Text messaging is one of the world’s preferred communication channels because it is quick, efficient, and convenient. With SMS messages readily available, people have become accustomed to connecting with those they need anytime. It is why it is highly frustrating to discover that the messages we sent were not delivered. And not knowing the reason why your messages are undelivered is even more frustrating.
Individuals and businesses send messages to friends, family, and customers. These messages must reach their intended recipients to prevent potential problems. Companies may lose appointments and deliverables, while parents may not get announcements from their children’s classes. Although it rarely happens, having undelivered messages is common.
Why aren’t my messages sending? Here are 18 common reasons!
- Number Is Currently Roaming.
- Recipient’s Carrier Has Marked Your Message as Spam.
- Requires a Special Kind of Phone Number
- Local Laws Limit the Use of Sms Text Messages
- Prohibites you to Use This Sender
- Sent Too Many Messages to The Recipient.
- Recipient Declined to Receive Messages.
- Phone Number Could Be on The Do Not Call List.
- Phone Number Was Blocked by The Recipient.
- Message Embedded Illegal Material
- Texting from A Landline
- SMS Is Blocked by The Carrier
- Technical Issues with The Carrier.
- Issue with The Recipient’s Carrier’s Billing
- Recipient Informed Their Carrier About Your Message
- Typed in The Incorrect Number
- Disputed Sms Applications
- Setting on The Phone Says “receive Sms Messages” Is Off.
1. The number Is Currently Roaming.
Sending SMS messages to a foreign number you’re unfamiliar with can be problematic, and there is no assurance that your message will reach its roaming recipient. It’s also essential to remember that sending an SMS abroad could cost more drastically than having international messaging included in your data plan.
If you wish to ensure that your message will reach its recipient overseas, you must keep a few things in mind. Make sure to add the relevant country code before the telephone number, and also verify with your carrier if international SMS messaging is available – otherwise, your messages won’t send. Taking these simple steps will guarantee that your content reaches its audience abroad.
If a business sends messages to mobile numbers from different countries, you must collect your customers’ country codes when they share their phone numbers. Doing so will ensure the accuracy of all outgoing communications and help prevent potential misunderstandings.
2. Recipient’s Carrier Has Marked Your Message as Spam.
Although rare, it’s also possible that the phone carrier of your message recipient mistakenly flagged and filtered out your text as spam using Spam Text Blocker Apps. It works just like email messages can end up in a junk folder. However, with texts, there is no way for recipients to access or retrieve them from their spam folder.
When sending a text message, multiple factors can affect whether a carrier will filter it. For instance, if your message contains an alarming link or is written in all caps, it’s likely to get blocked. Furthermore, lengthy messages may also be rejected. Those that send too frequently to the same recipient and make repeated calls. Keep these tips in mind when drafting your texts for more reliable delivery.
3. Requires a Special Kind of Phone Number
There are two distinct options in text messaging. One is the A2P (application-to-person) and P2P (person-to-person). Depending on your preference, different kinds of phone numbers will be required.
Most businesses that regularly send messages to customers engage in A2P text messaging. Some examples of A2P messaging companies use are billing confirmations, appointment reminders, and other transaction text messages.
If you’re sending tailored and personalized messages directly to your customers, then it’s likely that you are engaging in P2P messaging. It involves talking with them as if they were one of your friends via text message.
You must ensure you have an appropriate phone number for it if you are using A2P messaging. For high-volume messaging, 10DLC (10-digit long code) numbers, toll-free numbers, and specific local phone numbers are the way to go. Suppose you use a regular local number to send several or thousands of messages quickly without adhering to 10DLC laws. In that case, carriers will block your messages sooner rather than later.
On the other hand, if you are engaging in P2P messaging, you must have a local phone number to ensure the successful delivery of your messages.
4. Local Laws Limit the Use of SMS Text Messages
The Mobile Telephone Protection Act (MTPA) and Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) limit who can send SMS text messages, how often they can be sent, and what type of content can be included. Though it may be inconvenient, many nations have established regulations that constrain messages classified as marketing to business hours from 8 am through 8:30 pm. Nevertheless, with some planning and preparation, you can easily guarantee your A2P marketing campaigns stay within the designated time frame.
Businesses must abide by these laws – otherwise, they risk getting fined or sued for violating them. That’s why keeping these regulations in mind when sending text messages abroad is essential.
5. Prohibites you to Use This Sender
In several countries, including Japan, operators prohibit transmitting A2P SMS messages from regular phone numbers. This restriction can make sending critical information or notifications challenging using standard methods.
