How to avoid Spam Filtering

Spam Filtering

What is Carrier Filtering?

Most carriers in the U.S. (Verizon, U.S. Cellular, Sprint, etc.) have filtering mechanisms to protect their users from spam. At times, these mechanisms may suspect your account’s messages as spam and, therefore, are not sending them to community members. 

Since their algorithms are private, we won’t know for sure what factors mark texts as spam. That being said, there are a few steps you can take to lower the chances of being flagged.

For more information about the carrier filtering problem, read Twilio’s article.

Tips & Best Practices from Rapid Response

Have the community member text you first. While on the call with a community member, ask them to text “START” to your hotline phone number. *Note: START must be written in English

Provide clear opt-out instructions in your text to recipient. Make sure your first message to a community member always includes a phrase telling the user how to opt-out, e.g. "Reply STOP to unsubscribe." or “Responde STOP para cancelar la suscripción.”

Tips & Best Practices from Twilio

Provide a good user experience. Users are likely to report confusing or unwanted messages to their carrier. When these messages are reported to carriers, it becomes very likely that future messages from the same number (or those with similar contents) will be filtered. In some cases, the user may have forgotten that they requested the message, so be sure to identify your business or service in the message. 

Also, how the message is formatted and written is important. Overly long messages, overly capitalized messages, mysterious links, hyperbole, and using aggressive language can make users suspicious of a message.