Frequently Asked Questions

Sign up for a trial account with touchSMS with no obligation or hidden costs. You will receive 10 trial credits once your account has been verified and you will have 14 days to use them. Once you trial is over to continue sending you can purchase credits. There are no set-up or monthly cost you simply pay for what you intend to use.

To register for a trial account click here

Be sure to enter a valid mobile number and email address in order to verify your account.

Of course, you can speak to a team member at any time. Simply click on Livechat, submit a support ticket or call on +612 9518 7455 to get in touch with us.

When you sign-up for a touchSMS account, we will send you an SMS verification code that you are required to enter during the signup process.  If you haven’t received an SMS verification code, please see the steps below to resolve this issue.

Have you entered the incorrect mobile number?

If you have accidentally entered your number incorrect you will need to contact touchSMS support directly with your username (email) and correct mobile number – click here

I have entered my mobile number correctly

1. 1. Check that your mobile phone is within reception range and switched on.
   The SMS verification code will be sent to the mobile phone number that you provide on sign-up, please try turning it on and off and ensure that it has mobile coverage and is switched on.
2. 2. Contact the touchSMS Support Team
   If your issue is still not resolved and you are yet to receive your SMS verification code, our friendly support team will be happy to resolve this for you as quickly as possible. When contacting our support team, please provide details such as:

• • • Account username (email used to sign-up)
    • The correct mobile number you wish to have associated with your account.

Here are some suggestions as to why you might be experiencing difficulty logging into your touchSMS account:

• • • Ensure that you’re using the correct username and password, and that the caps lock is turned off.
    • Clear your browser history and cache and try logging in again.
    • Try using a different internet browser.
    • Try resetting your password using the forgotten password link.

Please note – If you haven’t correctly verified your mobile number and email address you cannot access your account until you do so.  If you are unsure you will need to contact our support team to get access to your account.

If submitting a ticket to our support team, please provide details such as:

• • • The touchSMS username you’re trying to log in with.
    • The issue you’re experiencing.

Yes, these Sender IDs are called Alphanumeric or Alpha Sender IDs.

This option is available for sending SMS to Australia and some other selected regions. See our Sender ID Options by Country for more information.

Sending SMS from an Alphanumeric Sender ID – No Replies

An Alphanumeric Sender ID is usually a business or brand name that appears in place of a phone number when sending an SMS. It offers instant brand recognition but does NOT allow recipients to reply.

Alphanumeric Sender IDs can be up to 11 characters and include letters, numbers and spaces.

We generally only recommend using these Sender IDs for reminders and alerts where you do not need to worry about receiving opt-outs or replies. If you choose to use an Alphanumeric Sender ID for marketing/promotional campaigns, you must include an Opt Out Link in the message.

Pros:

• Branded experience for users

Cons:

• Users cannot reply to messages sent using an Alphanumeric Sender ID.
• If your message is commercial or marketing, you must still provide a valid opt-out method. See Opt Out Link

Create an Alphanumeric Sender ID on your Account

To register an Alphanumeric Sender ID for commercial messaging, log into your touchSMS account and navigate to:

Settings > Senders IDs

Follow the prompts to submit your Alphanumeric Sender ID for registration.

NOTE: In accordance with local legislation, all Alphanumeric Sender IDs are submitted to the touchSMS for review before they are allocated to your account for sending. Your Sender ID request can take up to 24 hours for approval.

For more information read Understanding Sender ID Options

To ensure successful delivery, your contacts mobile numbers should be written in the correct international format.

To change mobile numbers from the domestic format to the correct international format, simply remove the first ‘0’ or ‘+’ of the mobile number and replace it with the relevant international code (e.g. 61 for Australia and 64 for New Zealand). Incorrect formatting may result in undelivered messages or a message being sent to an incorrect handset. Below are some country specific examples:

Australia
– Country Code: 61
– Number: 9 digits long, excluding the leading ‘0’.
– Example domestic number: 0443123123
– Example International number: 61443123123

New Zealand
– Country Code: 64
– Number: 6-8 digits long, excluding the leading ‘0’.
– Example domestic number: 0222123123
– Example International number: 64222123123

United Kingdom
– Country Code: 44
– Number: 10 digits long, excluding the leading ‘0’.
– Example domestic number: 077812312312
– Example International number: 4477812312312

Yes, touchSMS supports international messaging.

For more information on international sending routes – please contact the touchSMS Support Team

Recent changes to local legislation now prevent delivery of SMS to Philippine numbers, from overseas A2P providers, such as touchSMS.

In order to send messages to the Philippines via touchSMS, you must purchase a Philippine Virtual Number or register Alpha Sender ID to be approved by the local carrier.

Cost of Philippine Virtual Numbers:

Provisioning:                      $AUD 250.00

Monthly Rental:                $AUD 190.00

A Philippine virtual number also attracts a fee for every inbound message of $AUD 0.02c per message

For more information on international sending routes – please contact the touchSMS Support Team

For a phone to send a response (reply) to a message, it needs a mobile number to respond to. When you send messages with an alphanumeric sender ID, the receiving phone does not have a mobile number to reply to, and therefore it cannot establish two-way SMS.

When you sign up for an account with touchSMS you will not incur any hidden costs or unwanted contracts. You will receive 10 trial credits to use with 14 days once your account has been verified. Following this you simply pay what you intend on using. Our API Integrations, Email to SMS and Web SMS products are free to use, you just pay for your credits as you go.

Set up an account and have a free trial with no commitment, obligation or hidden costs and lots of flexibility.

touchSMS is designed to be a self-service pre-paid platform. After topping up your credit you are free to use the platform at your leisure. There are no sign-up or monthly account fees.

touchSMS Pricing (AUD)

Minimum purchase on touchSMS is $20.00 AUD = 400 Credits.

