Web2SMS

Welcome to Web2SMS! This application allows you to send messages to one or multiple recipients, organise your recipients into groups and receive and respond to message replies.


Start Sending Now

Before sending a message, you may wish to do the following.

  • Create contacts (message recipients). See the Contacts section of this user guide
  • Create groups to organise your contacts. See the Groups section below
  • Set up a template for your message content. See the Templates section

Web2SMS can be found under ‘Send Messages’ in the side menu.

If it appears ’locked’ in the menu, then it is available to request by clicking the ‘Request This Product’ button.

screenshot of Optus SMS account main side-menu with 'Send Messages' open and 'Web2SMS' highlighted

Create a Message

To create a message, navigate to the ‘Send Message’ tab:

Black and white screeshot of the web2sms tabs, with 'send message' selected

Add or Remove Recipients

You can send a message to up to 2,000 recipients.


To add recipients:

Click the ‘Add recipients’ button, and a modal will open:

Black and white screeshot of the web2sms 'add recipients' modal

From here, you can add:

  • Contacts you have already set up
  • Groups of contacts
  • Unsaved mobile phone numbers

To select multiple contacts or groups, hold donw SHIFT on the keyboard while clicking.

Click the ‘Add Selected Recipients’ button, or if adding an unsaved mobile number, click ‘Add Mobile’


To remove recipients:

To remove one or more recipients;

  1. Click to make a selection from the current list of recipients
  2. Hold SHIFT to select more than 1 recipient
  3. Click the red ‘Remove’ button
infoIf you accidentally enter the same recipient twice - for example, by adding them as a contact and also as an ad hoc mobile phone number - Web2SMS will remove the duplicate contact(s) for you.


Compose a Message

Using Templates (Optional)

  1. Select a template from the list to use its pre-populated content
  2. Edit the template content as needed
  3. For template creation guidance, see the Templates section below

Message Composition

Write your message in the text field, and Web2SMS will display:

  • Current character count
  • Whether your message exceeds one SMS unit
  • Number of SMS units required (if more than one)
  • Message encoding type (see encoding section below for details)

Black and white screeshot of web2sms message composer, with no template selected

Message Encoding

By default, messages will use GSM encoding. GSM encoding includes the basic character set, including the standard English alphabet, numbers and standard special characters such as punctuation. When using GSM encoding, you are permitted 160 characters per SMS message unit.

If you add a non-GSM character, such as a letter with an accent, and emoji, or a letter in a non-English alphabet, the encoding of the message will switch to UCS-2. Messages encoded in UCS-2 take up more space than GSM characters, so you will be limited to 70 characters in order for your message to fit within a single SMS message unit.

warningIf your message exceeds the character limit, your organisation will be charged an additional fee to cover the cost of the extra SMS message units sent.

Coloured screeshot of web2sms message composer with an emoji, showing UCS-2 encoding warning


Send Your Message

Basic Steps

  1. Enter a forwarding email address (optional)

    • Replies will be sent to this address
  2. Select a Sender ID from the “Sender ID” dropdown (if Source Masks configured)

  3. Schedule your message (optional)

    • Set future date and time
    • Select relevant timezone
  4. Review all your message details

    • Check number of recipients
    • Confirm message units per recipient
  5. Click ‘Schedule’ or ‘Send’

Black and white screeshot of web2sms send/schedule buttons, and email forwarding capabilities

Important Notes: Sender IDs

  • Sender ID (also called Source Masks) display custom ‘From’ details to a recipient, instead of an originating number
  • Replies are not possible with messages masked by a Sender ID
  • NZ availability: International messaging only (carrier dependent)
  • Contact your account manager to request Sender ID

Important Notes: Email Forwarding

  • Replies are forwarded to nominated email address
  • Direct email replies are not supported - use the Web2SMS application to send replies back to SMS
  • Single forwarding address only (use distribution list for multiple recipients)

Contacts

Contacts are message recipients whose details you have saved in Web2SMS. Contacts can be shared within your organisation or private to you.

Contacts can be organised into groups to allow you to send messages to an entire group rather than adding each contact individually.


View Contacts

To see a list of your contacts, navigate to the Contacts tab. You can view:

  • The contact’s name and contact details
  • Whether the contact is shared (visible to others in your organisation)

Narrow down the list using the search fields. You can search for contacts by name, mobile number or email address, as well as whether they are shared or private.

