Suggestion: "Send a Text Message" option

Discussions about the Leader and Clerk Resources on lds.org.
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genman
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Location: US

Suggestion: "Send a Text Message" option

#1

Post by genman »

Not sure if I should suggest this here since it is specific to the Leader and Clerk Resources, or whether to post in "Ideas and Suggestions" in the Community Discussions section of the forum. I'll post here for now.

Currently, the "Send a Message" feature sends a message to the email addresses in the database for the unit. There are some occasions when a more urgent message is going out and would like it to reach members quicker than just the next time they check their email. Recommend adding an option to "Send a Text Message" to have the message go out to telephones instead of (or in addition to) emails. Might need to identify in the member database which phones are text-capable, unless there is a way to automatically determine that. The text message could go out to ALL phones, as text message to those that are text capable and as text-to-voice for those phones that cannot receive text messages. The text-to-voice conversion could be similar to what Sprint PCS provides. The text-to-voice conversion part for landlines could be done in phase 2 of this implementation, and just start with simple text message to cell phones in phase 1 implementation.

This "Send a Text Message" would typically only be used for very short messages in an emergency situation or for a very urgent message, such as announcing that church meetings have been cancelled at the last minute due to snow.
genman
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Joined: Wed Feb 08, 2012 4:51 pm
Location: US

#2

Post by genman »

I also submitted this suggestion via the Submit Feedback link on the lower left of the Clerk Resources webpage.
russellhltn
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#3

Post by russellhltn »

Note that some people (like my brother) have blocked text messaging. I'm not sure if that's detectable.
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aebrown
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#4

Post by aebrown »

Note also that some people have plans that have limited messages; for such people, it would be helpful to make this an opt-in (or at least an opt-out) option.
Questions that can benefit the larger community should be asked in a public forum, not a private message.
genman
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Posts: 144
Joined: Wed Feb 08, 2012 4:51 pm
Location: US

#5

Post by genman »

aebrown wrote:Note also that some people have plans that have limited messages; for such people, it would be helpful to make this an opt-in (or at least an opt-out) option.
Or could make it user-selectable whether they want any of these urgent leadership messages to be one of the following four options:
  • Text message (or text-to-voice if phone is not detected as text capable)
  • Text-to-voice only
  • Email only
  • Disable receiving any urgent messages
The default selection could be the first option, but could opt out by selecting one of the other options. For countries that require opt-in, the default would be the last option.
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