DocumentationJourney OptimizerJourney Optimizer Guide

Check & send your text message (SMS/MMS) send-sms

Last update: Fri Jan 30 2026 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

CREATED FOR:

  • Beginner
  • User

Preview your text message preview-sms

Once your message content has been defined, you can use test profiles or sample input data (uploaded from a CSV/JSON file or added manually) to preview its content. If you inserted personalized content, you can check how this content is displayed in the message.

To do this, click Simulate content then check your message using the test profile data.

Detailed information on how to preview & test content is available in the Content Management section.

Character encoding and limits sms-character-limits

A character count is displayed when accessing Simulate content menu to assist in planning and managing your SMS messages.

Journey Optimizer uses UTF-8 encoding in its SMS editor, allowing you to type or paste double-byte or Unicode characters. These characters are then transmitted to the service provider for delivery. Most SMS providers use GSM 7-bit encoding for standard messages with a 160-character limit and switch to UTF-16 (UCS-2) when non-GSM characters are detected with a 70-character limit.

Note that the character count does not reflect variations introduced by dynamic personalization or non-GSM 7-bit special characters.

IMPORTANT
Journey Optimizer SMS delivery reporting does not account for concatenated messages and dynamic personalization, thus may not reflect the actual number of messages sent from the provider. For detailed usage and billing information, please contact your Adobe representative.
To learn best practices for minimizing SMS billing overages, refer to SMS Best Practices for Character Optimization.

Validate your content sms-validate

NOTE
To improve your deliverability, use the phone numbers in the formats supported by the provider. For example, Twilio and Sinch only support phone numbers in E.164 format.

You must check alerts in the upper section of the editor. Some of them are simple warnings, but others can prevent you from sending the message. Two types of alerts can happen: warnings and errors.

  • Warnings refer to recommendations and best practices. For example, a warning message is displayed if your text message is empty or if character limits may be exceeded with dynamic content.

    Character limits: 160 characters per segment (GSM 7-bit), 70 for Unicode/emojis, up to 1500 characters total.

  • Errors prevent you from testing or activating the journey, or publishing the campaign, as long as they are not resolved. For example, an error message warns you when the subject line is missing.

The alert “The SMS text character limit has been exceeded” may appear even when your simulated message is shorter because validation calculates the maximum possible length by evaluating all conditional branches, personalization fields, and dynamic content at their longest.

Validation calculates maximum length for all possible profile data, while simulation shows actual output for one test profile.

Send your text messages sms-send

IMPORTANT
If your campaign is subject to an approval policy, you will need to request approval in order to be able to send your text messages. Learn more

When your text message is ready, complete the configuration of your journey or campaign to send it.

Related topics

recommendation-more-help
b22c9c5d-9208-48f4-b874-1cefb8df4d76