Tracking messages

Activity Messenger tracks delivery of your messages. On the Messages page each send-out will contain a Status. When you create a message, the Status is set to "Sending...". When the message to the first recipient is sent, the Status changes to "Sent". When the message is received by a first recipient, the Status changes to "Delivered". Scheduled messages will also appear on this page.

If you are sending a message to thousands of participants, it may take several minutes to run. No worry, Activity Messenger works in the background. That is completely transparent to you. You can view the progress by clicking on the refresh button. You may also click on the message to open the send-out details popup. That will also refresh the Status.

# Tracking individual SMS and email messages

The popup shows you detailed information about the send out. Emails and SMS are separated in two tabs. As the send out progresses, the numbers appearing in those tabs will change.

You can resend the message as well. To someone else or to people who have not opened the email.

Activity Messenger tracks open and click rates on emails you send. Those numbers are indicated below the doughnut chart.

# Tracking and managing SMS messages

Activity Messenger allows you to manage SMS replies. An Inbound message in green is a reply from a recipient. If they replied STOP, they were automatically put on the Unsubscribes list and will appear in orange. If they replied the wrong word, you may manually add them to the Unsubscribes list. They will be skipped in future send outs.

"Forwarded" messages will also appear. Received and forwarded SMS are charged at the regular rate.

# Email and SMS delivery status

Activity Messenger tracks messages individually. Depending on the situation, some messages may not have been sent, or may encounter errors. Potential Status values are:

• Skipped: The SMS or email was found on the Unsubscribes list. Activity Messenger will not send messages to flagged mobile phone numbers or flagged email addresses.
• Sent: The SMS or email was sent. We are awaiting response from the email provider to acknowledge delivery. Some providers do not acknowledge delivery. It is therefore possible the email was delivered even if the state is "Sent".
• Delivered: The provider acknowledged reception of the SMS or email message and delivered it to the participant. Not that not all email providers acknowledge reception. An email marked as Sent can also be delivered.
• Bounced: The email bounced. Possibly because the email does not exist. In such a case the email address gets added to the Unsubscribes list.
• Complaint: The message was delivered and the participant clicked on the Spam button. In such a case the email gets added to the Unsubscribes list.
• Bad number: The mobile phone number is not valid. It gets added to the Unsubscribes list.
• Bad email: Unable to deliver the email. The email address is not valid. It gets added to the Unsubscribes list.
• Received: An SMS was received from a recipient.
• Forwarded: The received SMS was forwarded to you, the sender.
• Replied: An SMS was received and the system auto-replied the message you have configured.
• Opened: An email was opened.
• Clicked: The recipient opened the email and clicked on a link.

Note 1: We recommend you consult the Unsubscribes list after every large send out in order to correct bad email addresses and bad phone numbers. Consult the help page entitled Unsubscribes to learn more.

Note 2: You are not charged for skipped emails and SMS messages.

# Emails not received

Sometimes a client may not receive the email. There are 4 things to check:

1. Make sure that the message status was not "Skipped". If so the email address was added to the Unsubscribes list and flagged as such. If it is a mistake, you can go to the Unsubscribes page (menu Lists and option Unsubscribes) and remove the email address from the list.
2. Check the communication type of the message. If the intent of your email was non-marketing, make sure it was sent as non-marketing.
3. It may have gone to their spam folder. In that case ask your client to mark the email as "not spam" and move it to their inbox. The email provider will then understand emails from that address are safe.
4. If it is not in their spam folder, their email provider may have blocked it. This is a cautionary measure for new email addresses. In that case your client should add the domain activitymessenger.com to the Safe Senders list. Do the same for your own domain if you configured Activity Messenger to use your own From email address. Here's how:
   • For Hotmail and Outlook click on the settings menu (gear icon top right in the menu bar). Then go to Junk email and you'll see a Safe Senders list. Add activitymessenger.com to it.
   • For Bell or Sympatico click on the settings menu (gear icon top right in the menu bar). Then go to Security and Block senders and domains. Add activitymessenger.com to the allowed email addresses and domains list.
   • For Yahoo Mail, create a new contact with the email address info@activitymessenger.com or the email of the sender. This will tell Yahoo Mail that the email address is safe.
   • For other email providers, you can google their name with the keywords safe senders to find instructions.