These limitations have been imposed to stop companies from partaking in excessive messaging or spam. Therefore, running A2P marketing strategies becomes difficult even if you don’t intend to bombard your clients with messages.
To ensure the success of your A2P marketing campaign, it’s vital to conduct a thorough research about the regulations and laws that apply in your country. Once you understand permissible and prohibited, you can feel confident moving forward.
6. Sent Too Many Messages to The Recipient.
Another possible reason why messages are not sent is that your business has sent many messages through an SMS blast and was caught in the spam filters. Specific regulations are established to ensure proper use depending on the number of messages you send.
If you’re using your local phone number for person-to-person messaging, stay within the one-message-per-second limit. Furthermore, there should be a good balance between sending and receiving messages; if you send 300 texts but receive only ten back in response, then that could lead to your account getting blocked.
7. The recipient Declined to Receive Messages.
When you use a platform to send SMS messages, your recipients can unsubscribe from further communication through SMS opt-out & Opt-in means. They can typically do this by replying “stop” and won’t receive any other notifications until they opt back in again with the message ‘start.’ Please be aware that depending on which platform you are using, there may be different procedures for opting in or out of communications.
This system automatically sorts through messages to find those who want to opt-out. Doing this saves you time and energy while ensuring you only communicate with an engaged audience. Some examples of messages to opt-out your recipients automatically include, “This is a wrong number,” and “Remove me from your list.”
8. Phone Number Could Be on The Do Not Call List.
In certain countries, phone users can self-register their numbers to a list that blocks messages from A2P connections. Unfortunately, this makes it difficult for businesses to give customers timely notifications regarding deliveries and order statuses.
If your customers limit the numbers they can receive messages from, reaching them is only possible if you are in the same country. The only way to bypass this issue is by asking your customer base kindly if they would add your A2P number as an approved contact.
9. The Recipient blocked the phone Number.
Another reason for sending failure is when a recipient has blocked your number from sending SMS messages. Generally speaking, when someone blocks your number, you will not receive any delivery or read notifications for the message sent. Unfortunately, there is only a workaround if the receiver unblocks your contact information.
You must adhere to best practices and only text those phone numbers authorized to receive your messages.
10. Message Embedded Illegal Material
In some cases, messages may be blocked by your recipient’s carrier if they contain illegal content. Depending on the country’s rules and regulations, you could be penalized for sending messages with explicit language or images.
If you’re sending out messages with illegal information, such as adult content referencing drugs or criminal activities, CTIA (Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association) may block them from being delivered. To guarantee the content of your text messages remains within compliance with all local regulations concerning where the recipient is located, you must adhere to these guidelines set by CTIA.
11. Texting from A Landline
It is important to remember that sending messages from a landline number in some countries may be challenging. It is because traditional phones cannot send SMS messages, only make and receive calls. To ensure you reach your customers via text message, use an A2P connection or dedicated short code with a valid sender ID.
12. SMS Is Blocked by The Carrier
Network operators occasionally disable specific SMS pathways, which necessitates message re-routing and can influence your delivery timeline. Fortunately, these issues tend to clear up rapidly; however, it’s common for them to delay your message transmission substantially.
Pay close attention to any service notifications from your provider so that you’re aware of potential issues. To be safe, refrain from sending too many messages if there’s a chance they won’t arrive on time.
13. Technical Issues with The Carrier.
Sometimes, the service provider or device may experience specific technical difficulties, preventing messages from being successfully sent. Throughout the years, we have encountered various disasters, from server malfunctions to building accidents that resulted in data cable disruption.
Your carrier is responsible for keeping you know if their systems are having any issues. Therefore, stay up-to-date on various online outlets for potential outages or repair status from your provider and reduce texting until it has been resolved.
14. Issue with The Recipient’s Carrier’s Billing
Although rare, you may be trying to send a text message to someone on a pre-paid plan with an outstanding balance. Unfortunately, many providers offering these plans block accounts from receiving messages until the payment is made in full.
If you can contact the user some other way, kindly ask them to check if they’ve paid their mobile carrier bill and resolve any balance issues. If that’s not a viable solution, provide them with alternative ways to stay in touch, such as WhatsApp or email.
15. Recipient Located Outside Of The Country
If you’ve abided by all the suggested strategies, but text messages remain undelivered, a recipient reported your message to their service provider.
Also possible is that they noted a correspondence very similar in content to what you sent out, reflecting poorly on your SMS – which would elicit an automated block from the carrier before delivery of your intended communication.
