Tech Forum

It would be awesome if there was a way in MLS to indicate that a phone number is a cell phone or a land line. Knowing that a phone number is a cellular number means we know if they can receive text messages.

During our last emergency drill, we were encouraged to text members as part of the contact approach...but sometimes the "individual phone" number listed is a land line, even though it is often assumed to be a cell #. Also, sometimes the "Household phone" is not a land line, but rather a cell #, and that would be nice to know too!

Does anyone have a creative way to track this? I already sent the church feedback to request this in MLS.

sludgepickle wrote:Knowing that a phone number is a cellular number means we know if they can receive text messages.

Not necessarily. Some people shut off SMS as they don't want to get text messages.

russellhltn wrote:

sludgepickle wrote:Knowing that a phone number is a cellular number means we know if they can receive text messages.

Not necessarily. Some people shut off SMS as they don't want to get text messages.

So it would probably be better to have a flag to indicate that the number accepts text messages rather than differentiating between cell phones and land lines especially since some VOIP land-line services support text messages.

eblood66 wrote:

russellhltn wrote:

sludgepickle wrote:Knowing that a phone number is a cellular number means we know if they can receive text messages.

Not necessarily. Some people shut off SMS as they don't want to get text messages.

So it would probably be better to have a flag to indicate that the number accepts text messages rather than differentiating between cell phones and land lines especially since some VOIP land-line services support text messages.

Good point - that would be super nice to know. Anything to know that we can text a number.

This is all a nice start, but somehow I think it's the tip of the iceberg without some follow-up features. Like getting in a report, a print-out, or somehow making the information actionable.

The natural follow-up question - just because the message was sent, how do you know it was received? If we solve that, then maybe this isn't that big a deal.

sludgepickle wrote:It would be awesome if there was a way in MLS to indicate that a phone number is a cell phone or a land line. Knowing that a phone number is a cellular number means we know if they can receive text messages.

According to the presentation at the LDSTech Conference about Leader and Clerk Resources, in a future release of LCR you will be able to specify this more clearly. I don't remember the details, but I'm hoping that the rest of the LDSTech Conference recordings will be up soon.

It would still be cautionary advice to understand that even if you know I have a cell number, you cannot assume I am able to receive text messages.