Shortcodes

A shortcode is the name a form goes by. It is how Fly knows which survey to start when someone arrives, and it is the thing a recruitment ad, a test link or a stitch refers to.

A shortcode belongs to your Fly account, not to one messaging account: the same shortcode can be started from any Facebook Page or WhatsApp number you have connected. So a single form can serve a Messenger arm and a WhatsApp arm of the same study.

Two things to bear in mind when choosing one:

• Keep it to letters, digits, _ and -. Anything else cannot travel in a recruitment reference, and a WhatsApp destination will refuse to save.
• A shortcode is shareable by design. Anyone who knows it can start that survey by sending form.<shortcode> to your WhatsApp number, or by opening m.me/<page>?ref=form.<shortcode>. That is what makes testing easy; it also means a shortcode is not a secret.