Enable SMS/MMS for Braze

Overview

This guide walks Braze customers through enabling SMS in SmarterSends, configuring provider-specific options (including link tracking/shortening and MMS), and creating SMS templates that expose safe “content areas” for your team to fill when building messages.

Prerequisites

• A SmarterSends account with admin access
• A Braze account with SMS enabled (numbers/short codes provisioned as needed)
• Your Braze Subscription Group ID for SMS
• Optional: A link tracking domain (if you plan to enable link shortening)

Enable Braze SMS in SmarterSends

1. In SmarterSends, go to Settings > Integrations > SMS.
2. Set Provider to Braze.
3. Fill in provider-specific settings:
   1. Enable MMS (optional): Enable to allow attaching images to outgoing SMS (MMS), if your Braze setup supports it.
   2. Stop Language: Compliance footer text, e.g., Reply STOP to optout.
   3. Include From Name (optional): When enabled, the sender’s From Name (configured in your templates) can be included within your message content (useful for brand identification at the start of the SMS).
   4. Link Tracking/Shortening (optional): Turns on Braze link shortening for SMS.
   5. User Click Tracking (optional): Enables user-level click tracking.
   6. Maximum Message Length (optional): Between 160 and 800. SmarterSends uses this to warn and help you stay within intended lengths.
   7. Subscription Group ID (required for Braze): Use your Braze SMS Subscription Group ID.
   8. SMS Message Variation ID: From your API Campaign setup within Braze
4. Save.

Notes:

• SmarterSends will include these settings when it builds the Braze payload: message variation is read from the Group SMS message settings or tenant defaults if available; Subscription Group ID, Link Tracking, User Click Tracking, and (if MMS enabled and an image is provided) media items are all handled for you.

Create a SmarterSends SMS Template (Braze)

1. Go to Templates > New Template and choose type SMS.
2. Give your template a clear name.
3. Configure the header options shown on the SMS template screen:
   1. From Name: Enter a default value your team can reuse.
   2. Lock From Name: Toggle to prevent editors from changing the From Name when creating a campaign from this template.
   3. Note: The sending number/short code is configured under Settings > Integrations > SMS (not in the template itself) for Braze.
4. In the template body, insert text and variables as needed.
5. Define editable sections using Content Areas (see below) so users can safely add or change parts of the content per-campaign without editing the master template.
6. Save the template.

Using Content Areas in SMS Templates

Content Areas turn parts of the template into safe, configurable fields that appear when building a specific SMS in SmarterSends.

• Add a content area placeholder where you want the editable field to appear:
  • %%contentarea{ID}%% (example: %%contentarea12%%). Each content area has a unique numeric ID assigned when you create it.
• Optionally wrap blocks with conditional markers to hide the entire block when no value is set
  • {%conditional-{ID}-begin%} ... {%conditional-{ID}-end%}

Test Sends

• Use the SMS composer’s “Send Test” to send to test contacts. Enter your test accounts Email Address that is associated with a SMS phone number in the Braze system.