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).
If you don't want to use one of CommCareHQ's shared Gateways, or if you can't because connectivity isn't working with the countries or networks of your recipients, you can setup your own Android SMS gateway with Telerivet, and integrate it with CommCareHQ. An Android SMS gateway will use an Android phone and its SIM card to send and receive messages for CommCareHQ.
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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 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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