send SMS messages to email addresses. The SMS text gets inserted into the body of the email and the subject is carrier dependent. Once the email is sitting in your inbox, you can access it by the method of your choice.
This method has worked for me in a personal project requiring remote communication with my computer when all I had was a cell phone without internet capabilities.
This Wikipedia page shows how many carries support this (practically all).
Just try not to violate anyone's terms of service, you could always host the email account yourself.