Quick tip: We've also found that patients respond better when messages are kept under 300 characters 😊

The total character limit for text messages is 612, which is the network provider limit.

Within these characters we need to allocate space for every element of your text, including NHS.UK advice links and the organisation name. For this reason, you might have noticed when typing an SMS that the number of characters remaining is smaller than the overall limit:

The character count for making templates is 450 as we need to account for the greeting, signature and organisation name at the bottom of the text.