Connect SMS To Any App in ViaSocket.
SMS Everyone's ViaSocket app will have you sending messages in under 10 minutes.

ViaSocket is a simple AI powered middleware platform for connecting apps together without having to write any code.

You can create flows of any complexity using triggers and actions that handle a whole series of tasks - pull data from a CRM, add data to a spreadsheet, send an email, update a database. The options are endless.

With the SMS Everyone ViaSocket app, you can easily connect SMS messaging to thousands of applications.

For example, you could send a welcome SMS whenever you get a new customer on Shopify.

VIASOCKET - KEY FEATURES

Send SMS App - Send personalised SMS to one or more recipients now or schedule for later.
Cancel a scheduled SMS
Check delivery status - Checks a message to see if it was successfully delivered.
Make an API Call - Allows ViaSocket to hit any one of our APIs including retrieving replies, adding a contact to a list, opt in/out, top up credits, check delivery status, check account status.

Connecting the SMS Everyone App to your application in ViaSocket is easy. Follow the example below...

Before you start

Do you have an SMS Everyone account?

If not, sign up and we'll get you running in a few minutes.

Be sure to mention that you want to connect to ViaSocket when you sign up

Create a Workflow in ViaSocket

On the dashboard top left, click the 'Create New Flow' button

Start with the trigger first.

Click in the "Select Trigger" box

Choose a Trigger App

On the right, in the "Search Trigger" box, type the name of the application that you want to connect to SMS Everyone. This will be your trigger app. ie when an event happens, it will fire off an SMS.

In this case we are going to use Google Calendar. Type "Google Calendar" and then select it in the results below.

Now that you've selected your trigger app, select your Trigger Event.

For this example, we are going to select 'New or Updated Event'...

Imagine that you are on a sales team and you want to receive an SMS every time your appointment booker creates a new appointment for you (or modifies one).

Select 'New or Updated Event'

Then under 'Connection' click on Connect to Google Calendar.

Here is where you need to connect your google account so that ViaSocket can access your calendar info.

Follow the prompts in the pop up window to allow ViaSocket full access to your Google Calendar. You'll need to enter your Google Username and Password.

Once Google is connected, you'll see the successful pop-up:

Next, you need to select the calendar under your Google account.

We found here that ViaSocket didnt offer us the calendar name to select so we simply entered the email address of the calendar manually (eg xyz@gmail.com)

you may need to select "PROVIDE MANUAL/DYNAMIC INPUT" and then type your email address. We had a bit of trouble with this step but after a while, we got it to work.

Make sure that you test the connection - It should produce some sample data. You need this later to grab the field/s you want to personalise your SMS. The 'summary' and 'description' fields in Google Calendar are important - they usually have the details of the appointment.

Once you have some sample data, click "Save"

If you have errors, it might be due to ViaSocket not correctly seeing your calendar. We got this error but tried entering the calendar email address again manually and then it came right. Contact ViaSocket if you have issues here.

It may also help to create a dummy calendar appointment in your Google Calendar - set it for say 24 hours into the future. Viasocket may pick this up as your sample data.

Connect the trigger to SMS Everyone.

Now that you've created your trigger app and saved it, your flow in ViaSocket should look like this:

Lets now add the SMS Everyone 'action' app. Under the "Do" heading, click on Add Step.

Type "SMS Everyone" in the search box and select it when it comes up in the results:

Once you have selected "SMS Everyone" then select "Send a Text Message"

Next, click on "Connect to SMS Everyone"

You'll see a pop-up box. enter your username and password that we gave you when you signed up and click 'add connection'.

If you dont have a username and password, sign up and we'll send it to you asap.

Once you have entered your username and password, you'll get a pop-up letting you know that the new connection has been added.

Configure Your Message Text

Sender ID

In the 'Sender ID' box, enter the sender ID (origin/originator) exactly as we gave it to you when you signed up.

Word origins are caps sensitive
If you try a sender ID that is different to what we gave you, it will not work.
we can give you more than one sender ID in a lot of countries if required.

To Number

Enter the mobile number/s that you want to receive the message.

Enter the numbers in international format without the + sign.

eg 0402123456 would be entered as 61402123456

For multiple numbers, separate with a comma.

If you want the message to go to a contact in your trigger app (eg the person you are having the meeting with) and the app has that field available to use, click the + sign to the right of the To Number field. Hover over the trigger app that pops up and search for the field that you want to be the To Number.

For example, you could put the recipient's number in the description field in Google Calendar. Then when an appointment is created, viaSocket will send a message to the number in that description field.

Be sure to put the number in international format without the + sign. eg 61400123456

In this case below, I'm just putting a fixed mobile number in the To Number section as if the reminders are all going to the same salesperson in the team.

Message Text

Type whatever you want the message text to say. You can personalise the message with fields from the Google Calendar. Just click the + sign to the right of the Message Text box and click on whatever field/s you want to include.

Pro Tip

For one client that used Calendar, we got them to put only this at the start of the description field in their calendar:

sms|number|name|

for example: sms|61402123456|James|

Then they used an app in the flow to first check that the field started with 'sms' - if so, it proceeded to the next step - ie it only proceeded to try sending an SMS if the Calendar appointment specified that it was an SMS type appointment.

