Envaya's SMS feature allows you to use Envaya from any mobile phone, almost anywhere in the world, even where there is no internet connection. Currently, you can do the following via SMS and MMS:
- publish short news updates and photos to your organization's website
- subscribe to news updates from any organization on Envaya
- search for organizations on Envaya by name or geographic location
- view contact information (name, location, phone number, email, website) for any organization on Envaya
- read news posted by any organization on Envaya
- post comments on news updates from any organization on Envaya
- read comments on news updates
Standard message and data rates may apply for sending text messages to Envaya.
To use Envaya via SMS, text the following commands to one of Envaya's SMS numbers:
(Tanzania) 0763 077677
(International) +1 484 544 4443
The sections below explain the commands that you can use on Envaya SMS.
P: Publish a News Update to Your Website
To publish a news update to your website, text:
P [your message]
Example: "P This is my latest news."
If you are using Envaya's international (+1) phone number, your SMS must be shorter than 160 characters. When using other phone numbers (such as the Tanzania phone number), your message can be as long as you want.
If your message is published successfully, Envaya will send a reply like this:
Your news update has been published to "N exampleorg"
and http://envaya.org/testorg/news If you want to undo, txt "DELETE 58934"
Anyone can see your published news either via SMS or on your organization's website. We encourage you to share your organization's website address and SMS command ("N [username]") with other people so they can see your news.
Note: The "P" command requires logging in to your Envaya account. See "IN" command.
U: Latest Updates
To see the latest updates from all organizations on Envaya, text:
U
The 'U' command returns a response that looks like this:
29Aug N NYEDACO I taswo I Fihata N TACOMO 28Aug N yesvijana N TEYODEN N zop
Each line shows the username and the type of update (N is news, I is contact information), and is also a command that you can send for more information.
For example, send "N NYEDACO" to see the latest news from Nyengedi Environment Development and Diseases Control, or "I taswo" to see the contact information of Tanzania Support for Widows and Orphans.
Whenever you publish a news update (either via the SMS "P" command or via envaya.org), your organization will move to the top of the list when anyone sends the "U" command.
F: Find Organizations by Name
To search for organizations by name, text:
F [organization name]
Example: "F mwanza youth children network"
Example: "F environment" (any organization with 'environment' in their name)
Example: "F je" (organizations with names starting with 'je')
The 'F' command returns a response that looks like this:
[1/2] jeanmedia guluka ileje keca wecocpemba WEPMO moeco cadecttrust EMNet WEETU mcaee sehap-tanzania BAENET pemwa Txt "I [user]" for details
Each line shows the username of an organization on Envaya that matched your search (in this case, 'F environment'). In this case, [1/2] means that there are too many matches to fit in a single SMS, and this is the first of two pages. If you want to see the second page of results, reply NEXT or 2.
In order to see the contact information any organization, reply with text "I [user]", for example "I jeanmedia".
In order to see the latest news any organization, reply with text "N [user]", for example "N jeanmedia".
FN: Search for Organizations Near Geographic Location
To search for organizations near a geographic location, text:
FN [location]
Example: "F pemba"
The response for the FN command is the same as the F command.
I: View Contact Information for Organization
To view contact organization for any organization on Envaya, text:
I [user]
Example: "I jeanmedia"
The response to the "I" command shows the organization's name, city, website address, email address, and phone number (if it's public). For example:
Journalists Environment and (HIV)Aids Network Dar-es-salaam TZ http://envaya.org/jeanmedia jean_media@yahoo.com 255658053107 Txt "N" for news
Note: if you don't know the username of the organization you're looking for, use the "F" command to find it.
S: Subscribe to Organization's News
Anyone can subscribe to any organization's news on Envaya. When you subscribe to an organization's news, Envaya will automatically send you a SMS notification whenever that organization publishes a news update on Envaya.
To subscribe to an organization, text:
S [user]
Example: "S jeanmedia"
When your subscription is processed, Envaya will send a confirmation message:
Subscribed to "N jeanmedia". Txt "STOP 3" to unsubscribe. Txt "SS" to show all subscriptions.