Black and white screeshot of web2sms Search Contacts area and table


Create a Contact

You can create contacts manually or by importing contact data from a spreadsheet.

You can create:

  • Up to 5,000 shared contacts

  • Up to 5,000 private contacts

1. Create a contact manually

To manually create a contact:

  1. Navigate to the ‘Contacts’ tab
  2. Click ‘New contact’
  3. Enter the contact’s name and details
  4. Choose whether the contact is shared with others in your organisation
  5. If you wish, add the contact to a group

Black and white screeshot of web2sms 'create a contact' form

infoContacts that are shared will be visible to, and editable by, all other Web2SMS users in your organisation.

2. Import contacts

To import contacts from a spreadsheet:

  1. Prepare a CSV file of contact information using the file format instructions below
  2. Navigate to the ‘Contacts’ tab
  3. Click ‘Import contacts’
  4. Ensure that any groups you would like to add contacts to have been created
  5. If you wish, choose to purge all of your existing contacts and groups and replace them with the contacts in your spreadsheet
  6. Select and upload the file

Black and white screeshot of web2sms 'upload contacts csv' file selector area

warningIf you choose to purge existing contacts and groups, all contacts and groups created by your user account will be deleted. This includes shared contacts and groups, which will be deleted for all other users in your organisation.

Contact File Format

The contact file must meet the following requirements.

  • The file must be either:
    • A CSV file
    • A TXT file containing plain text with fields separated by commas and records separated by line breaks
  • The file must have a header row containing the correct field names. Some variations on field names are allowed; for a full list, see the ‘Permitted field headings for contact upload’ section of this user guide
  • Each contact record must include a mobile phone number. All other fields are optional
  • Up to 5,000 shared and 5,000 private contacts can be stored in Web2SMS
  • Contact records must conform to the formatting requirements listed below
Field name Description Required/optional Data format Field length
Mobile Contact’s mobile phone number. Required Correctly formatted mobile phone number:
  • The number must begin with the country code; a preceding plus symbol is optional.
  • The initial zero in the mobile phone number must be removed.
For example, a New Zealand mobile phone number beginning with 027 would be formatted +6427 or 6427; an Australian mobile number beginning with 04 would be formatted +614 or 614.
Minimum 9 characters.
First Name Contact’s first name. Optional Alphanumeric characters. Maximum 40 characters. 
Last Name Contact’s last name. Optional Alphanumeric characters. Maximum 40 characters. 
Email Contact’s email address. Optional Correctly formatted email address. Maximum 200 characters.
Shared Contact Whether the contact will be shared with other users in your organisation. Optional One of the following:
  • Y
  • Yes
  • N
  • No
N/A
Group Name Name of an existing group to which the contact should be added. Optional Alphanumeric characters. Group names are case-sensitive. The contact may be added to multiple groups by using a comma-separated list of group names that is enclosed in double quotation marks. For example: “GroupName1,GroupName2” Maximum 30 characters.

Template Contact CSV

The following files can be used as a basis for uploading contacts.

Sample TXT file Sample CSV file
Web2SMS sample contact upload file.txt Web2SMS sample contact upload file.csv

Permitted Field Headings

When importing contacts using a CSV file, there are a number of permitted field headings. Please ensure that the headings in your CSV file match one of the options below.

infoField headers are case-insensitive.
Field Permitted field headings
Mobile number
  • Mobile
  • Mobile number
  • Mobile_number
  • MSISDN
First name
  • First name
  • First_name
  • Firstname
  • First
  • Given name
  • Given_name
  • Givenname
  • Given names
  • Given_names
  • Name
Last name
  • Last name
  • Last_name
  • Lastname
  • Last
  • Surname
  • Family name
  • Family_name
  • Familyname
Email address
  • Email
  • Email address
  • Email_address
Shared status
  • Shared
  • Shared contact
  • Shared_contact
  • Sharedcontact
  • Shared status
  • Shared_status
  • Sharedstatus
Group
  • Group
  • Group name
  • Group_name
  • Groupname
  • Group names
  • Group_names
  • Groupnames
  • Groups


Add Contacts to Group

To add contacts to a group:

  • Ensure you have already set up the group in the Groups tab. For details on creating groups, see the Groups section of this guide
  • Navigate to the Contacts tab
  • Locate the contact(s) to be added to the group
  • Select the contact records in the list using the select box
  • Click ‘Add to group’ button
  • Select the group to which you wish to add the contacts
  • Click ‘Submit’
infoYou cannot add private contacts to a shared group. To do so, you must first edit the contact to make it shared.

Export Contacts

To export a list of all your contacts and their details to a CSV file:

  1. Navigate to the Contacts tab
  2. Click ‘Export contacts’
  3. The CSV file will download automatically

Note: this action will download ALL your contacts, including any that are not displayed on the search screen

Black and white screeshot of web2sms Contacts area with 4 buttons, incluiding 'export contacts


Edit or Delete Contacts

Edit Contacts

To edit the details of a contact:

  1. Navigate to the Contacts tab
  2. Locate the contact(s) to be edited
  3. Click on the contact’s first or last name
  4. Edit the contact’s details, add or remove them from groups, etc
  5. Click ‘Update’

From this screen, you can also view a history of messages received from or sent to this contact

Black and white screeshot of web2sms contact first and last name highlighted, to show where to click to edit a contact


Delete Contacts

To delete a contact:

  1. Navigate to the Contacts tab
  2. Locate the contact(s) to be deleted
  3. Select the contact records in the list using the select box
  4. Click ‘Delete’

Black and white screeshot of web2sms with 'selector' checkboxes highlighted to select before deleting



Groups

Groups allow you to organise your contacts so that you can easily send bulk messages without having to enter all contacts individually.

Groups can be shared within your organisation or private to you. If a group is shared, all contacts within the group must also be shared. Private groups may contain a mixture of shared and private contacts.


View Groups

To see a list of your groups, navigate to the Groups tab. You can view:

  1. The group’s name
  2. Whether the group is shared (visible to others in your organisation)
  3. How many contacts (members) are included in the group
  4. Narrow down the list using the search fields. You can search for groups by name and by whether they are shared or private

Create a Group

To create a group:

  1. Navigate to the ‘Groups’ tab
  2. Click ‘Create a group’
  3. Enter the group’s name
  4. Choose whether the group is shared with others in your organisation. If it is shared, it may only contain shared contacts.
infoGroups that are shared will be visible to, and editable by, all other Web2SMS users in your organisation.

Add or Remove Contacts from Groups

Add contacts to a group on the Contacts tab. For more details, see the Add Contacts to Group section of this user guide.

Remove contacts from a group by editing the contact. For more details, see the ‘Manage contacts’ section of this user guide.



Message Replies

When a recipient replies to a message you send via Web2SMS, you can view that reply in the Inbox.


New Inbox

Conversation Threads

To view messages replies, navigate to the Inbox tab. Messages in the Inbox are grouped into conversation threads based on the recipient.

In the conversation summary list, each thread contains:

  • The contact’s title - if the recipient is a saved contact then the contact name is displayed, otherwise this is shown as the mobile number of the recipient
  • A summary and timestamp for the most recent message in the conversation (sent or received)
  • A badge with the amount of unread messages in the conversation (if applicable)
  • An icon to archive the conversation

Click on a thread to view your conversation history with that recipient. Inside the conversation view is:

  • A header with the contact title as well as a link to archive the conversation
  • If the recipient is a saved contact you can also click on the contact’s name to update their details
  • Messages you have sent to the recipient are displayed on the right-hand side of the conversational view, and replies are displayed on the left
  • Messages are sorted chronologically with a sub-header for each date. Individual messages also have a timestamp, and replies have an icon to mark as read or unread
  • On mobile, clicking on a conversation from the list will open the message history in a separate page
  • Click the ‘Back’ link above the contact title to return to the conversation list

Black and white screeshot of web2sms new inbox with a conversation open


Filtering and Searching Conversations

You can filter conversations using the checkboxes at the top of the thread list.

  • Show archived conversations will include conversations that have been marked as archived. Archived conversations are denoted with the label (Archived) at the end of the recipient name.
  • Show conversations with no replies will display conversations that have not yet received a response - i.e. the only history in the conversation is you messaging the recipient. Until this has been toggled, conversations with no replies do not appear in the Inbox.
  • Using the search bar you can also look for conversations by entering a recipient’s name or mobile number. Search results are highlighted in bold. Click on the ‘X’ in the search bar to clear the current search and view all conversations again.

