What if sms

What does that mean? Should you use short code or toll-free sms? We compare the two to help you answer. Skip to main content. Twilio Flex. Marketing Campaigns. Twilio Frontline. Account Security. Authy Verify Lookup.

Twilio Segment. Internet of Things. Elastic SIP Trunking. Phone Numbers. Short Codes. Customer Service. Financial Services. The Current. Customer Stories. A2P 10DLC. Developer Events. API Status. Find a partner. Make sure to do your research around the rules and laws in your country. As long as you understand what is and isn't allowed, you shouldn't have any problems running a successful marketing campaign with an A2P strategy.

Operators are also known to block some SMS routes from time to time. This also requires SMS services to re-route the message via another working route, which can cause temporary delivery issues. These problems are usually resolved quickly, but they can slow down your message delivery quite significantly.

Keep an eye out for any service updates from your provider since they will usually let you know when they're experiencing problems.

In the meantime, it might be worth holding back on sending too many messages that won't be delivered right away. In some countries, local regulations restrict sending SMS messages to prevent spam. For example in some countries, messages notated as marketing can be sent only during workdays from 8 am to pm. Although this can be annoying, it just takes a bit of planning to ensure you're only sending marketing A2P messages in the allowed hours.

If you're sending SMS messages to phone numbers all over the world, then it can get a little complicated to keep track of local restrictions. Luckily, many A2P services will have the capability to automatically send your text messages at specific times - once you've set this up, everything should take care of itself.

In some countries, the operators have a list, where handset owners can add their phone number by themselves so no messages from an A2P connection can be delivered. Ultimately, it's problematic should one need to receive helpful information from a business, such as delivery information and order updates. Some people might only have local numbers approved to avoid spam texts, so you'll struggle to reach them if you're not in the same country. There's not really much you can do to solve this, aside from prompting your customers to add your A2P number to their "allowed" contacts.

These days, SMS messaging isn't the only way that people receive text messages. Many smartphones have internet-based messaging as their main person-to-person texting medium.

Lots of people also use social network messaging apps to get in touch with each other. As a result of this, it's not uncommon for recipients to have their SMS messages deactivated, and some people might not even know that it's turned off. Often, there are conflicts between different applications that receive SMS texts, causing applications not to receive messages.

Would you want that information to get disseminated somewhere else? There are a number of ways that malicious actors governments, terrorists, etc. Governments are hacking using SMS. Chinese hackers recently did this when they developed malware to steal SMS messages.

The malware used a keyword list of terms that were of geopolitical interest for Chinese intelligence collection and then connected those terms with phone numbers that they then tracked. The group responsible for this APT41 also interacted with call detail records and tracked high-ranking individuals who were of interest to Chinese intelligence.

The secret here is that we need to all be more focused on security, on protecting ourselves from vulnerability and on understanding that one insecure individual can compromise the whole group.

Take, for instance, two-factor authentication, which we generally think of as safe. If that second factor authentication is through an SMS service, it could be intercepted, meaning the system you thought was secure might now be compromised. This is important if, say, you use two-factor authentication to protect your bank account, corporate email, or dating profile. Regular people are hacking and being hacked using SMS, too. Given the propensity for and variety of attacks, it makes sense to consider alternative services that offer end-to-end encryption.

Popular secure apps include:. There have been instances in the past where an attacker could send a malformed text message to a device and gain control of the device. For example, if your bank texts you, call the customer support number to verify the message you received. Be cautious of any link in the text message. This is a prime outlet for distributing malicious URLs.