How to detect SMS reply by passing some header info

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vinay
New member
Username: V123456

Post Number: 1
Registered: 10-2009
Posted on Monday, October 12, 2009 - 09:38 am:   

Hi,

I would like to know for which message sent by the system the user has replied.

Example:

Our Now SMS server sends a SMS to user A, for each message Now SMS generates an ID. So when user A reply to the message, we got the message but we couldn't able to find for which message we received this reply. Is it possible to find it using the message ID generated in the Now SMS server?

Thanks
Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support
Board Administrator
Username: Bryce

Post Number: 7855
Registered: 10-2002
Posted on Monday, October 12, 2009 - 03:17 pm:   

Hi Vinay,

I wish this were technically possible. Unfortunately, it is not.

Basically, in the raw SMS message, there's nothing to distinguish whether a message is a reply to a particular previous message, or if it is a brand new message.

The only pieces of data that you really have for being able to perform this type of correlation are the sender and recipient addresses.

For example, let's say that you send a message to SMS user 1111.

If you later receive an SMS from SMS user 1111, you know that you previously sent a message to this user, and it is possible that this SMS is a reply to your original message.

In a simple world, this works ok.

However, if you sent multiple messages to 1111, you do not necessarily know which of these messages the reply pertains to.

There are only two approaches that I am aware of which can address this ambiguity.

1.) Request some sort of unique code (at least for that particular phone number) in your reply.

For example, I've been writing a 2-way SMS application where periodically messages are sent to an admin for approval. For each approval, I am generating a different code number and asking that the admin return this code to approve the message.

Multiple messages may have been sent to the admin, but we can distinguish replies based upon this code number.

2.) The other alternative is to have multiple sender addresses available for your system, either multiple short codes, or multiple GSM modems.

You need to track each message that you send to a given recipient. For each message, you use a different sender address. On the reply, you can identify which message the reply pertains to by looking to see which phone number you received the message on.

In this scenario, after you have used all of the sender numbers for a particular recipient, you wrap back around and reuse. There is always a possibility that one of your users might later reply to a very old message, and it would not be handled properly. But in general, it can work very well for many applications.

--

I wish there were better solutions ... but SMS is limited.

-bn
vinay
New member
Username: V123456

Post Number: 4
Registered: 10-2009
Posted on Wednesday, October 21, 2009 - 03:24 pm:   

Hi Bryce,

Is it possible to send hyperlink in SMS text? So users who have smartphone can make use of it. Please let us know.

Thanks / Mani
Des - NowSMS Support
Board Administrator
Username: Desosms

Post Number: 1370
Registered: 08-2008
Posted on Wednesday, October 21, 2009 - 09:20 pm:   

Hi Mani,

There's no standard for designating that a hyperlink is present within an SMS.

The "de facto" standard is that the SMS client in a mobile phone looks for the "http://" prefix and automatically generate a hyperlink when they see a web address. (Some phones will also parse out anything that starts with "www." as a hyperlink, but it is safer to include the "http://" prefix.)

--
Des
NowSMS Support
Alexandre
New member
Username: Alexd

Post Number: 33
Registered: 01-2008
Posted on Wednesday, October 21, 2009 - 09:42 pm:   

vinay: u can send Wap-Push message, most mobile telephones support this feature.