Messaging · SMS
SMS GSM-7 character stripper.
Replace smart quotes, dashes and look-alike symbols with GSM-7 characters, and see exactly what changed and what still forces UCS-2.
Inputs
GSM-7 result
Enter your details.
Why strip characters from an SMS?
A message with even one character outside the GSM-7 alphabet is sent as UCS-2, which cuts a segment from 160 characters to 70 and multiplies the segment count you are billed for. The usual culprits are typographic characters that word processors and phone keyboards insert for you: curly quotation marks, apostrophes, the ellipsis character and en or em dashes.
What gets replaced. Twilio publishes the list of characters its Smart Encoding feature swaps for GSM-7 equivalents: curly and angle double quotes become a straight double quote, curly single quotes, acute and grave accents become an apostrophe, the division sign and fraction slash become /, the vulgar fractions become 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4, various hyphens and the bullet become a hyphen, and fullwidth forms become plain ASCII. The en dash, em dash, ellipsis and no-break space are not on that list, so this tool substitutes them itself (hyphen, three periods, space) and labels those changes.
Worked example. A 140-character message containing one curly quote is 141 UTF-16 units in UCS-2, so 3 segments. After the quote becomes a straight one it is 140 GSM-7 characters and 1 segment.
Accented letters outside the GSM-7 set can optionally be reduced to the plain letter. Changing a name or a word in another language alters its meaning or spelling, so review the result; if your audience needs those characters, UCS-2 is the right choice and the cost is the price of correct text.
Frequently asked questions
How do I keep a text message under 160 characters?
Use only GSM-7 characters. Replace curly quotes, en and em dashes, the ellipsis character and emoji with plain equivalents. Paste your message above to see each change and the new segment count.
What is Twilio Smart Encoding?
A Messaging Services feature that replaces certain non-GSM-7 characters, such as curly quotes, with GSM-7 equivalents before sending. Twilio publishes the list of characters it replaces; this tool uses that list.
Does Smart Encoding replace emoji or en dashes?
Not according to Twilio’s published list, which covers, among others, quotation marks, apostrophes, fractions, slashes, hyphens, the bullet and fullwidth forms. Emoji have no GSM-7 equivalent, so remove them or accept UCS-2.
Should I strip accents?
Only if the plain spelling is acceptable. Stripping an accent from a name or a French or Spanish word changes it, so the option is off for characters you want to keep and is applied only where the plain letter is in GSM-7.
Is my message uploaded anywhere?
No. It is processed in your browser.
Sources
Checked
- Twilio: List of characters replaced by Smart Encoding
- Twilio: How long can a message be?
- Twilio: What is GSM-7 character encoding?
The quotation, apostrophe, fraction, slash, hyphen, bullet and fullwidth replacements come from Twilio’s published Smart Encoding list. En dash, em dash, ellipsis and no-break space replacements, and accent stripping, are TNAADO conveniences and are labelled in the results. Runs entirely in your browser.
Scope
Review the cleaned text before sending: replacing characters can change meaning, names and spelling. This is not legal or compliance advice.