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Long Code vs. Short Code
Long Code vs. Short Code

Can we use short 5 digit codes?

Caleb Miller avatar
Written by Caleb Miller
Updated over a week ago

A common question our Member Experience team receives is "Can I get a Shortcode for my account?" With Text In Church, we do not offer Shortcodes. Instead, we utilize a 10-digit phone number in your account so you can build personal connections with your people.

The testing and research we have conducted found that folks in a church setting are more accepting and trusting of a local, 10-digit phone number than a shortcode.

  • Sending your messages from your 10-digit local number helps build trust and relationships with your people with 2-way communication. After all, 45% of text messages are responded to and the long code is the only way for people to respond back to you in a personal way!

  • Shortcodes were designed for companies to be able to send text messages to large groups of people without being filtered by phone carriers. Because of this, oftentimes shortcodes can have a stigma that they are spammy or sales-y. Additionally, we want our platform to help build personal connections with your people.

  • The true power of text messaging is to interact with people in a personal and intimate way. The goal is to reach people and build relationships outside of our church walls. To keep the conversation going... you need to have a local phone number for your people to interact with.

There are other great benefits to having a 10-digit phone number:

  • You can have meaningful two-way communication.

  • Gathering guest information.

  • Providing targeted, relevant content.

  • Alert notifications and simple reminders.

  • They can save that number in their contacts so that when they get a message from you it will show up as such, not as some random number.

  • A 10-digit number means that you can have easy-to-use and unique Keywords. Shortcodes have to share Keywords because other people and churches are sharing the same shortcode.


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