Sinch - SMS

Sinch provides the ability to send SMS messages globally. With Sinch’s Conversation API, you can build stronger customer relationships through conversations. Sinch can handle multi-channel queries on one thread, create personalized experiences at scale, and automate customer care through self-serve bots.

Supported message types

Blueshift's integration with Sinch supports both SMS and MMS messages and also supports 2-way SMS conversations.

Consider the following guidelines for including media in MMS messages:

• General
  • When an MMS image is delivered to a phone, the content is displayed as a message bubble in a conversation. In the message bubble, portions of the image are cut from view. Hence it is important to design the image in such a way that the content of interest is visible when the image is displayed in the message bubble. Customers can click or tap the image/media to see it in full size.
• Images
  • It is recommended that the file size be less than 740KB for non-transcoded images and less than 1MB for transcoded images.
  • The optimal image size across all devices has an aspect ratio of 9:16. We recommend 640px x 1138px or 1080px x 1920px.
  • For images of size 640 x 1138, do not include content of interest in the top 129px and the bottom 89px of the image.
  • For images of size 1080 x 1920, do not include content of interest on the top 219px and the bottom 150px of the image.
• GIFS
  • It is recommended that the file size be less than 600 KB for non-transcoded GIF images 740KB for transcoded GIF images.
  • Recommended Dimensions are (Portrait/Vertical) 480px wide by 720px tall if you have less little animation and 480px wide by 640px tall if you have a lot of animation.
  • For GIFs of size 480 x 480, do not include content of interest in the top, bottom, and right 39px and the left 43px of the image.
  • For GIFs of size 480 x 640, do not include content of interest in the top 65px, bottom 58px, and left and right 39px of the image.
  • For GIFs of size 480 x 720, do not include content of interest in the top, bottom, and right 39px and the left 44px of the image.
• Videos
  
  • It is recommended that the file size be less than 740KB for non-transcoded videos and under 10MB for transcoded images. This will result in video files from 300KB to 1.5MB.
  • Recommended Video Dimensions for Landscape videos (Horizontal) is 1280px by 720px and for Portrait videos (Vertical) is 640px by 1138px.
  • We recommend a maximum duration of 20 seconds for HD quality videos and a maximum duration of 30 seconds for high deliverability. (Frame Rate: 30 FPS.)

Tracked events

If you use Sinch integrated with Blueshift, we can track:

• Sends
• Delivered
• Bounces (messages might not be delivered to a customer in-cases such as: your customer's phone is switched off or it's out of network coverage area)
• Clicks
• Unsubscribes/Subscribes

Note: You must first set up a webhook in Sinch so that Blueshift can receive messaging events.

Prerequisites

Before you can set up integration with Blueshift, you must have your Sinch account set up.

Complete the following settings in Sinch before you set up integration with Blueshift:

• Set up your Sinch account and get access to their Conversation API
• Obtain the information required for integration with Blueshift
• Set up a webhook in Sinch to send events data to Blueshift

Set up your Sinch account and get access to their Conversation API

Before you add an adapter in Blueshift for integration with Sinch, you must have your Sinch account set up and you must get access to their Conversation API. For a detailed step-by-step instructions, visit Sinch’s Conversation API Getting Started page. While the Conversation API supports multiple channels, for the integration with Blueshift you must configure an SMS channel for the app you add in Sinch.

Obtain the information required for integration with Blueshift

Log into your Sinch account and obtain the following information required for integration with Blueshift:

1. Project UUID - This is the UUID of the project that you create in Sinch.
2. App ID - This is the ID of the App that you set up in Sinch and will use to send SMS messages.
3. Client ID and Client Secret - This is the Access Key ID and Key Secret. 

• You can create a new Access Key by going to the Dashboard > Settings and clicking Access Keys in the left navigation.
• Ensure that you note down the Key Secret when you create the key since you cannot retrieve the Secret later.

Region - This is the region that you have selected for the App in Sinch.

Virtual number or Short Code - This is the virtual number in Sinch that is used to send the messages.

Set up webhook in Sinch to send events data to Blueshift

Log into your Sinch account and set up a webhook in Sinch using the following information so that you can send subscription/un-subscription data from Sinch to Blueshift.

• Target type - Set as HTTP.
• Target URL - Set as  https://api.getblueshift.com/api/v1/messaging_events/65a82149-c7bb-4e68-83af-4d40f3bcb557?site_id=<site_id> where <site_id> is the Site ID for your account as displayed on the Account Settings > API Keys tab in Blueshift.

  If you are in the EU region, use the following URL: https://api.eu.getblueshift.com/api/v1/messaging_events/65a82149-c7bb-4e68-83af-4d40f3bcb557?site_id=<site_id>

• Secret Token - Leave this field blank.
• Triggers - Select MESSAGE_DELIVERY and MESSAGE_INBOUND.

Subscribing or unsubscribing a customer

When a customer replies to your SMS campaign message with an opt-out keyword, the Sinch webhook will send an SMS unsubscribe event to Blueshift. Blueshift will unsubscribe all customer records that share the same phone number.

A customer can send a reply SMS using one of the following opt-out keywords to unsubscribe:

STOP
BLOCK
CANCEL
STOPALL
UNSUBSCRIBE
QUIT
END

When a customer replies with an opt-in keyword, the Sinch webhook will send an SMS subscribe event to Blueshift. Blueshift will subscribe the last messaged customer record matching the phone number.

A customer can send a reply SMS using one of the following opt-in keywords to subscribe:

START
YES
UNSTOP
RESUME

Set up integration

To set up Sinch integration with Blueshift, complete the following steps:

1. Sign in to the Blueshift app, and click App Hub in the left navigation menu.
2. Go to All Apps, search for, and select Sinch - SMS.
3. You can also go to SMS Apps and select Sinch - SMS.
4. Click Configure to view all the configured adapters.
5. Click +ADAPTER to add an adapter.
6. Add a Name for the adapter. If you have multiple adapters, the adapter name helps you to identify the integration.
7. Provide the following details for integration that you saved from your Sinch account:
   
   

   

   Field	Description
   Client ID	This is the Access Key ID that you copied from Sinch.
   Client Secret	The Key Secret from Sinch.
   Project ID	The UUID of the project in Sinch.
   App ID	The ID of the App in Sinch.
   Region	The region of the app as set in Sinch.
   From	The virtual number in Sinch that identifies the sender.
   WHITELABEL HOST NAME (CNAME)	Enter the custom domain for shortened URLs. This is the domain that will be used to mask links for tracking purposes. The domain must be setup as a CNAME record in your DNS. The CNAME must map to either links.getblueshift.com (US or Rest of the world) or links.eu.blueshift.com (EU region) based on your Blueshift login region. SSL is required for any link masking domains. If you are unsure which domain to setup in your DNS please contact your CSM or support@getblueshift.com. For example, if you custom domain is hooli.com and the original link is hooli.com/product-updates/january-2023, the shortened link could look like hooli.com/4wesktjv.

8. Click Log in to Sinch. The Client ID and Client Secret are used by Blueshift to connect to Sinch.
9. Save to add the adapter.

Next steps

1. Create an SMS template for your messages.
2. In your campaign journey, add an SMS trigger. On the SMS tab of the trigger, go to Send Settings and specify Sinch as the App and select the adapter that you just created.