Shortened links can make a message shorter and enhance its readability for the recipient. Still, it's essential to follow specific rules and best practices to ensure successful delivery and a positive user experience.
When sending SMS or MMS messages with shortened URLs to users in the United States, it’s important to use a dedicated, branded short domain owned by your business.
Using unbranded URLs is often associated with fraud and malicious messages, making consumers hesitant to click on such links due to uncertainty about the landing page.
As outlined in T-Mobile’s Code of Conduct and general US carrier guidelines, a short link should be:
- Proprietary – a dedicated custom domain that belongs to your business, not a free shared public link shortener
- Properly branded – the domain aligns with the message sender identified in the text message itself
"Proprietary" means that the short URL is owned by your business and not shared with unrelated companies or organizations. To ensure the best experience for your customers, avoid using links that have been shortened with public URL shorteners like TinyURL or Bitly. US carrier policies strongly recommend against these shared shorteners because spammers and scammers often use them. Using these public shared shorteners will result in a higher risk of filtering, with no recourse if filtering does occur.
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