SMS messages not sending from iPhone automations

Forums › Apple iOS and devices › SMS messages not sending from iPhone automations

jaznz

17 posts

Geek
+1 received by user: 3

#307174 26-Sep-2023 11:06

Hi all.

I have been trying to set up Automations on several people's iPhones that send them an SMS when they receive a certain email.

The Shortcuts/ automations are running when the email is detected, but the SMS messages are not being received. This is on multiple networks, multiple phones.

Could this be a problem that the Apple automations do not send SMS in NZ or something? Before I tear my hair out trying to figure it out...

Has anyone else been able to set up that kind of Automation successfully?

rugrat

3142 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 944

Lifetime subscriber

#3132100 26-Sep-2023 13:31

Would doing a notification instead of SMS work better, or is it different people to the receiver of email you want to let know.

Haven’t done it for email match, but notifications work for other things I have set up.

I don’t know why SMS not sending, but maybe send message is restricted and needs intervention to run,

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/254422750

pumping4ever ~ It's a restriction in the Shortcuts app for security reasons...

The following automations cannot be run automatically:

Arrive

Leave

Before I Commute

Message 👈

Wi-Fi

Bluetooth

SirHumphreyAppleby

2938 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1860

#3132121 26-Sep-2023 14:46

The fact that you are looking for a certain message makes me wonder if there is a more appropriate solution to your requirements. Are you sending the e-mails, or if not, could they be sent to another address to trigger a message via a SMS gateway or service such as Pushover?

The less steps in the process, the better. If you want to use SMS, I've found many of the 'cheap' services to be pretty poor, particularly those based offshore. Message delivery could take hours, or messages never arrived at all. If you need to draw someone's attention to something, it's probably time critical.

I ended up using SMTP2Go for a recent project. They are a New Zealand-based company and the actual SMS messaging is handled by MessageMedia (based in Australia), so local delivery has never been an issue. I also had good results with Gateway API (European). The rest were somewhere in the region of bad to worse.