Two-Way Messaging (Custom Keyword Responses)
Two-way messaging uses short codes and keywords to deliver text messages to mobile users. It requires end users to send a keyword to Braze to which that user will receive an automatic reply. Applied correctly, two-way messaging can be an simple, immediate and dynamic solution to customer marketing, saving time and resources along the way.
Two Way Messaging Speeds
Two-way messaging leverages custom events to make this seemingly smooth customer client exchange possible. Due to the nature of two-way messaging, you may find a slight increase in response time. Below are the implications of including two-way messaging:
Type | Speed | Notes |
---|---|---|
Known Phone Numbers | 3-5 Seconds | A known number is a number that has already been assigned a phone attribute and is already subscribed to a subscription group within Braze. |
Unknown Phone Numbers | 10-15 Seconds | An unknown number is one that has not yet been identifier. For more information on how Unknown phone numbers are dealt with, check out our documentation. |
If you require a faster sending speeds for unknown phone numbers, reach out to your customer success manager to discuss your options.
Custom Keyword Messaging Handling
Custom Event Fired | |
---|---|
sms_response_subscriptionName_custom |
Response Examples => Status, Coupons, News |
Included Event Properties | |
---|---|
- message_body : users SMS response- to_number : usually short code the clients used to send SMS- from_number : user’s phone number- sms_message_id : messaging service ID |
Message Body => Users response returned as all lower case |
- Anytime a user texts an SMS response that is not a default keyword to a phone number in a given Subscription Group, a custom event like
sms_response_SubscriptionGroupName_custom
with event propertiesmessage_body
,to_number
,from_number
, andsms_message_id
will be sent to Braze. - Use this custom event with the property
message_body
assigned as a custom keyword to trigger an SMS campaign from Braze. - The
message_body
custom keyword value must be lowercase.
Note: This feature relies on user aliases in order to properly assign custom events to user profiles in Braze. If no Braze profile exists with a user alias of the user’s phone number in E.164 format, the call to the users/track endpoint will fail silently. The alias should be set in the format below either through the SDK or the new user alias endpoint:
- alias_label:
phone
and alias_name:users_phone_number
- Phone numbers must be in the E.164 format (e.g +19173337578).
If using the new user alias endpoint, to ensure E.164 compliance, please add a “+” prefix as the default “phone” field does not automatically include this symbol.