How do I send SMS from Arino One?

You send SMS from Arino One by registering a country-appropriate sender identity in Infobip, connecting it under Settings → Channels → SMS, and then sending from the inbox, an automation or a campaign exactly as you would on any other channel. SMS has no reply window and no template-approval process, which makes it the simplest channel to get live and the standard fallback for time-critical or identity-critical messages.

Sender identity by country

SMS registration rules are set per country, not globally, so check the rule for each market before you plan a rollout. In much of Europe, alphanumeric sender IDs (your brand name instead of a number) are supported and sometimes require pre-registration; in other markets alphanumeric IDs are blocked entirely, and traffic must send from a long number. Getting this wrong doesn't just fail silently — messages can be blocked or filtered by carriers, so confirm the rule before your first bulk send in a new country.

Connected vs unconnected

Every client owns and registers senders against their own Infobip account, regardless of connection status.

On connected instances, you can raise a request for Arino to register a new country's sender identity on your behalf. If unconnected, you register the sender directly in your own Infobip account and connect it in the instance yourself.

Opt-out handling

Inbound STOP-style keywords are detected automatically and written to the contact's consent record — you don't need to build keyword matching yourself. Once a contact opts out, they're excluded from marketing SMS sends on that channel going forward. Keep transactional consent (OTPs, order updates) and marketing consent as separate fields on the contact, since opting out of marketing shouldn't silently break transactional delivery, and vice versa.

Segment length and cost

SMS is billed per segment, and segment length depends entirely on character encoding. A GSM-7 segment is 160 characters. The moment your message contains a single emoji or a character outside the GSM-7 set, the whole message switches to UCS-2 encoding and the segment length drops to 70 characters — a 150-character message can silently become two billed segments. Check the segment counter in the compose window before a bulk send, and strip unnecessary emoji from automated templates if cost matters.

Using SMS as a fallback

Because SMS has no message window and near-universal reach, it's commonly configured as the automatic fallback when a WhatsApp or RCS message can't be delivered — for example when a contact has no WhatsApp account or hasn't accepted an RCS agent. Set this in your automation or campaign's delivery settings by choosing SMS as the fallback channel; the platform retries automatically without any manual intervention.

Common delivery issues

Most SMS delivery problems trace back to one of three causes: an unregistered or mismatched sender ID for the destination country, a message that was silently filtered by a carrier for containing spam-trigger words or an unregistered alphanumeric ID, or a contact who has already opted out. Check the delivery status in the conversation first — a "rejected" status usually points to a carrier or sender issue, while "delivered but no reply" is normal and not a fault. If a whole country's traffic stops delivering, check first for a change in that country's sender-ID rules before assuming a platform issue.

Templates and personalisation

Unlike WhatsApp, SMS has no template pre-approval process, so you can edit copy and send immediately — but that also means there's no safety net catching non-compliant content before it reaches a carrier. Keep a short, consistent sender signature (brand name plus a clear way to reply STOP) in marketing sends, since carriers are more likely to filter messages that look unbranded or bulk. Personalisation fields (first name, order number) work exactly as on other channels and are inserted before the segment count is calculated, so double-check final message length once merge fields are populated.

Testing before you go live

Before enabling SMS in an automation or campaign, send a test message to your own number from the instance and confirm it arrives with the correct sender identity, and that a reply routes back into the inbox correctly. This catches sender-registration and country-rule issues before they affect real contacts.

Steps at a glance

1. Confirm your SMS sender identity per countryCheck Settings → Channels → SMS for the sender-ID rules in each country you'll send to — alphanumeric ID, pre-registration, or long number only.
2. Register the senderRegister the sender yourself in your own Infobip account, then connect it in Settings → Channels → SMS. If your instance has the $50/month Arino Core connection, Arino can register it on request.
3. Set up opt-out handlingConfirm inbound STOP-style keywords are mapped to the contact's consent record so opted-out contacts are excluded automatically.
4. Draft within segment limitsWrite your message and check the segment count before sending — GSM-7 gives 160 characters per segment, UCS-2 (any emoji or non-GSM character) drops that to 70.
5. Send a test messageSend a test SMS to your own number from the instance and confirm delivery and reply routing before a bulk or automated send.
6. Configure fallback (optional)In your automation or campaign settings, set SMS as the automatic fallback for contacts who can't be reached on WhatsApp or RCS.

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