How to use and check the report of a short URL?

What is a short URL?

A URL shortener is a feature that converts a regular URL (the web address that starts with http://) into its condensed format. You can now save credits by cutting short the SMS length with our smart URL Shortener. Using this feature will automatically convert the long URL present in your SMS content into a short one. Once the SMS is delivered and the receiver clicks on the short URL received, it will redirect him/her to your original long URL.

To achieve it, just follow the below steps or watch this video-

Enable the Short URL feature for your account

1. Login MSG91 panel -> Click on Short URL section

- In the  Settings section, you will get a toggle button where you can enable or disable the Short URL service.

The message received on the handset will look like this.

You can use Short URLs explicitly in two ways-

a. Via API

- Start passing short_url=1 as an additional parameter in your API call.

- It will work with all the versions of API.

Creating Short URL

In the URL section, you will get all the URLs with created date, expiry (if any), and their short IDs. You can edit the expiry time by using the edit/action button.

Also, a new URL can be created manually with Create New button. You just have to add your Long URL and its Expiry time and click Save.

Limitations (The URL will only be replaced if)

The length of URL with hostname > 9 & URL without hostname > 5.

For example:

URL: http://testdevu.mywire.org/welcome/

URL with hostname: testdevu.mywire.org/welcome/

URL without hostname: /welcome/

Auto-convert short URLs will not work for "cutt.ly", "t.ly", "bit.ly", "bl.ink", "rb.gy", "bit.do", "is.gd", "ow.ly"

Any URL of local host will also not be shortened.

How this will help you? 

This helps with CTA whitelisting on DLT. As per TRAI guidelines, if you're using a Redirection URL in your SMS, you must use a Short URL, and your header should be included in that URL.

To use the URL shortener, whitelist the domain https://m.9m.io/ with all your headers on your DLT portal.

Example: If your header is ABCDEF, whitelist https://m.9m.io/ABCDEF on the DLT portal.

NOTE: The maximum limit of a long URL is 3000 characters which our system can short.

How to use Short URL expiry in the API?

Short URL Expiry: If you want to set the short URL expiry just pass the extra parameter of short_url_expiry in seconds in the API. This is the optional parameter.

“short_url_expiry”: “ seconds“, || Add the value in seconds, and the maximum/default value in seconds is 31536000 seconds (1 Year)

Happy messaging!
TEAM MSG91