Set Up AfterShip SMS Notifications

Overview

AfterShip provides user-friendly SMS lows for sending branded SMS notifications at various delivery stages. This guide offers essential details for crafting effective SMS templates.

What you’ll learn

In this article, we will discuss how to:

• Create and edit SMS flow
• Customize SMS content

Create and edit SMS flow

1. Log into your AfterShip Tracking admin dashboard
2. Go to Notifications > Flows
3. Select the flow that you want to customize the SMS content for. Find the complete list of supported statuses here.
4. Click Edit

Or,

5. If you want to create a new event.
6. Click Create flow.
7. Select the event for which you want to customize the SMS for and click Create

8. In the flow editor, select and drag the Send SMS Action from the sidebar to the preview editor and select Edit.

Customize SMS content

On the SMS notification editor, configure the following settings:

1. Compliance and settings:

To send tracking updates and important notifications to customers, you are required to go through a compliant SMS setup.

• Set up an active sender number by selecting supported regions, providing company and contact information, defining their SMS use case, and confirming TCPA/GDPR compliance. 
• Sender numbers are assigned based on the destination country, with an AfterShip branded sender ID used in certain regions.
• Once enabled, you can manage subscription keywords (START/STOP), customize opt-out messages by language and region, enable URL shortening, and schedule messages using quiet hours based on the recipient’s timezone.
• These settings help ensure regulatory compliance while giving customers clear control over their SMS preferences.

For more information, refer to this article 

2. Enable SMS  quite hours

If quiet hours are enabled, the SMS will not be sent during restricted times. Instead, it will be delivered during the next allowed sending window.

3. SMS name

Assign an internal name to each SMS notification for your reference. This name is for organizational purposes only and will not be visible to customers.

4. Customize SMS content

Use the message editor to compose or edit your SMS content. The editor supports the following content types:

A. Organization name

• Automatically replaced with your organization's name when the SMS is sent.
• This field is uneditable and cannot be removed.

B. Static text

• Plain text using alphanumeric characters and symbols.
• Be mindful of SMS character limits and the associated costs of multi-part messages.

C. Merge tags

• Insert system pre-defined merge tags or custom field merge tags to automatically populate dynamic values for each recipient.

Commonly used merge tags:

• These variables automatically populate for each customer, allowing one message template to work for all shipments. You can incorporate (retrieve) new variables from the list to add additional information regarding the customer order or shipment by clicking the {...} option. 

Insert Merge Tags in Tracking Notifications

D. URLs

The editor supports several URL formats:

Valid URL formats:

• Must start with http(s):// or use a recognized TLD (e.g., xxx.info, xxx.edu)
• Valid URLs are displayed as blue text in the editor
• URLs can be entered directly in the content input box or through the dedicated URL input field

Supported URL types:

• Static URL: e.g., aftership.com
• Dynamic URL with merge tag parameters: e.g., https://test.com?tracking-number=*|TRACKING_NUMBER|*&order-date=*|ORDER_DATE|*
• Merge tag URL: e.g., *|TRACKING_URL|*

Automatic URL shortening:

The system will automatically shorten the following URL types:

• System pre-defined merge tag URLs (e.g., *|ORGANIZATION_URL|*, *|TRACKING_URL|*)
• Merge tag URLs used as part of a complete URL (e.g., *|TRACKING_URL|*?utm_source=aftership)
• Basic static URLs (e.g., aftership.com)
• URLs with merge tag parameters (e.g., test.com?tracking-number=*|TRACKING_NUMBER|*&order-date=*|ORDER_DATE|*)

Opt-out text

• You can customize the opt-out text to fit your brand voice. Once enabled, the default opt-out text, the one you configured in SMS Compliance Settings will be automatically placed.
• The system will automatically match this text to the recipient's phone number region and SMS action language based on the available custom opt-out text. If no custom text is available, the default opt-out text will be used.

It is recommended to include opt-out instructions such as Text STOP to opt out to give customers greater flexibility over the notifications they receive and to maintain SMS regulatory compliance.

Customize the Opt-Out Texts in AfterShip SMS

5. Send a test SMS with the option to choose mock or real data to see how the notification would look like to customers.

6. Once you are satisfied with your SMS content and settings, click Save to apply your changes.

Example: SMS notification for delivery arriving soon

Below is an example of a configured SMS notification informing customers that their delivery is arriving soon. The message uses the *|ORGANIZATION_NAME|* AfterShip_demo and *|TRACKING_URL|* merge tags to personalize the notification automatically.

Updated on: 09/03/2026