SMS responses from Android phones not reaching xMatters

Some customers have noticed an issue when trying to respond to an SMS notification using an Android phone. Even though the notification arrives properly and the user submits a response, the response never seems to get back to xMatters - or, at least, it's never recorded.

Issue details

If this is happening to you, it's probably because you dismissed a warning message about "extra charges" when responding to a message from a short code.

Short code warning message

Google provides a warning to protect Android users from accidentally getting charged for SMS spam. This means that the first time a user responds to a message from a shortcode, such as the one xMatters uses, a system warning message (like the one below) cautions users that responding to a short code "may cause charges" to their account. 

The good news is that these charges are just the normal costs for sending SMS messages - there are no extra fees to worry about when responding to xMatters.

The bad news is that cancelling this message (even without selecting the Remember my choice option) a few times might result in your responses not being sent to xMatters. Some users have reported that the warning message stops being displayed after three or four appearances, and there's no indication that the response is not being sent.

The best way to deal with this is to make sure that users know that the first time they encounter this message, they should select the "Remember my choice" option and then click Send. This will add the short code for xMatters as a safe target in their phone, and they won't see the warning again.

If you have already ignored the warning message, you can resolve this problem by enabling the "Premium SMS Services" option on your phone:

1. Go into your phone Settings, and scroll down to Apps and notifications (or Applications, or Applications Manager, depending on your phone).
2. Go to Advanced, and tap Special app access.
3. Tap Premium SMS access and choose the app that you are using from the list (eg, "Messages"). 
4. From the drop-down list, choose Always allow. 

• You could also set it to Ask, and then use the "Remember my choice option" the next time you are prompted.

You should now be able to send SMS messages to the xMatters short code.

Happy texting!

xMatters internal reference: DTN-4110