Shortened URLs and SMS Deliverability

Public link shorteners (bit.ly, tinyurl, and similar) actively hurt SMS deliverability. It's worth understanding why before you build a texting campaign around them.

Why carriers don't like them

• Redirect chains — a public shortener routes the recipient through one or more redirects before reaching the real destination, which looks similar to how phishing links behave, so carrier filters treat it with suspicion.
• No visible connection to your business — a generic shortened domain gives the recipient (and the carrier's spam filter) no way to tell it's actually from you.
• Explicit carrier bans — some major US carriers block public link shorteners outright due to fraud risk. If your message contains one, it may simply never arrive.

What to do instead

• Use a branded short link on your own domain if you need something compact — carriers generally trust these because they're tied to a real, identifiable business.
• Send the full URL when a branded option isn't available. It costs a few extra characters (possibly an extra segment), but a message that arrives and costs slightly more beats one that's blocked entirely.
• Minimize redirects on whatever link you do send — link directly to the destination page rather than routing through a tracking layer that then redirects again.

You're paying for every message you send whether or not it's delivered, so a link that gets your text blocked costs you the message fee for nothing. See Troubleshooting SMS Delivery if you're already seeing failures tied to error 30007.