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SMS Troubleshooting FAQ's

MessageBird
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Why can I only send messages to myself?

If you can only send messages to yourself it is because your account is still using test credits, which we give you so you can try our service.

If you would like to send out messages to other numbers, you will need to top up your account in the top left-hand corner of your Dashboard.

 

Are there restrictions for SMS messaging?

The quality of our SMS platform relies on the direct connections that we have with operators all over the globe.

In order to send your SMS messages to these operators, we have to respect and comply with local regulations and restrictions. To do so, we’ve implemented protective measures within our platform that monitor traffic based on security algorithms. We are in constant contact with operations to keep your user experience secure, simple and consistent.

There might be some local restrictions regarding how you to send SMS, so to make sure you have all the information that you need to comply with the local restrictions we have our Country info & restrictions.

 

Is the delivery status of an SMS reliable?

The delivery report (DLR) of an SMS tells the sender whether the message was delivered successfully, or if it failed to deliver. 

In most countries, the receiving handset returns the delivery report, which is returned to the operator, and then to us. In some cases, for example in Latin American countries, it's only possible to receive delivery reports from the delivering operator. Operator-based DLR is inherently less precise than handset-based DLR.

These are the main delivery statuses:
Status Meaning
Sent The message is sent but has not been delivered to the recipient yet. 
Delivered The message was successfully delivered to the recipient. 
Delivery failure The message could not be delivered to the recipient – it failed.
Buffered The recipient is currently unavailable but the message has been sent. In this case, the operator will retry sending the message. It depends on the country and the specific operator for how long delivery will be attempted, but usually, the message is stored for 48-72 hours. If the recipient does not become available before this time runs out, the message will expire. If the recipient does become available, the message will deliver as soon as this happens.
Exceptions
The majority of DLRs are accurate, but there are instances in which a wrong status is returned. This is called false-positive delivery, or false DLR.
False DLR happens when the receiving handset returns a positive delivery report, while the actual message wasn't delivered. When only one number is affected, it's most likely down to an issue with the device and can be solved by restarting the device.
In other cases, a false positive might be returned from the operator––in this case, we will escalate to our local partner so they can investigate further and resolve the issue. This is only likely to be the case if there is a larger number of affected messages and numbers. 
A message is failed when a negative delivery report is returned. This is usually very accurate. It can happen that we receive a false positive, but false-negative delivery reports are very rare. 
If you are experiencing any issues with the delivery of your SMS messages, please contact our Support team. To allow us to investigate a possible issue, please provide us with at least 3-5 sample messages, sent to different numbers, including their respective timestamps.

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