Text message to those on List

I'm a ward exec sec and have created a custom list of those in the BYC.
I have attempted to send a text message to those on the list, It comes back as "not delivered".
I checked to make sure everyone has a smartphone and can receive texts. If there is a problem with one or more on the list shouldn't it indicate which one and deliver the rest?

How many are on the list? Your cell phone provider may impose a limit.

I'm with AT&T. 10 recipients on the list

That doesn't seem unreasonable. I'm not sure how SMS works. I'd think Tools just passes it to the phone as a single message with multiple "To". I'm guessing it's the phone that's passing it back with a error, but I'm not sure how to try and narrow down what the problem is.

I tried looking for limits, but all I could find is that SMS is limited to 160 characters - go over that and it may appear to be sent but the other person doesn't receive it.

I was hoping I would get a message that it was sent except for certain individuals. That way I could narrow down the problem. Otherwise what's the value in sending text messages to a group?
Dosen't that defeat the purpose?

kirtkennedy wrote:I was hoping I would get a message that it was sent except for certain individuals.

I would imagine that Tools is just packaging up the message and forwarding it on to the SMS client in your phone. If that client doesn't like something, it will error out the message.

I suppose Tools could create a separate message for each recipient, but consider what that would do to the texting bill.

Just guessing, but I'm thinking something is very wrong with one of the numbers it's trying to use. Such as being in the wrong format or having extra characters in it. I doubt if it's going to check and see if the number itself is a cell phone capable of receiving messages.

If i'm having this problem, i'm sure others are too. i'll look to see if there is anything unusual about the phone numbers... it's a mixture of youth and adults, that may be part of the problem. Perhaps some youth are not able to receive texts?..I wish it would highlight or "kick out" bad numbers. That would give me something to work with.

kirtkennedy wrote:Perhaps some youth are not able to receive texts?

I doubt that's the cause. In that situation I'd expect a "kick back" after it was sent, rather than blocking it from being sent. But you can test that by trying to send a message to someone you know is blocked.

For that matter, you could try sending each individual in your list a message and see which one it chokes on.

kirtkennedy wrote:I wish it would highlight or "kick out" bad numbers. That would give me something to work with.

I'm sure the application at some point is relying on a underlying service - and that service is what's kicking back the error. If it doesn't give a error message, then Tools has nothing to report other than "It didn't work".

I discovered the cause of this problem...at least in my case. I've created a list for my HP group for convenience to be able to send group texts/emails. It always fails when I attempt to send a text message. Rather frustrating. It gives no indication what the problem is...just that it wasn't delivered. I finally narrowed it down to one of my HP had his landline as his phone # in lds.org. When I removed him from my list, then the message was successfully delivered to the rest of the group. I've asked him if he would update his lds.org profile with his personal cell. Hope this helps somebody else.