Two ways to send. You choose the one that fits.
Most school notices belong in a single, predictable SMS. Some genuinely do not. SyncPoint gives you both, spells out exactly how each one is counted, and shows the cost before anything leaves.
Standard message
A short notice that always leaves as exactly one billable SMS part, so the cost per parent is fixed and predictable.
- Up to 155 GSM-7 encoded units under SyncPoint's Standard policy.
- Up to 70 Unicode characters for a one-part Unicode message.
- Calculated from the complete rendered SMS, including the school-name prefix and any added content.
Always exactly one billable SMS part — R0.40 per recipient.
Good for
- · Gate closures and early dismissals
- · Reminders and short confirmations
- · Absence and payment notices
Long message
More room when a notice genuinely will not fit in one part. Long messages are normally joined and displayed as one message on the recipient's phone, while each underlying SMS part is billed separately.
- Maximum 918 GSM-7 units across 6 joined parts.
- Maximum 402 Unicode characters across 6 joined parts.
- Also calculated from the complete rendered SMS, school-name prefix included.
Billed per part — up to 6 parts, R0.40 each.
Good for
- · Detailed excursion instructions
- · Urgent multi-step notices
- · Information that cannot reasonably fit into one part
How characters are counted
SMS has its own alphabet. Three separate things decide how much of your limit a message uses — they are often mixed up, so here they are one at a time.
Ordinary GSM-7 characters
Everyday letters, digits and common punctuation.
These usually consume 1 unit each.
GSM extension characters
The characters [ ] { } \ ~ ^ | € still send fine.
They remain GSM-7 but consume 2 units each, so a handful of them can quietly push a message over a limit.
Characters outside GSM-7
Many emojis, curly quotation marks and some accented characters fall outside GSM-7.
A single one switches the complete SMS to Unicode, which drops the whole message to 70 characters for one part and 67 per joined part.
Worked example: one part becomes two
A plain GSM-7 notice of 160 units is one technical part. Add a single character and the message must be joined, so it is counted at 153 units per part and billed as two parts — even though parents see one message.
Worked example: one curly quote
Pasting from Word can turn an apostrophe into a curly one. That single character sits outside GSM-7 and switches the complete SMS to Unicode, dropping the limit to 70 characters for one part. The composer flags it and offers a one-click SMS-safe conversion.
Network limits vs SyncPoint's Standard policy
The 160/153 and 70/67 figures come from how SMS works on the networks. The 155-unit Standard limit is our own deliberate policy — set below the network's 160 units so a Standard message stays one billable part with headroom for the school-name prefix.
| Limit | Value | Set by |
|---|---|---|
| GSM-7, one technical part | up to 160 units | Network |
| GSM-7, joined message | up to 153 units per part | Network |
| Unicode, one part | up to 70 characters | Network |
| Unicode, joined message | up to 67 characters per part | Network |
| Standard message policy | 155 GSM-7 units, or 70 Unicode characters | SyncPoint |
| Long message ceiling | 918 GSM-7 units or 402 Unicode characters, across 6 parts | SyncPoint |
See how a message is counted
- Encoding
- GSM-7
- GSM-7 units
- 65
- Parts each
- 1
- Estimated total
- R200.00
This fits a Standard message: exactly one billable part per recipient. 500 recipients × 1 part = 500 billable parts.
This is an illustration. The final in-app quote uses the actual eligible recipient count, duplicate handling, suppression checks and the complete rendered messages.
Why longer SMS messages cost more
- Networks carry a long message as several separate SMS parts, then the handset joins them for display.
- Each part is a separate delivery, so each part is billed.
- SyncPoint shows the split before you send instead of hiding it inside a total.
A joined message uses up to 153 GSM-7 units (or 67 Unicode characters) per part, because each part carries the information the handset needs to reassemble them.
What SyncPoint does for you
- · The school-name prefix is included in every count, so nothing is a surprise.
- · Personalised messages are costed per recipient — each rendered message is measured individually, so a longer name that tips one family into a second part is priced correctly.
- · Every billable part is R0.40, shown as a full quote.
- · For extremely long notices, send the essential details by SMS and link to the complete letter or document.
You see the exact number of SMS parts and the full campaign quote before confirming. Messages exceeding SyncPoint's supported limits are blocked.
See pricingQuestions about length and cost
The details schools ask about most.
A Standard message allows up to 155 GSM-7 encoded units, or 70 Unicode characters, measured on the complete rendered SMS including the school-name prefix — and it is always exactly one billable part. A Long message allows a maximum of 918 GSM-7 units, or 402 Unicode characters, across 6 joined parts.