Black and white screeshot of web2sms search filters for the conversation inbox


Notifications

When a new reply is received, a notification badge will appear on the Inbox tab. The number in the notification indicates how many unread replies there are across all conversations. In the conversations list, message summaries for threads with unread replies appear in bold. A notification badge also appears next to the summary, indicating how many unread replies there are for that particular conversation. Inside the conversation view, unread replies appear with a highlighted outline.


Reply to a Message

To reply to a message that was received via Web2SMS:

  • Navigate to the Inbox tab
  • Open the relevant conversation from the list and click the ‘Reply’ button at the end of the message history
  • You will be navigated to the Send Message tab with the recipient’s contact number pre-populated
  • You can also click the ‘Send Message’ button at the top of the thread list to start a new conversation in the Send Message tab

Black and white screeshot of web2sms showing the 2 button locations to reply to a conversation thread


Mark a Reply as Read or Unread

Unread replies appear with a highlighted outline in the conversation view. To mark a reply as read, simply open the conversation and view the message. Once the unread reply has been scrolled into view, it will be automatically marked as read.

If you need to follow up on a message later, you can set a reply as unread by clicking the ‘Mark as unread’ icon underneath the message.

The message will remain as unread until navigating away and viewing the conversation again. If you’ve marked a message as unread and would like to undo this, the ‘Mark as unread’ icon will turn into ‘Mark as read’ while in the conversation view.

Black and white screeshot of web2sms showing the tiny icon under a message to click, to mark a reply as read or unread


Archive a Conversation

You can archive conversations to help manage your thread list. There are two ways to do this:

  1. In the conversation list, click the ‘Archive’ icon on the right-hand side underneath the timestamp
  2. In the conversation view, click the ‘Archive’ link in the header to the right of the recipient name

Black and white screeshot of web2sms showing the tiny icon to the right of a thread to click, to archive a conversation

infoPlease note that conversations containing unread messages cannot be archived.

To view archived conversations, toggle the ‘Show archived conversations’ option in the conversation list. Archived conversations are denoted with the label (Archived) at the end of the recipient name. To unarchive a conversation, simply click the same icons used to archive - these will now be labelled as ‘Unarchive’ instead. Conversations are automatically unarchived upon sending or receiving messages for the relevant recipient.



Original Inbox

info

Returning to the Original Inbox

The new Web2SMS Conversational Inbox is now available to all users. If you have chosen to opt out of this release, you will instead see the original Inbox.

If you would like to opt back in to the new Inbox, you can do so at any time by selecting the “Return to New Inbox” button found at the top-right of the page.


To view reply messages, navigate to the Inbox tab. You can view:

  • When the reply was received
  • The user account that sent the original message
  • The mobile number from which the reply was received
  • The content of the reply message, as well as the content of the original message
  • The email address (if any) to which the reply was forwarded
  • Unread replies will be shown in bold. Narrow down reply messages by entering the sender’s mobile number in the Contact field

Notifications

When a new reply is received, a notification will appear on the Inbox tab. The number in the notification indicates how many unread replies there are. Unread replies appear in bold in the list of replies.


Reply to a Message

To reply to a message that was received via Web2SMS:

  • Navigate to the Inbox tab
  • Under the message content, click ‘Reply’
  • You will be navigated to the Send Message tab with the recipient’s contact number pre-populated

Black and white screeshot of web2sms highlighting a 'reply' link in the old inbox


Mark a Reply as Read or Unread

To mark a reply as read or unread:

  • Navigate to the Inbox tab
  • Locate the reply to be marked as read or unread
  • Under the message content, click ‘Mark read’ / ‘Mark unread’

Black and white screeshot of web2sms showing where to mark replies as unread in the old inbox


Delete a Reply

To delete a reply message:

  • Navigate to the Inbox tab
  • Locate the reply to be deleted
  • Select the reply in the list using the select box
  • Click ‘Delete’

Black and white screeshot of web2sms showing the 'delete' link in the old inbox


Scheduled Messages

You can view and change messages that are scheduled to be sent at a later time.


View Scheduled Messages

To view scheduled messages, navigate to the Scheduled Messages tab. This tab shows all messages that you have scheduled to be sent in the future. You can view:

  • When the message is scheduled to be sent
  • The content of the message
  • The groups, contacts and individual mobile numbers the message will be sent to
  • The status of the message

Narrow down scheduled messages using the search fields. You can search for scheduled messages by their status or by a date range in which they are scheduled to be sent.

