How to pre-populate the sms body text via an html

Question

How to use an html link to open the sms app with a pre-filled body?

Everything I have read seems to indicate that sms:18005555555?body=bodyTextHere

Should work, but on the iPhone, this doesn't work. If I take out the ?body=bodyTextHere, and just use sms:phonenumber, it works.

I have seen several instances where QR codes do this through a safari link. How are they able to pre-populate the body text?

Answer 1

For iOS 8, try this:

<a href="sms:/* phone number here */&body=/* body text here */">Link</a>

Switching the ";" with a "&" worked for me.

Answer 2

To get sms: and mailto: links to work on both iPhone and Android, without any javascript, try this:

<a href="sms:321-555-1111?&body=This is what I want to sent">click to text</a>


<a href="mailto:[e-mail]?&subject=My subject&body=This is what I want to sent">click to email</a>

I tested it on Chrome for Android & iPhone, and Safari on iPhone.
They all worked as expected. They worked without the phone number or email address as well.

Answer 3

Bradorego's solution is what worked for me, but here is a more expanded answer.

A small consideration is that you need to encode the body using %20 instead of +. For PHP, this means using rawurlencode($body) instead of urlencode($body). Otherwise you'll see plus signs in the message on old versions of iOS, instead of spaces.

Here is a jQuery function which will refit your SMS links for iOS devices. Android/other devices should work normally and won't execute the code.

HTML:

<a href="sms:[phone]?body=Hello%20World">SMS "Hello World" to 555-123-1234</a>

jQuery:

(function() {
  if ( !navigator.userAgent.match(/(iPad|iPhone|iPod)/g) ) return;

  jQuery('a[href^="sms:"]').attr('href', function() {
    // Convert: sms:+000?body=example
    // To iOS:  sms:+000;body=example (semicolon, not question mark)
    return jQuery(this).attr('href').replace(/sms:(\+?([0-9]*))?\?/, 'sms:$1;');
  });
})();

Consider using a class like a.sms-link instead of a[href^="sms:"] if possible.

Answer 4

Neither Android nor iPhones currently support the body copy element in a Tap to SMS hyperlink. It can be done programmatically though,

MFMessageComposeViewController *picker = [[MFMessageComposeViewController alloc] init];
picker.messageComposeDelegate = self;

picker.recipients = [NSArray arrayWithObject:@"48151623"];  
picker.body = @"Body text.";

[self presentModalViewController:picker animated:YES];
[picker release];

Answer 5

It turns out this is 100% possible, though a little hacky.

If you want it to work on Android you need to use this format:

<a href="sms:/* phone number here */?body=/* body text here */">Link</a>

If you want it to work on iOS, you need this:

<a href="sms:/* phone number here */;body=/* body text here */">Link</a>

Live demo here: http://bradorego.com/test/sms.html (note the "Phone and ?body" and "Phone and ;body" should autofill both the to: field and the body text. View the source for more info)

UPDATE:

Apparently iOS8 had to go and change things on us, so thanks to some of the other commenters/responders, there's a new style for iOS:

<a href="sms:/* phone number here */&body=/* body text here */">Link</a>

(phone number is optional)

Answer 6

(Just a little bit of topic), but maybe if you searched you could stumble here... In markdown (tested with parsedown and on iOS / android) you could do :

   [Link](sms:phone_number,?&body=URL_encoded_body_text)
   //[send sms](sms:1234567890;?&body=my%20very%20interesting%20text)