Sinch Setup Tutorial

Owned by Pratik Upadhyay
Last updated: Oct 19, 2022

Table of Contents:

Intro

As an introduction we recommend perusing our SMS Campaigns help page, in particular the Introduction and SMS Field Setup sections.

API Credentials

  1. Go to https://www.sinch.com/sign-up/ and Sign up for "Messaging & Conversations" Account.
  2. After Signing up, Login to your Account and Go to SMS >> APIs from left side menu to get the API credentials.
  3. Copy Service ID and API token visible on the screen. API Token will be visible after clicking the "Show" link.


  4. Create a new Sinch Connection in Ongage by going into Vendors Settings >> SMS Vendors >> Select Sinch and hit Save and Next button on the screen.


  5. On ESP connection setup page under API credentials, provide the Service ID and API Token you got from Step 2 above.


  6. Check credentials by clicking on 'Verify Credentials'.
  7. Click the 'Save' button at the bottom of the setup page.

Additional Setup Notes

Setting Up The From Number

(info) This is the number that the SMS text message will be sent from, and the number your recipients will see it came from

  1. Login to your Sinch Account, and from the Left Side menu option, Go to the Your Numbers menu item. From there you can request a New Number. Once the new number is approved you will see your number under the Numbers tab which you can use as your sending from number in Ongage. 


  2. Once your From Number is available, you can set it up in the Ongage-Sinch Connection, in the From Name field:

Short Codes

  1. You can specially request from Sinch Support a 5 Digit Short Code (instead of the default long number), as your from number.

    1. Contact your Sinch Account Manager or Sinch Support to receive your Short code which you can use when sending SMS messages to US destinations.

    2. Once available, the Short Codes will be visible under Short Codes tab in the Your Numbers menu item in the Sinch UI.

  2. (warning) Important: If you are using Shortcodes in Sinch, before you start sending Bulk SMS Campaigns you need to go through the Shortcode Certification Process (aka Shortcode Onboarding Process) to send using Shortcodes in the US, and the number needs to be approved by each carrier. Until any Shortcode is approved by each carrier through the Shortcode Certification Process, it can only be used to send Test SMSs within your organization. (warning) Given this difficult and intricate certification process, it is generally not recommended to use Shortcodes.
    To learn more about the Shortcode Certification Process please refer to this Sinch’s Documentation link or get in touch with your Sinch Account Manager.

Built-in Bounce Integration

Sinch automatically pushes bounces back to Ongage via a webhook. This is a built-in feature and no additional configuration is needed.

Built-in Unsubscribe Integration

How to configure and setup

(info) Ongage has built-in unsubscribe integration with Sinch. Meaning if a subscribers replies with an unsubscribe keyword, as detailed below, then the active status of the contact in Ongage will automatically change to Unsubscribed (the deactivated Ongage status that prevents that contact from participating in any future Ongage campaigns).

For the unsubscribe to work, the phone numbers residing in the Ongage list need to be in E.164 format e.g., +19876543210.


  1. By Default the Ongage-Sinch connections supports the following unsubscribe keywords(even if the unsubscribe keywords field is kept blank):
    1. stop
    2. quit
    3. cancel
    4. unsubscribe
    5. In addition you can configure your own custom unsub keywords, using comma separated values, in the following settings, in the Ongage-Sinch connection:


  2. (warning) Important: In order for unsubscribe keywords to work you need to add a callback URL in your Sinch account.

    1. To do that, Go to your Sinch account >> SMS >> APIs >> Rest >> Click on the Service Plan ID and configure the URL in the CALLBACK URL section which will be in following format:

      http://trkpnt.ongage.net/sinch.hook.php?account_id=<Your Ongage Account ID>&connection_id=<Sinch Connection ID in Ongage>
E.g., http://trkpnt.ongage.net/sinch.hook.php?account_id=12345&connection_id=6789

      Your account id you can find in the Account Profile page, and the connection id you'll find on the Vendor Settings → My Connections page under the ECID column.



Setting Up a HELP Reply

A Help reply message can be setup within the Ongage-Sinch connection, where you can select the sms text help message to be sent via this connection. 

  1. Select the Ongage list that this autoresponder will apply for.
  2. Select the SMS Help message.
  3. Select a transactional campaign for aggregating statistics for these sends. It is typically recommended to setup a dedicated transactional campaign for this (though if you already have a dedicated transactional campaign for your SMS text messages, you can choose to use that as well).
       

Sinch Restrictions

  1. From a Sinch trial account, you can't send custom text messages.
    1. To send your own customized message, you’ll need to purchase a paid account. Once purchased, you'll be able to edit the content to whatever you require.
  2. An SMS campaign may not be delivered in the following cases:
    1. If sending to countries that are not allowed to send to with the specific from_number you're using. In such cases, you'll need to contact Sinch support. They can provide you with unique paid number for that country.
    2. If the receiver's origin (country) is blocked by Sinch. In that case, you will receive bounces for those sends.

Sinch SMS Delivery Error Codes

https://developers.sinch.com/docs/sms/smpp/error-codes/