Black and white screeshot of web2sms Scheduled messages tab

Edit or Cancel

Edit a Scheduled Message

To edit a scheduled message:

  • Navigate to the Scheduled Messages tab
  • Locate the scheduled message to be edited
  • Click on the message’s Send Date
  • Edit the details of the message
  • Click ‘Update’

Black and white screeshot of web2sms scheduled messages tab, highlighting the Send Date column to click to edit the message

Cancel a Scheduled Message

To cancel a scheduled message:

  • Navigate to the Scheduled Messages tab
  • Locate the scheduled message to be canceled
  • Click ‘Cancel’
  • Confirm that you wish to cancel the message


Templates

Templates allow you to create standard messages that can be re-used by anyone in your organisation.

infoIt is not possible to create a private template. All templates are available to all users in your organisation.

View Templates

To see a list of templates for your organisation, navigate to the Settings tab.

infoIf you are unable to view the Settings tab, contact your administrator to have the appropriate permission added to your account.

There, you can view:

  • The name of the template
  • The content of the template
  • Narrow down the list using the search fields. You can search for templates by name or content

Black and white screeshot of web2sms showing the 'Settings' tab containing templates


Create a Template

To create a new template:

  1. Navigate to the Settings tab
  2. Click ‘Add new’
  3. Enter the template’s name. Template names must be unique
  4. Enter the content of the template
  5. Click ‘Save’

Web2SMS will tell you:

  • How many characters have been used in your message so far
  • How many characters remain to be used if your message is to fit within a single SMS message unit
  • The encoding used in the message. For further details on message encoding, see Message Encoding in this user guide.

Black and white screeshot of web2sms new template form


Edit or Delete

Black and white screeshot of web2sms settings tab showing where to click to edit or delete a template


Edit a Template

To edit the details of a template:

  1. Navigate to the Settings tab
  2. Locate the template to be edited
  3. Click ‘Edit’
  4. Edit the template’s details
  5. Click ‘Save’

Delete a Template

To delete a template:

  1. Navigate to the Settings tab
  2. Locate the template to be deleted
  3. Click ‘Delete’

Using Templates

Templates can be used in the ‘Send messages’ tab while composing a message. For more details, see the Send Messages section of this user guide.



Message History

The message history shows a history of the messages sent and received in Web2SMS.

View Sent Messages

To view sent messages, navigate to the Message History tab. You can view:

  • When the message was sent
  • The user account that sent the message
  • The mobile number to which the message was sent
  • The content of the message
  • The email address (if any) to which the reply was forwarded
  • The message history shows only sent messages, not replies

Black and white screeshot of web2sms Message History tab and table


View Status and Replies

To view the history of a sent message and its replies:

Navigate to the Message History tab. Locate the message you would like to view the history for. Click the sent date, recipient mobile number or content of the message.

Black and white screeshot of web2sms highlighting where to click in the Message History tab, to view replies

You will be able to see:

  • The details of the sent message.
  • The status of the message, i.e. whether it has been received.
  • The replies that have been received in response to the sent message.

Black and white screeshot of web2sms replies

You can also view status and replies from both Inboxes:

Black and white screeshot of web2sms new inbox showing to click the link/numbers under a message to access the message details

Black and white screeshot of web2sms message details and replies

Delete Message History

To delete a sent message from the message history:

  • Navigate to the Message History tab
  • Locate the message you would like to delete
  • Select the message in the list using the select box
  • Click the ‘Delete’ button
warningDeleting messages from the message history cannot be undone.

Logs

The Logs section of Web2SMS shows a history of changes to contacts, groups and templates.

Black and white screeshot of web2sms Logs

To view a history of changes, navigate to the Logs tab. You can view:

  • The user who made the change
  • The action they took:
    • Add: A contact, group or template was added
    • Edit: A contact, group or template was edited
    • Delete: A contact, group or template was deleted
    • Remove: A contact was removed from a group
  • The change that was made
  • The date and time on which the change was made

Narrow down log entries using the search fields. You can search for logs by the user who made the change, the action that was taken, the content of the change (e.g. the name of the contact), or the date range in which the change was made.