When you send a long message that contains more than one SMS unit, the message is split into multiple units. Message concatenation assembles the multiple units back into a single message at the receiving end.
Plivo’s Messaging API automatically breaks long SMS text messages into multiple SMS messages and adds a concatenation header to each message so that all can be stitched together (concatenated) on the recipient’s mobile device. See our documentation for complete details.
Note: While Plivo’s APIs support concatenation, some carriers and handsets don't.
How does Plivo charge for concatenated messages?
SMS text messages that are longer than the SMS character limit are concatenated and billed separately as individual text messages.
This screenshot shows a message that was divided into four units, with each unit costing USD 0.00250. The total cost to send this message was USD 0.01000.
How does Plivo handle delivery reports for concatenated SMS text messages?
Delivery reports (DLR) for long messages are processed the same way as single-unit messages. Only one message delivery report and one DLR is generated for long messages.