Understanding Potential Text Delivery Issues

Do you see the Rejected for Possible SPAM error result within your messages? Read on to see why this may be happening!

With texting, you've likely experienced times where you send a text to a friend or family member, but they never received it or vice-versa.

Text-Em-All delivers your texts by sending them your contacts' phone carrier (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, etc.), and the carrier is then responsible for delivering the text to your contacts' phone. 

Common reasons text messages are not received


Carrier Filtering

This error may show in your account as "Rejected for Possible SPAM"

Mobile carriers have filters for automated text messages to prevent spam — also known as unwanted messages — from delivering.

Here are a few things that can trigger the carrier filters and a block on your messages:

  • Sending the same text broadcast repeatedly (changing up your wording a bit shows the carriers that you are not sending out SPAM).
  • Using all caps, special characters, and excessive punctuation (THANKS, ASAP, @, %, !!!, ???).
  • Including an email address in the text.
  • Using too many numbers, dates, or listing a phone number in the text that is different from the number that sent the message.
  • Using a redirecting link, or a generic link shortener (like bit.ly).

Invalid Numbers

The numbers you are contacting may not be working numbers, or their plan may not allow for texting.

You can see which numbers are Invalid from your Broadcast Details results page. 


Other Delivery Issues

Mobile devices are constantly updating for improvement and depending on where the mobile device is and the amount of service it is able to obtain, text messages can have issues being delivered:

  • Devices could be roaming or in and out of service.
  • The device could be performing an update.
  • Carriers could be experiencing an outage in a specific area.
  • Carriers can experience a delay in delivery so the message shows up later than when it was originally sent. 
  • Message Arrived Out Of Order or Incomplete 
    • On occasion, if your text message is longer than 160 characters, it may arrive at your contact's mobile device incomplete or jumbled into different segments. Unfortunately, this issue occurs on a third-party carrier level and is out of Text-Em-All's control. 

Please note: If you are sending text messages to phone numbers registered in Canada, there are additional things to remember that affect text delivery. Read here to learn more. 

If you are receiving reports of contacts not receiving your texts, please let us know!

Contact our Customer Experience team:

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