STRAX Reach · SMS, email and voice
USSD menus for clients on any handset
Plenty of prepaid and mobile money clients still use feature phones. A short dial code gives them a menu for balances, payment details and call-back requests without data or an app.
- Works without data
- Menu kept in a table
- Follow-ups by SMS
A menu engine that answers inside the session
Africa's Talking calls Reach every time a client presses a key, with the whole path chosen so far. Reach reads your menu table once, walks the path and answers within a moment with a CON screen that shows the next options or an END screen that closes the session. Nothing slow runs before the answer, so the network never times out.
The menu lives in a table your team edits: a heading, numbered options, the closing text and what happens after. Zero goes back a level and double zero returns to the start, the way people expect from banking menus.
When a session ends on a follow-up, Reach records it on the client's timeline and then acts. It can send an SMS with payment details, run an allow-listed action such as emailing a statement, or leave a call-back request for your agents. Replies your team types in the console reach the client by SMS.
Where it helps
Payment instructions
Clients dial the code, choose how to pay and receive the reference details by SMS a few seconds later.
Call-back requests
A client reports a failed payment from a basic handset and an agent phones them back with the history in front of them.
Statements for account holders
A menu option starts the statement action, and the PDF goes to the email address on the client's record.
Branch and service hours
Static information screens answer the questions that otherwise fill up the call centre queue.
What you need
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An Africa's Talking USSD code
A shared or dedicated service code with its callback pointed at Reach.
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Reach Africa's Talking
The SMS package supplies the account and sender used for follow-ups and replies.
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A callback token
A random secret in the callback address that Reach checks on every request.
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A public HTTPS address
The USSD gateway must reach the session workflow quickly and reliably.
Good to know
Every screen is a numbered menu; free-text entry such as typing an amount is planned. USSD cannot carry files, so documents go out on another channel such as email.
Questions
How fast must the answer be?
USSD gateways wait only a few seconds, so the session path does one table read and a small calculation before it answers, and everything else happens afterwards.
Can we change the menu without a release?
Yes, edit the menu rows in the console table editor and the next dial uses them.
Who sees the sessions?
Sessions that end on a follow-up land in Reach on the client's timeline, so agents see what the client asked for.
Does it work with Clickatell USSD?
The engine is the same, but this version speaks the Africa's Talking request format only.
Read more
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The whole Reach family →
Reach Core and every channel package, with what each one needs.
Add USSD to Reach
Tell us which channels your clients use and we will plan the rollout with your team.
Premium Requires STRAX Reach - Core, which is licensed.
About this listing
| Version | 1.0.0 |
| Author | STRAX |
| Category | Communication |
| Published | 2026-09-24 |
What's inside
| Credential | 1 |
| Data table | 1 |
| Global variable | 1 |
| Workflow | 3 |
What happens on install
After the import, and only with your consent, the installer runs:
- Reach - Register Channel : Registers the USSD channel with Reach Core, disabled until its credentials are entered
Free listing
Install it from Feature Marketplace inside STRAX
It builds on STRAX Reach - Core, a premium package. Ask us for a quote to license it first.
Open Feature Marketplace
In your STRAX installation, open Feature Marketplace from the navigation.
Find "STRAX Reach - USSD"
Search or browse to this listing and review the contents disclosure; every package shows what it contains before anything runs.
Install
Choose Install, or "Customise with AI" to adapt the package to your environment first. No licence is needed for free listings.
Africa's Talking and Clickatell are trademarks of their owners, named here only to identify the service this package connects to.
See it on your own systems.
A demo takes an hour, on your data landscape rather than ours.