Overview
SMS gateways are used by CommCareHQ to send and receive text messages. Each SMS gateway is represented by a phone number - normally a gateway is setup for each country, but some gateway providers will let you send messages to many countries. Details on our SMS gateways can be found here (Gateway Options to Set up an SMS Project).
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Before proceeding, you will need an Android phone with an active SIM card. All SMS will be sent and received from this phone and SIM. Your phone will be charged according to your plan for sending and receiving SMS, so you will need to keep the SIM card's account balance topped up in order to help prevent interruptions of service. Click here to see the Telerivet FAQ which has important information, including which phones are recommended to be used. |
To get started, navigate You should only consider setting up a Telerivet Android gateway if:
- You have an Android phone that you will be using exclusively for this purpose
- The phone will always be on and charged
- The phone will always be connected to wifi (or optionally, mobile data, though that may be more expensive)
- You will monitor the phone's balance and ensure it always has enough credit to send and receive SMS
If you have a phone that meets those criteria, you can get started by navigating to Messaging -> SMS Connectivity in your project space. At the bottom of this page, click "Add Another Gateway":
CommCareHQ . CommCareHQ will then walk you through the steps to setup a Telerivet SMS gateway and connect it to your CommCareHQ project for sending and receiving SMS.:
Step 2: Read these Important Tips for using Telerivet with CommCare Messaging
- When creating your Telerivet account, check to see where your project falls under Telerivet's pricing. It is important to set up the right pricing structure before your project goes live. For example, it's important to ensure that the number of contacts you will be sending to falls within the limit allowed on the account. If you want to set your Telerivet pricing to a non-free plan, make sure that when you use your credit card to add funds to "Select a plan" that you want to use.
- It's important to be aware of the maximum number of stored messages that your Telerivet plan allows. For example, the Test Telerivet plan only allows 500 messages to be stored in the account, so after sending and receiving 500 messages total, the account will stop sending new messages until old messages are deleted. To have your Telerivet account automatically delete old messages, you can update the "Message Retention" setting for your Telerivet project (Dashboard -> Edit Settings).
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You still register your contacts in CommCareHQ the same way as you would if used any other SMS gateway. Information on registering mobile worker contacts is here, and information on registering case contacts is here.
Step 4 (Optional) - Share Your Telerivet Gateway with Another Project
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