Unicode

A standard SMS supports only the characters of the GSM 7-bit set. For accented characters, other scripts or emoji you need Unicode — at the cost of a shorter message.

When you need Unicode

The GSM 7-bit set contains the basic Latin alphabet, digits, common punctuation and only some accented characters, such as é, ä, ö or ü. Characters like á, č, ř, ž or ů are not part of it, and neither are Cyrillic, Arabic, Chinese or emoji.

How to enable Unicode

• In a campaign, turn Unicode on with the switch next to the message text. If you type characters outside GSM without Unicode enabled, the portal warns you.
• Over the API, send the unicode parameter set to true. See SMS object.

Enabled Unicode applies only when the text actually contains a character outside GSM. A message without such characters is sent as a standard SMS with the 160-character limit, so enabling it costs you nothing.

Message length

The same text can therefore take more parts in Unicode — and each part is charged separately. Details are in Message concatenation.

A message without Unicode

• Characters outside GSM are replaced, for example č with c.
• Emoji are removed.

If you do not need accented characters, a text without them fits into longer parts and the message may cost less.