What is the URL shortener in SMS messages?

Links have become crucial elements in SMS communication. They not only allow you to expand information with online resources and actions, but also offer measurable results.

The presence of links in SMS messages not only improves the results of any action or communication, but also opens the door to obtain more detailed and multimedia information than a simple 160-character text.

The URL shortener reduces the size of links to the minimum possible and also displays statistics and monitors clicks on links in sent SMS messages.

Therefore, the shortener improves efficiency and also provides valuable interaction metrics to measure the success of any sending or campaign.

What are the benefits of the URL Shortener?

• Content efficiency: the URL takes up fewer characters in the text of the message and thus provides more space to convey relevant information.
• Lower costs by maximizing information capacity, avoiding multi-part messages.
• Customized domain: to generate brand recognition and more confidence in the recipients.
• Measurement of interaction results (success of campaigns or sendings and detection of loyal and viral users).

What is included in the LabsMobile URL Shortener?

The URL shortener service consists of different functionalities of our platform that manage and improve the links of the SMS messages sent.

• Link association: reducing the number of characters and optimizing the limited space of a standard SMS by replacing a long link with a short one, for example:
  • Publication of attachments generating short links to images or any file (PDF, DOC, XLS, etc.).
  • Redirect online resources published or available in any online service (YouTube videos, Typeform forms, web landings, urls with parameters and variables, etc.).
• Automatic replacement: if this function is activated, any short or long link is replaced by a LabsMobile short link labsmo.bi/xxx (also in API submissions). This option can be activated and deactivated as needed.
• Custom domains: choose and configure a new custom domain (or subdomain) for all sendings. For more information, see here.
• Monitoring of clicks: by counting and studying clicks on urls it is possible to obtain and measure results and explore market possibilities. This data, available in the WebSMS application, allows to measure the reach of any campaign and to base the next ones on the results (ROI, statistics, reports, listings).

How does the URL shortener in SMS messages work?

LabsMobile shortens the urls that appear in the text of messages by linking to the domain labsmo.bi followed by a code that uniquely identifies each message and url (example: labsmo.bi/Uyq61rt).

Important The default domain labsmo.bi can be customized by a domain or subdomain specific to the issuer's brand or entity and can be configured in the Account preferences.

The shortener service includes the identification of each url and each click by means of a unique code per message sent. Storing all the data of that click (date, time, IP address, user agent).

With this data it is possible to generate lists, reports and click statistics for each SMS message sent. And perform studies of user segments with more interactions, loyal customers, interested recipients or viral users.

Therefore, it is possible to identify the clicks (and all the associated information) of each of the messages sent. This is an additional functionality to any shortener not integrated in an SMS platform.

How much does the LabsMobile URL Shortener cost?

The URL shortener service has no additional cost, it is included in the sending of any message or campaign. Therefore:

• There is no cost for using the link shortening tool.
• The automatic replacement of links by LabsMobile (labsmo.bi/xx) is also free of charge.
• The personalization of the domain and the generation of an SSL certificate (Let's Encrypt) is also free of charge.
• The monitoring and click statistics are included.

Simply activate and configure the different functionalities and improve the capabilities and metrics of your SMS communications.

How to use the URL Shortener?

These are the steps to configuring and using the URL shortener on the LabsMobile platform: