There are few things more infuriating than an undelivered text. After all, you put a lot of effort into crafting captivating text messages and strategically scheduling your campaigns for maximum engagement. So, it’s incredibly frustrating when those texts fail to reach your audience — and even more upsetting when you discover it’s because your messages have been blocked.
Today, we’re breaking down how you can diagnose and correct this issue, and steps you can take to avoid it in the future.
But, first things first: What is message blocking, and why does it happen?
What Does “Message Blocking” Mean?
Message blocking happens when a message fails to reach your audience — usually because of restrictions put into place by the recipient, carrier, or industry regulations. For example, your message might trigger a carrier’s spam filter, or a recipient might (accidentally or intentionally) block your number, ultimately preventing your message from reaching a recipient’s text inbox.
When this happens, you may see an error message that says something like, “Sent as text message blocked” or “Message blocking is active.” However, in some cases, you may not receive an error message or response at all.
(Fortunately, as long as your enterprise messaging platform offers campaign status reports or send logs, you can still find out whether any of your texts failed to deliver.)
Common Reasons Text Messages Get Blocked
Inevitably, the first logical question you’d have when you notice your messages aren’t delivering is, “Why are my messages blocked?” And, in most cases, it boils down to one of these reasons:
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The recipient blocked your number
The simplest reason is that the recipient manually blocked your number. In this case, there’s nothing you can do to get through, and you might never discover why the contact decided to cut off your brand. (Though, in most cases, people block brands as an alternative to unsubscribing, or because the brand ignored their opt-out request.) If you notice this happening frequently, it might be time to re-evaluate your message content, send times, and frequency.
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Your message triggered carrier or network spam filtering
Mobile carriers set up filtering systems to help protect their users from spam, scams, and other types of unsolicited messages. If your message triggers a filter, consider whether any of your content could have set off alarm bells. For example, phrasing like “You’ve been selected” or “FREE,” misspellings, excessive exclamation points, all-caps, and unnatural sentence syntax can trip filters.
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You texted an invalid or wrong number
Sending a message to the wrong number may also lead to a blocked SMS or another type of send failure. When this happens, it could be something as simple as a data entry mistake or outdated information in your CRM.
However, remember that texting a number without explicit permission violates industry regulations and carrier rules, even if it was because of an honest mistake. This is why it’s so vital that you verify contacts’ numbers before adding them to a send list.
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You haven’t properly registered your number
As a business, you can only send texts from numbers registered to your brand. If you attempt to send a message from an unregistered number (such as a personal number), it will likely be blocked.
Note that short code (5 or 6-digit numbers) must be registered with the U.S. Short Code Registry, and 10-digit long code numbers should be registered through your campaign service provider and submitted to The Campaign Registry (TCR) for approval and verification.
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Your brand violated SMS compliance rules
Failing to comply with industry regulations set by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA), and other regulatory bodies will undoubtedly get your text message blocked. It can also result in legal penalties and fines, especially for repeat offenders.
In other words, make sure you adhere to quiet hours, only send messages to contacts who have explicitly opted in (and stop texting numbers that opt out), clearly identify who your messages are from, and follow other SMS marketing compliance best practices.
How to Fix Message Blocking Problems
Once you’ve realized your messages aren’t making it through to your recipients, you’ll need to do some troubleshooting to zero in on what’s causing the issue. Here are a few steps to help you diagnose and fix the problem:
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Step 1: Check message content against carrier rules
Start by reviewing your message content for any words or phrases that might’ve tripped a carrier’s spam filter or violated their rules. Generally, carriers block messages that contain “SHAFT” content (which stands for Sex, Hate, Alcohol, Firearms, and Tobacco), but even something as innocuous as “free” or “$$$” could trigger filtering.
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Step 2: Verify recipient number
Next, check the recipient numbers for each failed delivery to ensure they are correct (i.e., the exact number a contact entered when they subscribed to your messages). Then check your opt-out logs to ensure these contacts have not attempted to unsubscribe. If they have, make sure to cease all text communications immediately.
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Step 3: Look for signal issues or network outages
An SMS blocked message is one reason for a message failure, but it’s not the only culprit. For example, technical difficulties (such as a cellular signal issue on the recipients’ side or network outages) can also lead to failed deliveries. If your message failures are concentrated in a single geographic area or can be traced to a specific carrier, you’re likely dealing with a technical error rather than a blocked message.
Also, keep in mind that some platforms rely on third-party Communication Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS) solutions (such as Twilio) to connect with carriers. This extra layer of abstraction can increase the risk of facing deliverability issues and make it more challenging to diagnose technical problems. That’s why it’s so crucial you opt for a text marketing platform like TrueDialog that maintains direct carrier connections for faster and more reliable delivery.