For personal appointments, it therefore didnt need to send an sms.

Then it used another app to split the content of the description field using the | character as the separator and grabbed the 2nd value for the recipient's number and the third value for their name so they could personalise the message.

This was via a different middleware program so it may or may not be possible with ViaSocket. We think its worth mentioning given that Google Calendar has so few fields to work with.

Optional - Schedule Time & Reference

You can click the 'schedule time, reference' option on the right and it will add 2 optional fields.

Schedule Time

select a field from the calendar app by clicking the + sign to the right. For example, the appointment start time if required.

Note - You would never set this value to a fixed date and time.

In the below example, I typed "24 hours before" and selected the appointment start date time from Google calendar and waited a few seconds. The AI updated it to this automatically:

This YYYYMMDDHHMM format is exactly what our system requires.

Reference

you can add a reference ID which we will store our end if required. make them all unique by using a field from the calendar app.

Test the configuration

Once you have your fields filled in correctly, be sure to click the "test" button.

This is an example of a successful test - whereby an SMS will have been sent to the recipient/s in the To Number field.

You'll see that we respond with:

Code - 0 means it was successful. Anything other than 0 means it failed.
Campaign ID - you can use this later to retrieve the delivery status or cancel a scheduled message.
Messages - the number of mobile numbers we are sending to
Segments - the number of SMS segments in the message - eg 160 characters or less will be one segment. 161-306 characters would be 2 segments. etc.
Credits - the number of credits used based on messages x segments.

This is an example of a test where the Sender ID was incorrect. ie it was not one of the sender ID's that we assigned to the account. Simply setting the sender ID to the correct value we gave you will fix this:

As long as you get a positive response similar to the first test above, then it is all working as it should. If you get an error - you'll see a description of the error in the response. Fix the issue and try again or contact us if you need help.

If the intended recipient didn't get the SMS message, check you have their number in the right format or contact us and we can investigate further.

Additional Actions

Check Delivery Status

Use this action after the 'Wait' action in ViaSocket.

After the Send SMS action, click the + sign to add another step. Search for 'wait' and follow the simple AI prompts. Below I have added a delay of 1 minute by typing "delay for 1 minute" in the box.

Note that the average delivery time for an SMS is around 5 - 10 seconds. However, if the phone is switched off or out of range, it can take up to 48 hours before the carriers respond with a delivery status.

Setting the wait time to 1 minute will capture most of your delivery receipts. However understand that it wont capture delivery receipts of messages where the carrier responded after a minute - eg failed messages, expired messages (the carrier gave up after 48 hours) or messages that took longer than a minute to reach the handset.

Extend the wait time to capture more delivery receipts. Max is say 48 hours.

Then after the delay step, add another app and again search for SMS Everyone and this time add the 'Get Delivery Status' action

Once you have connected your account, in the Campaign Id field, select the 'Campaign ID : .......' field from the 'SMS Everyone : Send a text message' action results.

Click 'Test'

You'll see a response from our servers like this:

In the example above, this is what the fields mean:

CampaignId = the unique reference number of the message you sent
Count = the number of mobile phones you sent to in this campaign. There can be more than one.
Destinations = the number of destination numbers in the campaign. there can be more than one.
Destination = the mobile number of the recipient
TimeStamp = the date and time of the delivery receipt
DeliveryReceiptStatusId = whether the message was delivered or not.
- 1 = DELIVERED
- 2 = FAILED
- 3 = REJECTED BY THE CARRIERS
- 4 = EXPIRED - The Carriers stopped trying after 48 hours
Code = the error code if there was one. If it was delivered, this will be 0. If it failed, this will be one of about 50 codes. They can be found at https://www.smseveryone.com.au/restapi under the heading 'Delivery Error Codes' (Click on the left and it will take you there)
- Permanent errors - the phone cant be reached again
- Temporary errors - the phone can be reached again.

If the SMS has neither been confirmed delivered or failed yet because the carriers are still trying or the carriers cant supply a delivery receipt (happens occasionally) then the response will just show the Campaign ID, a count of 0 and no destinations.

Once you are happy with the result and can see we are responding correctly, click 'Save'

After this step, its a good idea to add another step that captures this data - perhaps that might be Google sheets or something.

Extras

Cancel an SMS

You can also select the option to cancel a scheduled SMS - the use case is rare but if your flow needs it, this is an option. You will need to specify the campaign ID in order to cancel a scheduled SMS.

Custom API

You can hit any of our APIs via this option.

Add a new action and select Custom API.

Then expand the "API Editor" drop down

Add the URL of the API of ours that you want to hit

Then type or paste the JSON into the query params box with the json tickbox checked.

You could add a number to a list in SMS Everyone or you could unsubscribe someone etc.

If you need any help with this, get in touch.

If you would like to give any of the above a try, sign up for a free trial below.

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Connect SMS To Any App in ViaSocket. SMS Everyone's ViaSocket app will have you sending messages in under 10 minutes.