Infobip completes live Rich Communication Services (RCS) implementation

[mylesillidge]

New messaging technology cheaper than WhatsApp launches in South Africa — but there's a catch

Infobip has completed what it calls South Africa's first live Rich Communication Services (RCS) implementation, deploying the messaging protocol in Shiplogic, the logistics platform spun out of Bob Group.

Shiplogic, which provides the end-to-end logistics software-as-a-service platform powering well-known couriers, separated from Bob Group in July last year as part of a move to pursue new growth opportunities.

 

[gconey]

Cheaper way to spam

 

[RedViking]

In other words an increase in spam.

 

[TofuMofu]

SMS

Varies

No

No

Guaranteed delivery on any device

Well that's just not true...I've had many SMS' never get delivered. OTP's specifically. Hate the service and it shouldn't be an option for OTP's.

 

[dontcryforme]

One message category that was left out of the pricing comparison for WhatsApp's Business API is that Service messages are free when the user initiates the chat with the business and the business responds within a 24 hour window.

Business Platform Pricing

Deliver on business messaging goals with transparent WhatsApp Business Platform pricing. Explore WhatsApp API pricing to do more with conversations.

business.whatsapp.com

 

[FiestaST]

Spam 'R Us.

 

[Johnatan56]

SMS

Varies

No

No

Guaranteed delivery on any device

Well that's just not true...I've had many SMS' never get delivered. OTP's specifically. Hate the service and it shouldn't be an option for OTP's.

Sms not get delivered is very rare. Most of the time it's because you added your number to spam opt out, and the group sending the OTP didn't mark their sms as non marketing or whatever the flag was, forgot the name.

PayPal for example had this issue a few years ago, unsure if sorted now.

Actual routing issues usually will have retry and delay, which should be very rare, just if OTP that might be too late.

 

[Swa]

This ship has sailed many moons ago. Also from the consumer perspective there's zero cost so good luck getting people to switch to something where they will only get spammed. It's already a problem with Vodacom's mms's.

 

[Swa]

Sms not get delivered is very rare. Most of the time it's because you added your number to spam opt out, and the group sending the OTP didn't mark their sms as non marketing or whatever the flag was, forgot the name.

PayPal for example had this issue a few years ago, unsure if sorted now.

Actual routing issues usually will have retry and delay, which should be very rare, just if OTP that might be too late.

I can confirm it does happen. Mostly international but there's been local cases like TymeBank where sms delivery was patchy. With Binance it only arrived after it expired. Requesting a new one would yield the same. If you requested two within the window one would arrive, but which one?

So not related to spam blocking and seems to be mostly related to money transactions for some reason.

 

[G.A.S]

SMS

Varies

No

No

Guaranteed delivery on any device

Well that's just not true...I've had many SMS' never get delivered. OTP's specifically. Hate the service and it shouldn't be an option for OTP's.

I've seen that the (DMA) national opt-out service also blocks SMSs that shouldn't be blocked. E.g. iMessage activation and Courier Guy PINS.

 

[Johnatan56]

I can confirm it does happen. Mostly international but there's been local cases like TymeBank where sms delivery was patchy. With Binance it only arrived after it expired. Requesting a new one would yield the same. If you requested two within the window one would arrive, but which one?

So not related to spam blocking and seems to be mostly related to money transactions for some reason.

International, sure, but within South Africa, the stats are very rare that SMS are not delivered. The bank messing up to actually send the request, sure, but not if actual SMS has been requested to be sent, the tracking for making sure that's delivered is pretty well covered, and if routing messes up that's pretty quickly checked and resent.

 

[MoHaG]

SMS

Varies

No

No

Guaranteed delivery on any device

Well that's just not true...I've had many SMS' never get delivered. OTP's specifically. Hate the service and it shouldn't be an option for OTP's.

Do you have a ported number?

There are sometimes issues with (especially international) providers sending the message to the network for the number range instead of following the porting DB and that network then discards the message.

I often have to resend a few times before getting them.

 

[TofuMofu]

Do you have a ported number?

There are sometimes issues with (especially international) providers sending the message to the network for the number range instead of following the porting DB and that network then discards the message.

I often have to resend a few times before getting them.

Yip, ported my number multiple times already lol. That could be the issue