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Step 4: Contact your provider
If you’ve ruled out all other causes, it’s a good idea to contact your provider for support. A great enterprise texting platform can help you identify carrier error codes, verify your short code or 10DLC registration, investigate filtering issues, and even work directly with carriers on your behalf to help pinpoint and resolve the problem.
How TrueDialog Prevents Message Blocking
The TrueDialog team understands that message failures can significantly impact your SMS program’s performance, distort campaign results, and even curb your revenue. That’s why the platform includes several features designed to reduce the risk of message blocking (and other types of send failures):
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Carrier lookups
TrueDialog offers a number validation feature that identifies whether numbers are mobile or landlines, so you can avoid texting wrong numbers or those that can’t receive your messages.
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TrueDelivery
TrueDelivery, TrueDialog’s proprietary AI-powered tool, bounces your message content against carrier spam filters before you press “send,” and determines how likely your messages are to deliver. This way, if your message contains any content that’s likely to be flagged or blocked, you can fix it before you launch your campaign.
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Number registration support
TrueDialog offers an automated 10DLC registration feature to simplify long-code registration, so you can start texting in days (not weeks). Additionally, as a partner of the U.S. Short Code Registry, TrueDialog can provision dedicated or branded short codes. Additionally, our team of experts is here to support you through every step of the registration process.
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Campaign status reports and activity records
TrueDialog’s reporting and analytics feature offers campaign status reports, so you can quickly determine how many messages were delivered successfully versus how many failed. You’ll also have access to an emergency stop/restart feature in case you need to pause your campaign to resolve an issue. Plus, the platform provides users with comprehensive activity records and message logs, so you can easily track and demonstrate compliance with industry regulations.
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Opt-in and opt-out support
With flexible single or double-opt-in methods and simple opt-out options, TrueDialog makes it easy to stay compliant and keep your contact lists clean and up to date.
In addition to these features, TrueDialog users also have 24/7 access to SMS experts who can help investigate suspected text blocking and message failures, as well as any other issues preventing you from driving the results you want.
Frequently Asked Questions
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What does “message blocking is active” mean?
If you see an autoresponse from a contact that says “message blocking is active,” “Sent as text message blocked,” or another type of “text message blocked” message, that means either the recipient or carrier has blocked incoming messages from your number.
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How do I know if someone blocked my text messages?
Aside from receiving a “blocked text message” response, it can be challenging to determine whether your messages are blocked.
That said, any time your texts fail to reach recipients, your bulk texting platform will likely show a “failed” or “undelivered” delivery status, and may also include error codes to help you diagnose the issue. Additionally, keep an eye out for unusually low delivery rates or a sudden dip in engagement, since these trends may indicate message blocking or another deliverability issue (such as a network outage).
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Does “sent as text message” mean blocked?
Not necessarily. Receiving the “sent as text message” autoresponse usually means the carrier sent your message as an SMS (rather than an RCS or MMS). This usually happens when a recipient’s device is struggling to connect to data (which may be due to network congestion or another temporary issue).
In this case, your message will likely be delivered (eventually), though it may face delays and arrive stripped of any multimedia components you’d attempted to include. Keep an eye on your platform’s reporting to confirm delivery and, if the message fails, consult error codes to identify the cause.
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Why do business or bulk SMS messages get blocked?
There are several reasons a company’s bulk SMS messages can become blocked. For example, sending unsolicited messages, messages with prohibited or spammy content, or promotional texts during quiet hours can lead carriers to block a business from reaching its customers. Texting the wrong number or failing to register your number correctly can also lead to blocking.
Additionally, if brands text recipients too frequently, send messages that offer little value or benefit to their contacts, ignore opt-out requests, or otherwise act in a disruptive or disrespectful way, recipients may decide to block them.
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Can carriers block text messages automatically?
With increases in spam and text-based scams, mobile carriers are taking every possible precaution to protect their customers — including setting up filters to “catch” potentially predatory or illegitimate organizations before they can reach recipients.
Unfortunately, filters can be overly sensitive and inadvertently block messages from valid, approved senders if they contain certain words, phrases, or other red flags. That’s why it’s so important to review your message content before you send it, and make sure you’ve removed anything a carrier might misconstrue as spam.
Additionally, carriers may permanently block numbers that break regulatory rules and guidelines (such as texting numbers without explicit permission, sending promotional texts during quiet hours, or ignoring opt-out requests).
