How to Migrate Your SMS Program to Amazon Pinpoint

In the fast-paced realm of communication, where every second counts and attention spans are shorter than ever, the choice of channels that you use to deliver your message to your recipients is critical. While we often find ourselves swept away by the allure of flashy social media platforms and sleek email interfaces, it’s the unassuming text message, or SMS, that continually proves to be one of the most effective options. According to Statista, there over 5 billion mobile internet users globally, amounting to over 60% of the earth’s population of ~8 billion. SMS obviously provides an expansive reach that can help businesses connect with a diverse audience but in order to do that at scale, you need to use a service like Amazon Pinpoint that facilitates the ability to send SMS to over 240 countries and/or regions around the world. If you have a current SMS provider and are considering Pinpoint SMS for its global reach, scalability, cost effective pricing, and demonstrably high deliverability, this guide will walk you through how to migrate from your current provider.

There are several common reasons our customers give us when considering a migration. Don’t worry if your situation doesn’t fit into a neat box, we help customers navigate the dynamic landscape of SMS that is constantly evolving. Let’s dive deep into each of the below to highlight some common things we hear from our customers.

• My current provider doesn’t deliver to countries I want to send to
  • We send to over 240 countries and/or regions so if there is a country you want to send SMS to, it’s very likely we can deliver. Please review this post on global sending for a strategy on how to prepare.
• My current provider is more expensive than Pinpoint pricing
  • Our pricing is available on the public pricing page here. Each country has it’s own cost associated with it so enter in the countries you would like to see pricing for. These prices are per message sent so if you are planning on sending to multiple countries factor in the types of messages that you will want to send as well as the countries. If your use case includes 2 way communication make sure to factor the number of inbound messages you expect into your calculations.
    • NOTE: Depending on the language the available characters per message varies, which can affect your calculations on cost. See here for an explanation
• My current provider doesn’t have features that Pinpoint has
  • Among many other features Pinpoint has the ability to send over multiple channels, including: SMS, Email, Push/In-App, Voice, Over the Top (OTT) services such as WhatsApp, as well as interact with third-party APIs giving you the flexibility to send to many other channels.
• My current provider is not native to AWS
  • Pinpoint, being native to the AWS Cloud, boasts the capability to seamlessly integrate with a wide array of services, including AI/ML offerings such as Amazon Personalize, Amazon Bedrock, and Amazon SageMaker, among others. This means you can leverage various AWS services to create innovative solutions that enhance and optimize the communications sent through Pinpoint.
• My current provider does not have good deliverability
  • Price is not the only factor to consider when looking at SMS providers. If you find another provider with lower pricing make sure to ask about their deliverability to the countries you are wanting to send to. There is a big difference between sending an SMS at a low price, and actually delivering that SMS. We are happy to discuss deliverability with you, just reach out to your Account Manager if you have one or contact us to start a conversation about your migration.
• I’m not happy with the customer support of my current provider
  • The SMS landscape is constantly changing and our SMS experts are here to help guide you through the process. Whether it’s regulatory changes, pricing changes, or creating complex architectures to support your needs. Reach out to your Account Manager if you have one or contact us to start a conversation about your migration and get your questions answered.

Regardless of your reason for considering migrating there are four scenarios that most of our customers find themselves in when beginning to plan for an SMS migration.

I have not sent SMS before but I would like to start sending through Pinpoint
Skip ahead to the section on “Checklist for Planning an SMS Migration” to start planning for sending SMS

I have number(s) (Also known as Originators, Origination Identities (OIDs), Toll-Free, 10DLC, Long Code, Short Code, and/or SenderID) with a different provider and I would like to move those to Pinpoint
The ability to “port” numbers from other providers is dependent on the type of originator, the vendor you procured them from, and the country that they support. You may need to get new originators so factor that into your timeline and reach out to your Account Manager to determine whether your originators are able to be ported over. Once you have done that, pull the reports for how much volume you are sending to each country with your current provider and then skip ahead to the section on “Checklist for Planning an SMS Migration” to start planning for sending SMS

I have a current provider but I would like to procure new numbers from Pinpoint
Pull the reports for how much volume you are sending to each country with your current provider and then skip ahead to the section on “Checklist for Planning an SMS Migration” to start planning for sending SMS

I have a current provider but would like to split traffic between them and Pinpoint
Pull the reports for how much volume you are sending to the countries you plan on migrating to AWS and then skip ahead to the section on “Checklist for Planning an SMS Migration” to start planning for sending SMS. Make sure that you consider how you will be managing opt-outs across two providers. Pinpoint offers centrally managed opt-outs but self-management is also an option. All Delivery Receipts/Reporting (DLRs) and inbound/outbound events can be streamed through Amazon Kinesis, Amazon CloudWatch, and/or Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) if you need to send those events to another location inside or outside of the AWS Cloud.

Checklist for Planning an SMS Migration

• Setup a spreadsheet similar to the one outlined in this post
• Identify your use case(s)
  • Note whether your use case is one-way or two-way
    • NOTE: Not all countries support 2-way communications, which is the ability to have the recipient send a message back to the OID.
    • NOTE: Sender ID also does not support 2-way communication so if you are planning on using Sender ID you will need to account for how to opt recipients out of future communications.
• Identify your countries
  • Take note of which countries require registration as this will affect your timeline
    • Supported Countries and Regions
• Identify your volume per country
  • If you are already sending SMS with another provider pull a report over a representative time period.
• Identify your throughput needs (Also referred to as Messages per Second, MPS, Transactions per Second, or TPS) for each country
  • Most origination identities are chosen for their ability to support a certain level of MPS, not volume, so if you have seasonality make sure to account for burst rates. There are quotas for the APIs that govern sending as well as quotas for the different types of originators.
• Identify which origination identities you will need for each country using this guide
  • Make note of any countries/OIDs that require registration
  • Reach out to your Account Manager if you have one or contact us to start a conversation about your migration.
  • If you have OIDs you would like to migrate make sure you determine whether that is possible ASAP since your timelines could be affected by the outcome.

Make sure you give ample time for your migration. There are many entities involved in delivering SMS, from governments, to mobile carriers, to third-party registrars, and more, which means that timelines are not always within your control. Ask questions, take advantage of the expert resources we have at AWS, and the content we have produced around these topics.

Content to read

• Review the countries and regions we support here
• Use the format for aggregating information on your use cases outlined in this post here
• Decide what origination IDs you will need here
• Review the documentation for the V2 SMS and Voice API here
• Review the Pinpoint API and SendMessage here
• Check out the support tiers comparison here