The Purpose of Twilio & Why Your Texts are Getting Blocked
What is Twilio & why do we use it?
Twilio is a cloud-based platform that allows our software to programmatically send and receive text messages, phone calls, and perform other communication functions all while using its web service APIs. It's a big part of what Autotext.me is and why you have come to love our software so much! It is our back-end solution when it comes to actually sending texts and allows us to diagnose problems that may arise with communication with you and your clients!
Phone Carriers & their Role
While Twilio is used to send and receive messages on our end, the other recipient/customer is going to be using one of the major carriers (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile/Sprint) or one of their subsidiaries to send/receive messages. In recent years, all carriers have adopted various strategies to protect their customers from Spam or unwanted text messages, including machine learning. Each carrier has its own approach of monitoring & filtering messages, some more strict than others.
How are Phone Carriers Blocking Messages?
These machine learning solutions look at both the content of the message and the size of the message to determine what is done to the text. Messages are getting cumulatively scored based on how many texts have come from a Phone number within a certain time interval or if the messages contain known content that makes it a match for spam/unwanted content. These time intervals are measured anywhere to a couple seconds to a whole day.
Every Carrier is going to have the same concept, but the approach to flagging texts is going to be different. A text message with a link that you receive on AT&T won't necessarily always reach someone on Verizon or T-Mobile. You could receive texts just fine for months then out of the blue just stop getting them from a certain number. That's the issue with the systems in place at the moment. They work, but can be too sensitive at times.
What does this Mean for ATMe & Your Business?
The bad news is it makes things more complicated for both us and your business. There is not much we can do. There is no such thing as a "whitelist" for carriers, and no standard has been developed for Companies like us to follow to avoid this from happening. With the amount of texts we/you are sending on a daily basis, it can be very frustrating to see that our texts are not always reaching our customers. The good news is there are preventative measures that we are taking as well as you can take to fight back against the very sensitive carriers.
How do you Prevent messages from being Filtered?
Is it a good user experience?
"A confusing message to users might seem like someone they don’t know has their contact information. Suspicious users are more likely to report messages to their carrier, and when messages are reported to carriers it becomes very likely that future messages from that number or with similar content will be filtered. In some cases, the user may have forgotten that they requested the message. Also, how the message is formatted and written is important: overly long messages, overly capitalized messages, mysterious links, hyperbole, and using aggressive language can raise the level of suspicion users feel about a message."
Examples could be along the lines of "Click here", "Click this link", or "CLICK HERE NOW".
Keep messages at 160 characters or less (with signature).
Do users have clear opt out instructions?
"If users do not understand how to opt out, they may feel they have no choice but to contact their carrier to request that messages are blocked."
Is a single number being overworked?
"In countries where rate based filtering takes place, sending too many messages from a single phone number or alpha sender ID during a time period could cause that phone number or sender ID to be blacklisted. You may want to take a period of time to “cool down” by halting sending for a day or two."
In Conclusion
As it stands now there is not much Autotext.me can do. We will do everything we can to help prevent this problem from occurring for our clients, but it's ultimately up to the major carriers to solve this issue completely.
Sources: