Counting text message parts

Each service can send 100,000 free text message parts per year and 1500 free text message parts per day.

Phone carriers increase cost for:

• Text messages longer than 160 characters.
• Some special characters.
• Some signs and symbols

To improve message clarity and reduce costs:

• Follow best practices for text messages.

Text message parts

Phone carriers split text messages over 160 characters into separate parts. 

Spaces count as characters.

When a text message splits, each part counts toward GC Notify’s daily and annual limits.
Some special characters split text messages into parts before reaching 160 characters.

Characters per part

Number of parts	Character count: no splitting characters	Character count: one or more splitting characters
1	Up to and including 160	Up to and including 70
2	Up to and including 306	Up to and including 134
3	Up to and including 459	Up to and including 201
4	Up to and including 612	Up to and including 268
5 or more	GC Notify cannot send text messages over 612 characters.	Each additional 67 characters counts as another part until 612. GC Notify cannot send messages over 612 characters.

Special characters that split text

This list does not cover characters in languages other than French. Other special characters, including some currency symbols, may also change message count. As you draft, GC Notify shows an estimate of the number of parts per text message template.

French special characters that split text

Capital	Lower case	Description
Â	â	Capital or lower case with circumflex
À	not applicable	Capital with grave
Ç	not applicable	Capital with cedilla
Ê	ê	Capital or lower case with circumflex
È	not applicable	Capital with grave
Ë	ë	Capital or lower case with dieresis
Î	î	Capital or lower case with circumflex
Ï	ï	Capital or lower case with dieresis
Ô	ô	Capital or lower case with circumflex
Œ	œ	Capital or lower case with ligature
Û	û	Capital or lower case with circumflex
Ù	not applicable	Capital with grave
Ÿ	ÿ	Capital or lower case with dieresis

Signs and symbols

The following count as 2 characters each:

• [ Left square bracket
• ] Right square bracket
• { Left curly bracket
• } Right curly bracket
• ^ Circumflex accent
• \ Backslash
• | Vertical bar
• ~ Tilde
• € Euro sign

Best practices for text messages

• Write clear and concise messages. Review tips for English and French messages.
• Use links to connect recipients to more information.

Tips for English messages

• Avoid words like ‘please’ and ‘sorry’. 
• Use active voice. For example ‘We may dismiss your application’ instead of ‘Your application will be dismissed’.
• Use commands to give instructions, for example ‘Reschedule’ instead of ‘You should reschedule’.
• Use positive contractions like ‘We’re meeting’.
• Spell out negative contractions like “We cannot meet”.

Tips for French messages

• Do not remove or replace accents to avoid splitting messages into parts. Without accents, recipients may not understand and you’ll likely have to completely rewrite the message. The rewrite may have another accent that splits messages.
• Write short and clear texts by starting with the most important information and avoiding unnecessary content that could distract the reader. Instead of ‘Lors de votre arrivée sur les lieux, merci de bien vouloir fournir une preuve d’identité, qu’il s’agisse d’un passeport ou d’un autre document délivré par le gouvernement fédéral’, use ‘À votre arrivée, présentez un document d’identité fédéral.’
• Use simple words and avoid jargon. For example, instead of ‘Le dossier sera traité conformément au principe de caducité’ use ‘Le dossier sera fermé, car il n’est plus valide’.
• Use gender neutral wording as much as possible. You can use words that have one form to indicate either sex, like individu (‘individual’) or personne (‘person’) to replace femme (‘woman’) or homme (‘man’). For groups of people, use neutral collective terms to avoid specifying the gender (for instance, use the term personnel [‘the staff’] rather than the gendered plural les employés or employées [‘the employees’].)
• Use the active or passive voice based on the context. Active or passive voice may be options to avoid gendered sentences. Use the voice that reads most naturally in French.
• Use the positive form as much as possible and reserve the negative for when consequences could be grave or fatal. Avoid double negations and exceptions to exceptions, which could confuse readers.

Using links

Introduce the link so it’s purpose is clear.
If possible, use “gc.ca” or “canada.ca” to identify your government service.

For example:

Enter the full URL. For example:

Make the url as concise as possible, without using a URL shortener. 
URL shorteners can:

• Appear suspicious because they hide the link’s destination.
• Cause your text message to be marked as spam.