All prices including GST. Credits valid for 12 months from date of purchase.

All purchases made in touchSMS are in Australian Dollars.

If you are purchasing an international credit card or paypal account the exchange rate will occur at the time of purchase. For more information regarding this you will need to contact you financial institution or paypal.

Trial credits applied to your touchSMS account at sign are valid for 14 day from registration date.

Purchased touchSMS credits and valid for 12 months from purchase date.

Yes, with all purchases a tax invoice is generated in your touchSMS account.

When a purchase is made we will automatically email you a copy of your tax invoice.

All invoices are stored within your touchSMS account to access these login into your account and navigate to;

Purchases > Invoices

You can click on the invoice id to view your invoice. Using the print icon you can print or save your invoice to PDF.

To delete your touchSMS account, simply login to your account and navigate to;

Profile and Settings

You can click the delete account button and follow the prompt in the confirmation pop-up to permanently delete your account.

To cancel your Virtual Number, simply login to your account and navigate to;

Virtual Numbers > Click the Virtual Number you wish to cancel

You can click the surrender button and follow the prompts in the confirmation pop-up to permanently cancel your Virtual Number.

Of course, you can speak to a team member at any time. Simply click on Livechat, submit a support ticket or call on +612 9518 7455 to get in touch with us.

NO, touchSMS does not charge you for replies to your SMS (Inbound SMS).

Sent vs Delivered

DELIVERED – Your message has been successfully delivered to the recipient’s handset and we have received a confirmation (delivery receipt) from the carrier that it was delivered to the handset.

SENT – A Sent (Sending) status describes a message that has been sent from our system to the carrier but the carrier has not returned a confirmation of delivery. These confirmations are known as delivery receipts.

Please note that in some cases, it may take some time to for a sent status to change to delivered as this is dependent on notification from the carrier. A Sent status does not confirm the message was delivered nor failed, however in most cases this will update over time to Delivered or Failed. There are a number of reasons a status remains as Sent, the most common reason for Sent status are:

• Phone is disconnect or number no longer in use.
• Phone number active but phone switched off or out of range for an extended period of time and the message cannot be delivered.
• Recipient is experiencing Network problems.
• The message has been successfully sent and delivered however the carrier has not sent us a confirmation of this which is more often the case.

When a message is in Sent status, several carrier dependent retry strategies come into operation.

If there is no response by the end of the retry period the message will become expired and will be marked as Failed.

For more information read article Understanding Delivery Status Of An SMS

Failed status indicates the mobile handset has not received the messages. If you have entered the mobile number in the correct format the most common reason could be one of the following;

• SIM card is not in the phone
• Out of network range for more than 72 hours
• Have not paid phone bill
• Travelling overseas (connected to another network)
• The number is invalid or disconnected. You can safely delete the number from your list.

For more information read article Understanding Delivery Status Of An SMS

Enable External Forwarding in Microsoft 365

If your organization controls two office365 tenants, at some point you may wish to enable forwarding of email from an address hosted in one tenant to an address hosted in another. Email forwarding can result in the following bounce back message:

Remote Server returned ‘550 5.7.520 Access denied, Your organization does not allow external forwarding. Please contact your administrator for further assistance. AS(7555)’

By default, Microsoft 365 Defender sets up an Anti-Spam outbound policy. And the policy default sets Automatic Forwarding to “Automatic: System Controlled.” To change the outbound spam protection settings, contact your Microsoft 365 administrator and ask them to allow automatic external forwarding for any mailboxes you want to use Email to SMS. We’ve created this guide to help your administrators find and change the outbound spam protection policy that is blocking your forward.

For Microsoft 365 Administrators

Configuring external email forwarding in Microsoft 365 is Microsoft’s documentation of the security features they’ve put in place. Below you will find a step-by-step guide for changing the specific portion of the automatic forwarding settings needed to all Email to SMS.

Special Note: GoDaddy Based 365

If your Microsoft 365 service was purchased through GoDaddy, you should not continue with the instructions below as they have their own method for changing these settings as outlined in their help here: Microsoft 365 from GoDaddy Help: Enable external email forwarding

Enable Automatic External Forwarding for All Mailboxes

Log in to your Office 365 Security & Compliance portal for Microsoft 365 and choose Threat management > Policy > Anti-spam or head directly to the Anti-spam settings page here: https://protection.office.com/antispam

Click on Anti-spam outbound policy (Default) and scroll to click the Edit protection settings link at the bottom of the sidebar.

Find the section called Forwarding Rules, and the dropdown list called Automatic Forwarding Rules. Pull that list down and choose On – Forwarding is enabled. Click Save at the bottom.

Enable Automatic External Forwarding for Individual Mailboxes

Log in to your Office 365 Security & Compliance portal for Microsoft 365 and choose Threat management > Policy > Anti-spam or head directly to the Anti-spam settings page here: https://protection.office.com/antispam

Click + Create policy and choose Outbound.

Give your new outbound spam filter policy a Name and Description.

Click Next and search to find the user account you want to allow to forward, i.e. the email account that you are using to send Email to SMS, which will display under the Users field after you select it.

Click Next again, scroll to the Forwarding rules section, and click the dropdown under Automatic forwarding rules. Choose On – Forwarding is enabled, then click Next. 

Review the settings on the last screen and click Create to create your new outbound policy for the specified user(s).

Note: You may have other transport rules or spam policies in place at Microsoft 365 that block external forwarding in addition to the outbound spam filtering we’ve covered here. If automatic external forwarding is still blocked after adjusting these policies, you will want to reach out to your Microsoft 365 support for assistance in finding any further blocking that has been set up in your Microsoft 365 account.