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Character Limits of Messages Sent and Received by an inReach SE/SE+/Explorer/Explorer+/Mini Series

There is a character limit to each message sent and received by an inReach® satellite communications compatible product. Once the character limit has been surpassed, the message will be broken up into as many messages as it takes using the character limit. This is true for inbound and outbound messages.

Character Limits

  • 160 characters per message
This limit is the same whether the message is sent to or from an SMS phone number, an email address, another inReach® communicator, or to a MapShare™ page.

IMPORTANT: Some symbols and letters will reduce the character limit of the message by approximately half due to SMS coding.

Common examples of characters that require special SMS coding include, but are not limited to:

  • Emoji: Smiling Emoji, Winking Emoji, Kissing Emoji, Laughing Emoji, Crying Emoji, etc.
  • Languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, or Cyrillic alphabet languages
  • Accents, such as: û, ÿ, â, ç, ê, ë, ï, î, ô

When a message contains letters or symbols like this the entire message will be coded, which can cause a seemingly short message to be split up into multiple messages. This is particularly important if your inReach plan does not include unlimited text messages. More details on character counts, including a "Try it out" tool to test character counts, can be found by visiting our message provider.

General Character Count Guide

Use the following information to estimate how many characters you are using when sending or receiving a message. 

The following count as 1 character toward the limit:

  • ! " # $ % ' ( ) * + , - . / : ; < = > ? @ _ ¡ £ ¥ § ¿ & ¤
  • 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
  • A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
  • a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
  • Ä Å Æ Ç É Ñ Ø ø Ü ß Ö à ä å æ è é ì ñ ò ö ù ü Δ Φ Γ Λ Ω Π Ψ Σ Θ Ξ

The following count as 2 characters toward the limit:

  • | ^ € { } [ ] ~ \

Including any of the following will reduce the character limit of the message by approximately half due to SMS coding.

  • Â, â, Ā, ā, Ą, ą, Á, á, Ã, ã, À, Ă, ă
  • ɑ, ɒ, ɐ, ʙ, ɔ, ʗ
  • Č, č, Ć, ć, ç, Ċ, ċ, Ĉ, ĉ
  • Ď, ď, ɓ, ɕ, Ð, ð, ʤ, đ, ʣ, ɗ, ɖ, ʥ
  • Ė, ė, È, Ě, ě, Ĕ, ĕ, Ê, ê, Ë, ë, Ē, ē, Ę, ę
  • ɛ, ɘ, ɜ, ɝ, ɚ, ə, ɞ, ʚ, ʩ
  • Ĝ, ĝ, Ğ, ğ, Ġ, ġ, ģ, Ģ, ɡ, ɠ, ɢ, ʛ
  • Ħ, ħ, Ĥ, ĥ, ɦ, ɧ, ɥ, ʮ, ʯ, ʜ, ɣ, ɤ
  • Í, í, Ì, Ï, ï, Ĩ, ĩ, ɩ, ij, IJ, İ, Ĭ, ĭ, Į, į, ɫ, Î, î, Ī, ī, ı, ɨ, ɪ
  • Ĵ, ɟ, ʄ, ĵ, ʝ, ĸ, ʞ, Ķ, ķ
  • Ľ, ľ, Ĺ, ĺ, Ļ, ļ, Ŀ, ŀ, Ł, ł, ʟ, ʪ, ɭ, ɮ, ɬ, ʫ, ɱ, ɰ, ɯ
  • Ń, ń, Ņ, ņ, ʼn, Ň, ň, Ŋ, ŋ, ɴ, ɳ, ɲ
  • Ò, Ŏ, ŏ, Ő, Ó, ó, Ô, ô, Ō, ō, ɵ, ɷ, Õ, õ, Œ, ő, œ, ɶ, ɸ, ʠ
  • Ř, ř, ɼ, Ŕ, ŕ, Ŗ, ŗ, ɾ, ɹ, ɺ, ɻ, ʀ, ʁ
  • Š, š, Ś, ś, Ş, ş, Ŝ, ŝ, ʂ
  • ʃ, ɿ, ʅ, Ť, ť, ɽ, ʆ, ſ, ʇ, Ţ, ţ, Ŧ, ŧ, ʧ, ʨ, ʈ, ʦ
  • Ú, ú, Ù, Ŭ, ŭ, Û, û, Ū, ū, Ũ, ũ, Ű, ű, Ů, ů, ʉ, ʊ, Þ, þ
  • Ų, ų, ʋ, ʌ, Ŵ, ŵ, ʍ
  • ʏ, Ý, ý, ʔ, ʡ, Ŷ, ŷ, Ÿ, ÿ, ʎ, Ź, ź, Ž, ž, Ż, ż
  • ʕ, ʢ, ʐ, ʑ, ʒ, ʓ, ʖ, ʘ, ʬ, ʭ

NOTE: Sending pictures isn't available. Any other symbols (e.g. emojis) or letters not listed will reduce the character limit of the message by approximately half due to SMS coding. This is also true for languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, or Cyrillic alphabet languages.

Additional Character Limit Information:

The amount of characters that are taken up by a contact depend on how the contact was entered:

  • Contact Entered in Garmin Explore™ Website: Only use one character for each entry
    • Must be synced to the inReach
    • Can be email address, phone numbers or inReach addresses
      • Example: sending a message to four email address and six SMS phone numbers that have all been added as contacts and synced to the inReach would leave 150 characters for the message.
  • SMS Numbers Entered Manually or Selected In the Earthmate®1 App: Each character of the phone number and country code reduce the number of characters available for the message.
      • Example: When sending a message to a US or Canadian phone number, the message would be limited to 148 characters.
  • Email Addresses Entered Manually or Selected In the Earthmate1 App: One character for each letter, number, or symbol.
      • Example: To send a message to product.support@garmin.com, the message would be limited to 134 characters.
  • Multiple Contacts: Each use one extra character in addition to the number of characters in the phone number or email address.
    • The number of contacts that are selected reduce the number of available characters in a message, and is dependent on how the contacts are added to the message
      • Example: If a US phone number and product.support@garmin.com are both added manually, the message would be limited to 122 characters.
  • MapShare™ page as a Contact: Reduces the available character limit of a message by two
  • Contact Phone Numbers or Email Addresses Saved to an InReach Without a Name: Use the same number of characters as manually-entered contact info.

Any optional information added to an SMS text message, in the SMS Message Configuration section of the inReach Account Settings, do not limit the number of characters available for a message, as they are added to the SMS message after the inReach sends it. This optional SMS Message Configuration information includes:

  • Include my latitude and longitude as text in the message.
  • Include a link to an online map with my location.
  • Include my name as a signature (otherwise, your name is not shown to the recipient).

Some smartphones may show this additional information as the second part of the SMS text message but is still only counted as one message in a limited message monthly subscription.

1 The inReach Mini 2 communicator is not compatible with the Earthmate® app, but has similar messaging features available through the Garmin Explore and Garmin Messenger™ apps. The same character limits apply when composing messages in the Garmin Explore app. For the Garmin Messenger app, see - Character Limits of Messages Sent and Received in the Garmin Messenger App.

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