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: Additionally, URLs included in messages are counted at their full, expanded length rather than the placeholder shown during composition. Whitespace, such as extra spaces and line breaks, also contributes to the character count. Hidden Unicode characters, which may be introduced when pasting text into the editor, can further increase the count unexpectedly.

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. Quick tip: To avoid hidden characters that may increase the character count, manually type your message or paste it into a plain text editor first to remove formatting and special characters. Accurx reserves 162 characters specifically for the greeting and signature, which explains why the initial character count may appear higher. This allocation adjusts dynamically based on the specific greeting and signature used in the final message.