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SMS Delivery Status

Understanding SMS delivery status will help you identify when to reach out to LoopSpark support for delivery related issues, and how to interpret carrier related statuses to adjust your messaging content, or update invalid destination numbers.

There are 2 main categories of SMS delivery statuses we will discuss in this help article:

  1. LoopSpark Internal Status - SMS statuses set by LoopSpark. These statuses are all controlled by LoopSpark and do not use feedback from a client’s mobile carrier.
  2. External Carrier Statuses - SMS delivery status provided to LoopSpark by your client’s mobile carrier. LoopSpark does not have control over these statuses, we simply display the feedback provided by your client’s mobile carrier.

LoopSpark Internal Status

LoopSpark internal SMS statuses are not populated using any feedback from your client’s mobile carrier.

Sent, Status Pending

SMS message has been sent to carrier, but still waiting a delivery confirmation status from client’s mobile carrier.

Once LoopSpark receives confirmation of delivery status from client’s mobile carrier (delivered or bounced), sent, status pending will update to reflect carrier delivery status.

Action Needed

Alert staff of open discussions, which include any SMS discussion where the client was last to communicate. These discussions, marked as Action Needed! help ensure staff are responding to all client inquiries.

Not Delivered / Not Dispatched from LoopSpark

LoopSpark failed to dispatch SMS message to client’s mobile carrier.

Contact LoopSpark Support

This will be the only status where LoopSpark can directly resolve SMS delivery related issues. If you see the icon delivered marked in gray as seen above, please issue a ticket to [email protected] containing a link to the non-delivered discussion, or link to the automation that resulted in all SMS messages not being dispatched from LoopSpark.

External Carrier Status

External carrier statuses are provided by your client’s mobile carrier back to LoopSpark, and confirm whether or not a message was delivered or not delivered to the client.

As these statuses are external to LoopSpark, we do not have control and cannot directly resolve delivery issues related to these statuses.

Delivered

LoopSpark successfully dispatched the message to your client’s mobile carrier. Client’s mobile carrier provided feedback to LoopSpark confirming message was successfully delivered to client.

Bounced

LoopSpark successfully dispatched the message to your client’s mobile carrier; however the client’s mobile carrier sent feedback to LoopSpark confirming the message was not delivered.

Common reasons for SMS bounce:

  1. Invalid destination number - Client’s mobile number is not valid, or is not configured to receive SMS communications.
  2. Network error - Client’s mobile carrier experienced a network outage preventing message from being delivered to client.
  3. SPAM detected - Client’s mobile carrier has identified your message as SPAM, OR has placed a temporary SPAM block on your SMS number as a result of recent SMS activity.

Understanding SPAM filters:

As SMS marketing is rapidly evolving and widely adopted by good (and bad) players, mobile carriers are continuously changing their algorithms for detecting SPAM and protecting their end users.

SPAM temporary blocks

If your number is blocked due to “SPAM,” your SMS number may not be able to send any outbound messages for 1-2 days. As this block is placed on the carrier side, it is out of LoopSpark’s control. This will also mean you will not be able to respond directly to client discussions! Please make sure to read best practices to avoid carrier blocks.

To avoid being marked as SPAM, please avoid the following common causes for carrier placed SPAM blocks

  1. The use of repetitive URLs, keywords, or link shortener services such as tinyurl , bit.ly and Google forms forms.gle in the SMS content.
  2. More than 200 SMS messages are sent per day per long code number. Some mobile carriers have larger thresholds; however, as a rule of thumb you should not send more than 200 messages per day, especially if the content is the same. If you’re planning on sending a mass text for the purpose of marketing, consider sending the message as an email, and if necessary, sending a follow up SMS to the same audience containing NO links.
  3. The ratio of incoming to outgoing SMS on a long code number is more than 1:3. This is a good indication to mobile carriers that clients are not engaging with your SMS communications. Even if 100% of your clients are opted-in to SMS communications, mobile carriers still try to prevent the use of mass marketing using 10 digit long code numbers. For this reason, make sure you are using your LoopSpark SMS number for transactional and conversational purposes, not mass marketing.
  4. Multiunit messages - Your message length is resulting in multi-unit messages being sent. Try to avoid sending messages that are longer than 160 characters when setting up one-time-only SMS automations.

After carefully reviewing our recommendations to avoid mobile carrier filtering, if you believe your messages are compliant with carrier policies, please collect 3 or more examples of discussions that have the “bounced” status and send them to [email protected]. Our team will review these messages and your account's recent SMS history. In the event we determine messages were incorrectly marked as SPAM, we can provide supporting documentation to mobile carriers to help expedite lifting your temporary “SPAM” block.

To learn more about carrier filtering, please refer to following support article: SMS Carrier Filtering in the United States and Canada