Imagine trying to use a really long web URL in your messages. The amount of space it would take and the cost that it would incur you would not be practical at all! Or think of wanting to send a document, image, or form attached with your messages to your end customers. Sounds impossible, right? 


This is why Kaleyra came up with its very own URL shortener as a micro-feature, free of cost, within our application itself.


With a few clicks, your very inconveniently long URL, image, or document will be shortened to a link of around 15 - 19 characters!


Why Create Txtly Links


Txtly links can be easily inserted into an SMS and sent out to your clients. These links, like mentioned earlier, are short convenient and are a path to redirect the person opening the link to a piece of information that they need to access.


Txtly links can be created for:

  1. Shortening a really long URL
  2. Creating an attachment of an image
  3. Attaching a document, PDF, or a form
  4. An MP3, WAV, or Audio file
  5. A zipped file 


How do I create a Txtly Link?


You can easily create a Txtly link that you can plug into any SMS that you want, by following the below steps:

  1. Log into your Kaleyra Alerts Platform.
  2. Navigate to the left-hand menu and find the option "New Txtly" and click on it. This will collapse a menu and you can then select "Txtly". 
  3. On clicking "Txtly", the page below "Manage Txtly" will open up. Go ahead and select "+Create" from the right hand corner. 
  4. In the pop-up dialogue box that appears, fill in the details and make sure to set the status as "Active" by selecting the Check box at the top.
  5. If you want to get advanced details about the person who has accessed the shortened link, select the check box next to "Advanced Analytics". This will then collect details like location, browser type, and device type, etc. of the person who has accessed the link.
  6. Use the title option to tag the shortened URL so that you can easily find it later with the title if needed.
  7. Txtly code is a feature that allows you to customize the last bit of the link to make it appealing or easily recognizable to the end customer who will receive it. For example, if you are sending out a link for a coupon code, then a suggestion would be to enter "coupon" in the Txtly code or token dialogue box.
  8. Long URL is where your link that needs to be shortened needs to be mentioned. You can also alternatively select "Attachment" and browse your system for a file and upload it. The maximum size of the file is 50MB.
  9. You can even mention a Callback URL to collect the incoming data for the clicks that the Txtly link has received.

Once you save this, it will be visible on the "Manage Txtly" page.


To view the details of the clicks, follow the below steps:

  1. Navigate to"New Txtly" and then select "Txtly"
  2. On the "Manage Txtly" page that opens, find the "View Analytics" button on the right, next to "Create"
  3. The "View Analytics" will load with the below details.
  4. You will now be able to see a summary of the analytics of all your shortened links, including if it contains an attachment or URL, the number of views, the unique clicks, the last viewed date, the date it was created, if it is active or not and an option to "View Logs"
  5. On clicking "View Logs", the "Txtly Logs" page will load 
  6. You can see all the information about the device that accessed the link, including IP address and City, and time of visit. These details can further be downloaded also as a report by clicking on "Download" on the top right corner.


Learn more about Analytics now!




You can also shorten URLs in bulk!


For example, if you have a coupon code that is unique to each of your end customers that you want to redirect them to, then these would need to be different links. Trying to create each one individually would be too long a process. 

To easily create bulk shortened URLs, you can follow the below steps:


  1. Log into your Kaleyra Alerts Platform.
  2. Navigate to the left-hand menu and find the option "New Txtly" and click on it. This will collapse a menu and you can then select "Txtly". 
  3. On clicking "Bulk Txtly", the page below "Manage Txtly Campaigns" will open up. Go ahead and select "+Create" from the right-hand corner. 
  4. In the pop-up dialogue box that appears, fill in the details and make sure to set the status as "Active" by selecting the Check box at the top.
  5. If you want to get advanced details about the person who has accessed the shortened link, select the check box next to "Advanced Analytics". This will then collect details like location, browser type, and device type, etc. of the person who has accessed the link.
  6. Use the "Campaign Name" option to tag the bulk shortened URL so that you can easily find it later with the title if needed.
  7. Choose the file with the details of the links that need to be shortened. In case you are unsure of the format that this needs to be in, check our sample file and make sure your file matches it.
  8. Once the file I uploaded and processed (this may take some time depending on the number of links to be shortened), you will be able to see it on the "Manage Txtly Campaigns" page.
  9. You can choose to view the created link or download the file of the links created, which can then be used via the "Customized SMS" option in the Kaleyra platform, to send out to your customers.