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marcfarre's avatar
marcfarre
Collaborator
2 months ago

Emojis in Sms

Hi,
I am sending sms messages with emojis via API to Braze, and sometimes Braze deletes the emojis automatically, does anyone know why? It happens sometimes and only when the message is divided into several segments.

SMS and MMS

5 Replies

  • eakinsey's avatar
    eakinsey
    Icon for Community Manager rankCommunity Manager
    2 months ago

    Hi marcfarre - I checked in with the team on this and have some advice! 

    When sending SMS messages via the Braze REST API, emojis may be removed or not displayed correctly due to the encoding standards used for SMS messages. Here are the key points to consider:

    Check Encoding: Ensure that your message body is set to use UCS-2 encoding when including emojis.
    Monitor Character Count: Keep track of the character count, especially when using emojis, to avoid exceeding the segment limits.
    Test Messages: Send test messages to verify that emojis are displayed correctly and that the message is not inadvertently altered during segmentation.

    And here's a bit more detail on those recommendations. 

    UCS-2 Encoding: This encoding standard is used for SMS messages that contain non-GSM characters, such as emojis. UCS-2 allows for a wider range of characters but has a lower character limit per segment.

    Reasons for Emoji Removal:

    Encoding Limitations:
    If an SMS message contains emojis, it must be sent using UCS-2 encoding. The character limit for a single UCS-2 segment is 70 characters. If the message exceeds this limit, it will be split into multiple segments, which can lead to issues if not handled correctly.

    Message Segmentation:
    When a message is split into segments, each segment must adhere to the character limits of the encoding type. If the message is not properly formatted or if the segments exceed the UCS-2 limits, the emojis may not be included in the final message sent to the recipient.

    Character Count:
    Each emoji typically counts as two characters in UCS-2 encoding. This means that the overall character count can quickly exceed the limit, leading to segmentation issues.

    • marcfarre's avatar
      marcfarre
      Collaborator
      2 months ago

      Hello eakinsey​ ,

      Thank you, I found your information very useful.

      That's what's happening to me. I'm sending messages with emojis and when I do the segmentation they should be deleted.

      You mention that they can be removed if the segmentation is mismanaged. What would be the correct usage so that this does not happen to me? 
      For example, in a message like this "✈️ Due to operational reasons your flight VX XXXX will be operated by our partner company XXX. You'll see aesthetic differences, but the service will be the same".

      Thanks

      • eakinsey's avatar
        eakinsey
        Icon for Community Manager rankCommunity Manager
        2 months ago

        For the message you shared, it could be because the character count is over 70? 

        It might be worth it to check in with our support team if you're still facing issues!

  • marcfarre's avatar
    marcfarre
    Collaborator
    2 months ago

    I have also seen that if instead of sending an SMS we send an MMS, this can correct the problem, as it will not segregate the message, is this correct?

  • DavidO's avatar
    DavidO
    Visionary
    2 months ago

    Hi marcfarre​

    FYI here is the list of allowed emojis with UCS-16 which is a little more modern than UCS-2. If SMS fallsback to UCS-2 which it usually does to show emojis, some of these may be removed (Twillio, Braze, and others do). I would be surprised if an airplane is not appearing though. That seems pretty generic.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emoji#In_Unicode