Changes to school.kiwi Texting

From Sunday 7th December, we'll be changing the way texting works for schools using school.kiwi as their SMS provider.

All text messages will now be sent from one short number (2340).

This change will allow us to have an unlimited number of simultaneous conversations with each recipient, allow responding even when they have no credit on their phone (as long as they have a data connection) and allow much longer text messages without the 160 character per sms cost impact.

Additionally, we can customise the response based on the message type:

Absence Notification	General Text Message
The recipient will be sent a message telling them they have an absence notification from your school. When the recipient clicks the link, they can see the message in a browser on their device and reply from there.	The recipient will be sent a message telling them that they have a message from your school, with a link to the message thread. When the recipient clicks the link, they can see the message in a browser on their device and reply from there.

In both cases, the recipient sends replies in the browser.

Cool! So how does it work, and what's in it for me?
This new way will be easier and more cost-effective for everyone.

• It will cost the school to send the initial message, as it always has. But since we always send the same "you have a message, here's your link" to the recipient, longer text messages will not be split into two or more messages and charged to the school as multiple messages.
• The conversation thread is put into a browser for the recipient, so does not cost them anything to reply. That means that recipients with no credit on their phone can still send and receive messages!
• We've presented things like any other messaging app - messages sent from the school on the left in blue, replies from the caregiver on the right in green. Your caregivers won't need to learn how to use another app, they'll already know!
• You can still see (and interact) with the message thread in KAMAR.

Things to be aware of.

The txt notification is a merge.

Message from <school name> re: <student first name> (<message subject>)
Click https://skt.nz/###/<24characteruuid>

To remain within the character limit of 160 characters for a single text message, the first line needs to remain within 100 characters (as we use 60 characters for the click link).

Additionally, if any character not in the basic character set (macrons, special characters, etc) is in the schools name, student name or message subject, then the characters per sms drops to 70 characters which will mean a txt notification will be a minimum of two SMS message parts to send. You can override the 'school name' sent under Setup ⇒ Server ⇒ school.kiwi ⇒ Schools: Name Override

So why the change?

New Zealand has short codes (4 digit numbers, not tied to a provider) and long codes (6+ digit numbers with a provider at the start.  eg. 022 123 4566). Unlike other countries, New Zealand mobile providers have rules around person-to-person versus automated/bulk messaging and the mobile providers are now enforcing the use of short codes for any bulk messaging (which school.kiwi text service is). As a result, we are now required to use a short code.

Unfortunately Short Codes come with a higher price tag. While our per sms cost to send is the same, unlike long codes where replies are often included in the recipients monthly text plans, it costs $0.20 per reply to a short code.  There is an option for a premium short code, however this costs more per sms to both send and receive (though no cost to the recipient to reply). Additionally, the monthly line cost for one short code is the equivalent of the 8 long codes we currently have.

Reviewing our options, we have made the decision to have a single short code, maintain the same cost per sms to send and direct users to reply via a web site. As long as they have a data/wifi connection, they can reply at no additional cost  (we regularly see replies from unknown numbers saying no credit on the txt'd number).