Flash SMS: How to send highly important text messages

SMS API SMS Online

Grabbing people’s attention, in a time when we are bombarded with messages from all directions, is a tricky business. The common text message however, despite its age and simplicity, is still one of the most effective ways of communicating.

Taking this one step further, flash SMS is even more effective.

A flash SMS message will appear directly on the home screen of a person’s mobile phone. This makes it extremely useful for sending text messages that are sensitive and/or of high importance.

The most common use of flash SMS is for sending one-time passwords or PIN codes for people to enter into a website – part of a two-factor authentication (2FA) service. You will probably have received something similar at some point for logging into a specific web service such as your bank account, financial service or even for accessing your company’s business systems.

As flash SMS messages don’t rely on storage, once received, it is deleted once read, which provides the security that is often the reason for sending. However, it is possible to be saved to the recipient’s inbox if required. If multiple flash SMS messages are sent then the recipient will only see the last message sent and all others will be erased.

Send Flash SMS

Normal SMS messages are classified as ‘Class 1’ messages, whereas flash SMS messages are classified as ‘Class 0’ which enables them to bypass the inbox and be immediately displayed on the main screen of a mobile phone.

One word of warning. Flash SMS is definitely a very useful method of communicating an important message, but it isn’t really recommended for marketing or used regularly, as it could become annoying to the recipient and damage your reputation – creating an adverse effect for your brand. The most popular search on Google for flash SMS is how to block it.

ToucanText provides flash SMS capability as a value-added-service to standard SMS delivery and can be found and used in either our SMS Online service or incorporated into your business systems via our SMS API and SMS Automation products.

If you would like to add flash SMS capability to your SMS delivery, or would like to discuss this further, please call 0330 998 0022 or email info@toucantext.com.

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