Later, whenever the user publishes a news update, Envaya will send you a text message like this:
jeanmedia published news. Txt "N jeanmedia 6" or open http://envaya.org/jeanmedia/news. To stop these notifications, txt "STOP 1"
SS: Show Subscriptions
To see all the organizations that your phone has subscribed to, text:
SS
As an example, the result of this command might look like this:
1:N jeanmedia 2:N cfp 4:N mycn Txt STOP [id] to cancel any subscription
In this example, the first line means that you are subscribed to jeanmedia's news updates, and you can text "STOP 1" to unsubscribe.
STOP: Unsubscribe
If you want to unsubscribe from a notification, text:
STOP [id]
Example: "STOP 2"
If you want to unsubscribe from all notifications, text:
STOP ALL
N: View Latest News from Organization
To view the latest news posted by any organization on Envaya, text:
N [user]
Example: "N jeanmedia"
The response to the 'N' command shows the latest news update, along with the date and the number of comments.
[1/60] 2Jun 2cmt@"G[num]" Wananchi watakiwa kutunza mazingira Na ASIA KILAMBWANDA,
Mtwara Wananchi Mkoani Mtwara wametakiwa kutotupa taka
hovyo hususani katika maeneo ya pwani ya bahari ya bandari
ya Mtwara na badala yake watunze na kuhifadhi maeneo hayo
kwa kuwa ni sehemu ya vivutio vinavyoingi za
MORE
If the news update is too long, only the beginning will be shown. Text "MORE" to see more of it.
To see older news updates, text "NEXT" or the page number.
The phrase "2cmt" means that there are two comments on this news update. If there are no comments on a news update, it will say '0cmt:"C [msg]"' instead.
To view and add comments, use the "G" and "C" commands described below.
G: View Comment on News Update
When viewing a news update, The phrase '2 cmt@"G[num]"' means that there are two comments on this news update, and you can view any comment by texting:
G[num]
Example: G1 (show the first comment)
Example: G2 (show the second comment)
The reply will look like this:
Example Name
Dar es Salaam
26Aug Thanks so much!
Note: the "G" command is only available after you use the "N" command to view a news update.
C: Add Comment on News Update
To add a comment, text:
C [msg]
Example: C Good job!
Note: the "C" command is only available after you use the "N" command to view a news update. Also, you can add a comment to a news update even if "C [msg]" is not shown.
NAME: Set the name shown in your comments
Whenever you post a comment, your name is shown at the top of the message. To change how your name appears, text:
NAME [your name]
Example: NAME John Doe
LOC: Set the location shown in your comments
Whenever you post a comment, your location (e.g. city, country) is shown at the top of the message. To change how your location appears, text:
LOC [your location]
Example: LOC Dar es Salaam
L: Change Language of SMS System
To change the language of the SMS system, text:
L [lang]
for Swahili: "L sw"
for English: "L en"
for Kinyarwanda: "L rw"
IN: Log in to Envaya account
To log in to your Envaya account, text:
IN [your username] [your password]
Example: "IN exampleorg secretpassword"
Note: Most commands do not require logging in. However, you must log in to publish news with the "P" command. Once you log in once, your phone will stay logged in forever until you log out.
OUT: Log out of Envaya account
To log out of your Envaya account, text:
OUT
NEXT/MORE/#: Page Navigation
If the response message starts with [#/#], that means there is more than one page of items. The first number is the current page, and the second number is the total number of pages. To go to the next page, text NEXT (or X for short). To jump to any page, just text the page number.
For example, text "4" to see the 4th page of results.
If the response message ends with "MORE", that means that the response was too long to send in a single SMS. If you want to see more of the message, text MORE.
H: List available commands
To see the list of available commands, text:
H
HELP or MENU will also do the same thing.
The response to the help command will look like this:
Envaya SMS NEXT=next page 1-2=goto page P=publish news F=find orgs I=contact info N=latest news OUT=log out
Note: the list of available commands may change depending on your previous commands.