16. Typed in The Incorrect Number
Typing in the wrong number will lead to undelivered messages. It is a common occurrence, yet many businesses are still surprised to discover that this is why their SMS are not sending. Double-check the numbers, especially if you have recipients in other countries. You may have incorrectly typed some digits on the country and area code.
Typing in the wrong number is one of the common reasons, plus it might get delivered to the wrong person if the number is valid but wrong. Typically, your phone carrier will alert you to an invalid number if it needs to be entered correctly. In this situation, the wrong person may receive a text message.
17. Disputed SMS Applications
The inability to deliver SMS messages can arise when using multiple applications on a handset, as they can clash and thus cease message delivery. In these situations, none of the applications will be able to receive the message, resulting in failed transmissions.
Several applications compete to receive the same message but have yet to succeed. It cannot be fixed from the sender’s end and must be adjusted by the receiver for communication between both parties to flow freely without disruption.
To ensure successful SMS delivery, the sender should confirm that they only send messages to phone numbers with text-enabled capabilities.
18. Setting on The Phone Says “receive SMS Messages” Is Off.
Keeping in contact is no longer limited to SMS messaging. As smartphones become increasingly popular, many individuals rely on internet-based texting and social network-based messaging apps rather than traditional SMS exchanges.
Consequently, SMS messages are commonly shut off for recipients — some may not even be aware that it has been disabled.
All too often, there are competing applications that prevent SMS messages from being received due to conflicting configurations. If the device’s ability to receive texts is disabled, incoming messages cannot be delivered appropriately and will not reach their destination.
The problem can become even more complicated if user removes an app causing conflict but fails to adjust the settings to receive SMS messages.
How to Fix Undelivered SMS on Android?
Undelivered SMS issues are quickly addressed if you are aware of what is causing the problems. There are also several ways to fix the issue, depending on the cause. For Android users, here are some solutions to fix undelivered message concerns.
- Be sure you have the latest version of Messages for a seamless experience.
- Check your SIM card to see if it is inserted correctly.
- Ensure that Messages is set as your default texting app.
- Make sure your carrier supports SMS, MMS, or RCS messaging.
- Ensure your plan or credit balance is sufficient to cover sending and receiving messages.
- Check your network signal.
- If necessary, ensure you’re not in airplane mode by double-checking and turning it off.
- You may need to turn off chat features if you change messaging apps on your phone and don’t receive messages.
How to Fix Undelivered SMS on iPhone?
iPhone users can see the status of their messages and if they are undelivered. If an iPhone user has an issue with their SMS messages not being received, there are a few simple steps to fix the problem:
- Check that your device is connected to a good Wi-Fi or cellular network.
- Verify the recipient’s phone number.
- Make sure you have an active plan with sufficient credit if you use a mobile network.
- Check that your device is not in Airplane Mode.
- Restart the Messages app and try to send the SMS again.
- If all else fails, try restarting your iPhone.
What are the Common Causes why SMS aren’t Sending?
There are several reasons why an SMS message might not get delivered, but some of the most common faults of the senders are the following:
- Typing in the incorrect number or having an invalid number – If the numbers you’re trying to reach seem to need fixing, there’s an easy way to find out if they are valid. Just take a look and see which numbers are marked as invalid!
- Illegal Content – Some countries have laws restricting particular messages from being sent, such as those containing profanity or images. It is essential to be mindful when sending SMS messages and comply with these regulations.
- Sending too many messages – Sending only a few messages simultaneously is recommended. It could result in your messages being blocked by a service provider, as it’s seen as spam.
Does SMS Marketing is the Common Cause Why the Message aren’t Sending?
No. SMS marketing is not a common cause of undelivered messages or a reason why messages are not sent. SMS marketing is an effective way of communicating with customers and engaging with them. When done correctly, text message marketing improves engagement with customers and ensures delivery of timely notifications and offers. Some SMS marketing practices, when not followed or a business does not comply with regulations, may lead to messages not being sent or received. Therefore it is crucial to be mindful and follow proper SMS marketing guides.
Does SMS Blasting Cause the Message Not Delivered?
No. SMS blast is a part of SMS marketing strategies that involve sending out a large volume of messages at once, often within a short period. As long as the SMS blasting adheres to proper regulations and guidelines, it should not cause any message delivery issues. However, if an SMS blast contains illegal content or is sent too frequently, which could cause some messages to be blocked by service providers for being seen as spam. Therefore, essential to take the necessary steps to ensure your messages are sent successfully.