Messages sent from Twilio ending up in Android Messages Spam folder

Question

Our website sends time-critical notifications to users via SMS (using Twilio).

However, lately we've been getting reports that these SMS are ending up in Android Messages "Spam" folder.

We've replicated this on our own internal Pixel device as well.

We firstly reached out to Twilio who said there is nothing they can do, we need to contact Android Support. So we contacted Android support and never heard back.

Has anyone else experienced this when sending from Twilio, and managed to work out what causes it and how to avoid it?

One idea we had was to simply change the Twilio phone number we are using to send these messages, but would appreciate any other advice or suggestions from this community.

Thanks

Answer 1

I'm afraid I don't have a great answer for you on this myself.

I was going to suggest applying to join the Google Verified SMS program , however it is still in pilot and currently full. That is something you could look into in the future though.

Other than that, much like with email, to avoid spam inboxes it's best to avoid looking like spam. That is, things like:

• ensure that you are getting any relevant opt-ins from users so that they don't report you as spam
• handle user opt outs correctly (unless you have enabled advanced opt-out , Twilio handles that for you)
• avoid subjects that seem like spam
• be careful with link shorteners, that can sometimes trigger spam detection in SMS. If you are sending links, try to ensure you own the domain of the links you are sending

There is more detail on all of this in this article on preventing carrier filtering on your messages , though it applies to spam inboxes too.

In the meantime, it may indeed help to reset your reputation by starting with a new number. As always, it's easier to stay out of spam than it is to get out of spam.