Vonage 10-digit telephone numbers support SMS/MMS Messaging

The Vonage Business Communications app (VBC) support SMS/MMS messaging frequently called text messaging.

SMS (Short Message Service) is designed to send short text communications. 
MMS (Multimedia Message Service) includes support for sending/receiving photos, videos, and audio files. 

On this page you will find...

• Messaging Policies You Should Understand
• Supported Features
• Unsupported Features
• How to Send Messages
• How to View Received Messages
• Restricted Messaging Content Categories
  

Messaging Policies You Should Understand

The telephone industry heavily regulates messaging with best practices and legal regulation.  This is done to limit unsolicited messaging, spam, fraud and other unwanted messages.   In these regulations, messaging is categorized as "Consumer Messaging" or "Non-Consumer Messaging".   Messaging with your personal mobile phone falls into the Consumer category.  Vonage messaging at Drexel falls into the Non-Consumer category. 

Protecting Consumers from unwanted messages is paramount to the entire messaging ecosystem (telephone carriers, advisory consortiums, and government agencies). As a result, there are many more restrictions placed on the accepted behavior of Non-Consumer messaging, such as messaging with Vonage at Drexel. 

Vonage SMS messaging at Drexel is typically intended to be Conversational between two parties. Conversational messaging is a back-and-forth conversation that takes place between a Drexel Vonage telephone number and a Consumer or Non-Consumer.  Typically, this means the first message is initiated by the Consumer or sometimes the message is initiated by the Non-consumer (Drexel). In either case the messages are welcome and or expected by the Consumer.  Conversational messaging is the typical use case for the majority of all Vonage SMS messaging at Drexel.

Vonage SMS messages at Drexel may also be Informational.  Informational messaging is when a Consumer gives their phone number to a Non-Consumer and requests to be contacted in the future. Appointment reminders, welcome texts, and alerts fall into this category because the first text sent by the Non-Consumer (Drexel)  fulfills the Consumer’s request. A Consumer needs to agree to receive texts for a specific informational purpose when they give the Non-Consumer their mobile number. If your Drexel business use case falls into this Informational category, it is an acceptable use case; however, you are advised to contact the Drexel IT Network Operations Center for a consultation. 

In all cases, it is important that the content of messages you send from Drexel phone numbers are professional and respectful. The telephone messaging industry identifies specific content categories identified as potentially harmful or deceitful to Consumers and messages of this nature are not permitted.  For the most part, these are common sense restrictions.  If you are interested in examples, please see the industry categorization listed further below. 

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SUPPORTED  SMS/MMS Features

• SMS messages can be 500-characters. But the carrier may split these into 160-character bits.
  MMS messags are limited to 1MB in size

• SMS and MMS text messages are supported in the U.S. and Canada only

• MMS supported files for SENDING
  Currently support for sending images is paused.  This should be corrected shortly. 

File formats .jpg .jpeg .png .bmp

• MMS supported files for RECEIVING

Image .jpg .jpeg .png .gif .bmp .dib

Audio .mp3 .wav .3gp .amr .3ga .m4a .m4p .m4b .m4r

Video .mp4 .3gp .h263 .h264 .m4v

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UNSUPPORTED SMS/MMS Features

• Sending URL text strings (such as https://google.com) is not supported. 

An exception exsits for URLs in the drexel.edu and ansp.org domains along with zoom.com and zoom.us.

If you have a business need to send URLS with other domains, contact the Drexel IT Network Operations Center. 

Note If you send a URL that is not allowed, you will not receive a notice that your message was rejected and not sent the the recipient.  If sending a URL for the first time, it is a best practice to confirm that your recipient received the URL.  Send this confirmation as a separate message. 

• International SMS/MMS

• Group SMS/MMS

Group Messaging is not supported.
You can receive a group message, but your response will only be sent to the sender. 

• Short code messages 

For example, Short code messages, such as the ones used for 2-Factor Authentication (2FA) or Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) cannot be received by Vonage (virtual) numbers as it promotes non-human verification.

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How to Send SMS/MMS Messages

Desktop App

• Navigate to the SMS tab
• If you have a Business Inbox, click My Apps, then Business Inbox
• Click New SMS (or, if using Business Inbox, click New Message)
  
• Select a saved contact or type a phone number, then click the Green Message icon (on right).
• Type the message and/or click the Plus (+) icon to select a file to attach.
• Click Send

Mobile App

• Tap the Message icon (lower left)
• Tap Create New icon (upper right), then select a contact or type a number
• Type the message and/or click the Plus (+) icon to select a file to attach
• Tap Send

Note If you have multiple telephone numbers, click the Sending As link (above the Message bar) to select a different number.

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How to View Received SMS/MMS Messages

Desktop App

• Navigate to the SMS tab
• (if you have a Business Inbox, click My Apps, then Business Inbox)
• Toggle Recent or Unread as applicable
• Click the message you want to read

Mobile App

• Tap the Message icon (lower left)
• Tap the message you want to read

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Restricted Messaging Content Categories 

Specific content categories have been identified as potentially harmful or deceitful to consumers as follows and are not permitted in messaging.

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