Text message with a link

Put a link in a text

A text message is plain text. Copy the address from your browser, paste it into the message and send it. Keep these in mind:

• Use the full address, including https://, so it's clear it's a link and goes to the right place.
• Say what it is. "Here's the booking page:" before the address helps the reader trust it.
• Keep it short. A long address with tracking codes looks suspicious and eats into the message. A short link to your own domain reads better than a random one.

Make a link that opens a text with your link in it

If you want customers to share your page by text, give them a button that opens their messaging app with your link already typed. That's an sms: link with a message:

sms:?body=Here's%20the%20booking%20page%3A%20https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2Fbook

The tool below starts with exactly that. Change the message to your own address and copy the link or the HTML.

A few things about this kind of link:

• No number means the sender picks. Without a number, the link opens a new message and the person chooses who to send it to. Apple's archived SMS reference shows a bare sms: link that opens the Messages app.
• With a number it goes to you. Add your number and the link opens a text to you instead, with your message typed.
• The message isn't guaranteed. RFC 5724, the SMS link standard, defines the body field, but Apple's archived reference documents only the number. Test on an iPhone and an Android phone.
• The address is encoded. In the link, : becomes %3A and / becomes %2F. The tool does this, and the reader sees a normal address in their message.

Note that RFC 5724 expects at least one number in an SMS link. A link without one is common, but it's outside the standard, so test it.

Spot a fake link in a text

Scam texts copy real companies: a parcel that couldn't be delivered, a bank account that's locked, a prize to claim. Apple lists these signs of a phishing message:

• The sender's phone number or email doesn't match the company it claims to be from.
• It uses a different number or address from the one you gave that company.
• A link looks right, but the address doesn't match the company's website.
• The message looks noticeably different from the company's other messages.
• It asks for personal information, like a card number or a password.

Apple's advice is not to follow links or open attachments in suspicious or unsolicited messages. To see where a link goes on an iPhone without opening it, touch and hold it. On a Mac, hover over it.

If you're not sure, don't tap the link. Open the company's app or type its website address yourself and check your account there.

If you send links by text to customers

Make your messages easy to trust:

• Send from the same number every time, and tell customers which number that is.
• Use your own domain in links, not a link from a service they've never heard of.
• Don't ask for passwords or card numbers by text. Send people to your site and let them sign in there.

Related

To learn the sms: format, including how to write it in HTML, read SMS links. For a printed version that opens a text to you, use the SMS QR code generator.