We are pleased to announce that the QuickSend feature now provides options for you to set Number Masking as well as to apply message templates (a feature that was previously available only via the Campaign feature).
These new functions are available via the new “Options” box found on the right side of the QuickSend page.
The “Message History” link has also been moved to within this “Options” box.
We are pleased to announce the availability of our new SMS Projection function.
If you are running a conference or seminar with a significant group of participants in a conference room setting, this feature will allow your participants to SMS in their questions or feedback, and have these messages received projected onto a large projector screen in a large-screen optimized and easy-to-ready format.
Handy features you will find useful include:
Here’s what you need to get started:
1) Pre-Requisites:
2) Instructions
i) First, logon to your web account and create a SMS Receive Campaign. Full details on how this is done can be found here
ii) Once the message start coming in, go to your Receive Campaign report. Under Messages Received, click on “View Log”. Do this for both notebooks or PCs.
iii) After clicking “View Logs”, you will see the page containing the details of the messages that have come in. For the notebook or PC that will be doing the message vetting, click on the “Star” icon next to each received message to approve it for projection on the screen.
For the notebook or PC that is connected to the projector, click on the “Projection View” link in the blue menu box, and leave the screen there.
iv) As each message is approved, you will see it appear on the projection screen as shown here!
We have just completed migrating to M1’s new SMS platform, all SMS messages to M1 subscribers will now be sent via this new M1 platform. Performance and stability so far looks great, do contact us immediately should you experience any delivery issues with your recipients who are M1 subscribers.
You may have noticed that our web application pages are now loading faster, especially pages containing contacts and reports data. This is due to an optimization exercise we have completed on our Database systems, making data retrieval more speedy.
Do provide us feedback should there be other areas you feel we can improve on to make our web application work better for you!
We are pleased to announce the availability the latest update to our Web API guide. (version 3.4)
Included in this update are details on how to send a long concatenated SMS message, examples on sending a Chinese and Binary SMS message , as well as details on our Premium Rate charging API.
The new guide can be downloaded here .
What this feature enables you is to is that using an authorised mobile number, you can send an SMS to 73333 to ‘trigger’ a full-fledged SMS broadcast to a target recipient group that exists in your Contacts.
To start using this feature, logon to your account and click on ‘My Profile’ on the top right hand corner of the page. You account page should load. Proceed then to make sure that your mobile number is entered under the Personal Info section. This mobile number will be the authorised number for trigger broadcasts for your account.
To trigger a SMS broadcast, send an SMS to 73333 in the following format:
eg. “BCAST SALES-TEAM-A Pls gather for an important meeting at 5pm today”
Another example using an iPhone shown below:
You have to make sure that the specified recipient group exists, and this only works with groups with a single-word name. (no spaces within)
Message history sent via this feature can be found under the Web API tab, click on “View API Usage” to peruse.
Please note that this feature works for Singapore users only for now.
One of the many application features we have implemented this month include the ability to “Preview” contacts within a group before sending a SMS broadcast.
This feature will appear when you try to run a SMS Broadcast campaign and come to the step where you select the recipient group to send the broadcast to. Previously, when a user reaches this step, he or she might not remember which contacts are within a recipient group and will have to skip back to the Contacts module to find out.
Not any more, when you are next at the Contacts selection page, just click on the “Preview” link next to each Group name to bring up a window that allows you to sneak peak into the contents of the group!
We are pleased to announce that the COMMZGATE Web Application now supports the input and sending of Chinese messages using your favorite Chinese character input method.
The detection of your Chinese character input is automatic and there is no other action required, your Chinese message entered will be processed accordingly and be delivered to the recipient mobile phone as a Chinese message.
Do note that the GSM standard sends Chinese messages as “double-byte” characters, as such each SMS will only be able to contain 70 characters instead of the usual 160 characters for English text
To allow multiple numbers to be posted in a single HTTP request, rather than make individual HTTP requests for each mobile number, use the following request URL path:
http://<GATEWAY URL>/gateway/SendMsgBulk.php
To send to multiple numbers, you have to separate each Mobile Number with a comma.
An example on how to send the multiple numbers is as follows:
http://<GATEWAY URL>/gateway/SendMsgBulk.php?ID=xxxx&Password=xxxxx
&Mobile=659xxxxxx,659xxxxxxxx1&Message=testbulk3&Type=A
Return codes and Message IDs for each message will be returned to you
in the following manner, separated by a colon:
01010,1_121453198798594197 : 01010,1_121453198804695867 :
This is to inform that if you or your application had sent a message to M1 subscribers between 1000hrs and 1200hrs today, the message could have encountered a slight delay.
This is due to connectivity problems at M1.
Full service resumed about 1200hrs
Please contact us at support@commzgate.com should you have any clarifications or assistance required.
The above problem does not affect users on hosted SIM cards or for sending to non-M1 mobile numbers.
The Jacobs Health Living SMS Campaign is running from 1st May to 30th Jun.
Up to S$10,000 worth of prizes to be won by messaging your entry to the SMS shortcode 76767. Each Jacobs pack will contain instructions on what to SMS in. Good luck!
More than a few users have asked for this: After a SMS Receive Campaign has been created, how do you edit the auto-reply message or the Campaign Expiry date?
With today’s update, simply click on the Campaign Report, the Auto-Reply message as well as the Campaign expiry date both have a Edit link which you can now use to make your changes!
Singapore Only: The Kraft Chipsmore SMS Contest is now on, purchase Chipsmore cookies and stand a chance to win a trip to Perth, Australia to swim with Dolphins at the Monkey Mia Dolphin Resort!
To participate, purchase Chipsmore cookies and find within the package a contest card. Answer 2 questions on the card and send the answers to the COMMZGATE shared shortcode 76767. Each SMS received costs S$0.20.
Contest is active until 31 May 2009. Full details at http://www.chipsmore.com.sg
Many users don’t realize that this feature exists perhaps because it’s hidden under an “further options” link. If you happen to have to send a SMS broadcast at a time when you are not going to be physically at your PC or in the office, you can actually create a Campaign and then set the time and date that it will be processed.
To do this, create a SMS broadcast campaign just like you normally would. At the final step where the “Start Campaign’ button appears, there is a link called “further options”. Click on this and a panel for setting the broadcast date appears. See below:
Choose the desired actual broadcast date and time and then click “Start Campaign”. That’s it, your campaign has been scheduled for broadcast!
One of the most popular uses we see on the portal is that for starting a Campaign to receive SMS messages from the public. Such “Receive Campaigns” can be for promotions, contests or even for receiving subscribe/unsubscribe requests.
Here is a quick guide on how to start one for your own use.
1) First go to the “Campaign” tab and choose “Start SMS Receive”
2) As with all campaigns, give this one a name you can use to refer to later.
3) Your SMS users will send their SMS to 73333 (Singapore only!)
Since this 73333 shortcode is shared with all our Basic Plan users, you have to choose a keyword to uniquely identify your campaign. SMS users will have to include this keyword in the front of their message before they send the message to 73333.
As an example, I have chosen the keyword “COKE” here.
4) Click the “next” button and you will be prompted to enter a auto-reply message. This is the message that will be replied to any SMS user that had messaged in. You can leave this text box blank if you do not wish to have any auto-replies sent.
5) Lastly, choose when your campaign will start and send. Do note that Receive Campaigns have a finite lifespan, the default is 2 weeks. You can set this to be longer but after the campaign has expired, no further messages will come into your campaign and your chose keyword will be released.
6) To view the progress of your campaign and to view all the messages that have been sent in, go to “Reports” and select the report for your Receive Campaign. You should see the overall status here. To view all the messages received, click “View Log”. You shall see all the individual messages received and can choose to export these as well if you wish.
