Inreach msgs not being received on Verizon phones - support no help

The support "answer" is true as far as it goes - which is not far enough. As an individual, you cannot make anything happen with the carrier. Garmin needs to do it. Open a new ticket and insist that it get escalated if the first-line support person gives you a run-around.

That assumes that there really IS a problem. If you have not done so, make sure that the SMS messages appear in your device inbox at explore.garmin.com. Verify that you have the phone number correct, INCLUDING the +1 (or whatever) country code. If all of that checks out, then go back to support.

Typically, the problem is that the carrier blocks iR SMS messages because it considers them spam. This is because the message includes a shortened link (to the web page where the recipient can see your location). IF that is the problem, you can turn this feature OFF. Go to the Account tab at explore.garmin.com. In the lower right corner, you will see "SMS Message Configuration". Make sure that the box for "Include a link..." IS NOT CHECKED. This works around carriers who suppress messages containing short links (because the link is no longer there).

In the past, Garmin has worked with the offending carrier to get them to stop suppressing the messages. This is why escalating the ticket might help.

Hi - thanks for the reply. I have seen your comments show up in my previous searches for a solution to this problem. Yes, I agree, the answer is "correct" but not very helpful. I was hoping that since this is pretty common, that Garmin support would work with me to know what to ask the carrier to do to resolve, but so far not.

I have checked that all the messages appear in my device inbox at explore website (and on my Messenger app on my phone) and that the phone numbers are correctly formatted, I have also unchecked the "include a link" check box in SMS Message configuration re-engaged with the Garmin chat today and they basically reiterated that I needed to contact my carrier to resolve (what I was asking of Garmin was what exactly do I tell the carrier if I get someone to respond? Since this seems to be common-place, I was hoping they could tell me what to tell Verizon to get it fixed.

If someone actually has succeeded in speaking with Verizon and getting this fixed, I would love to know what exactly they asked to have done!

This seems like a serious impediment to the usefulness of their device - assuming I can figure this out -  basically I would have to contact and have each person who I might need to contact pre-configure their phones before I would be able to msg them! I doubt many people are going to do that.

I will try a call to Verizon tomorrow but if that does not work - escalation seems like the next step.

I just tested this, both with and without the short link to the map. My Verizon phone received all messages in the standard (iOS) SMS app.

Since you posted this in the Messenger forum, you should check to be sure that the target SMS number has not been "hijacked" by the MESSenger app. To make a long story short, any SMS number which has been registered for use with the MESSenger app has been hijacked. Any text messages sent to that number from the Garmin ecosystem (for example, from an iR device) will be delivered via the MESSenger app, NOT vis the standard SMS client. 

If you are not sure about the hijacked status of the target number, have the recipient check the MESSenger app for the messages.

Since messages ARE being delivered to (my) Verizon phone, I do not believe that there is a general problem with Verizon and SMS.

Hi and thanks again for the helpful suggestions. Much better than either Garmin or Verizon paid support!

The target SMS number is my wife and she has never installed the Garmin Messenger app on her phone. I was trying to use my own phone for testing as well (which hosts the Messenger app), but I realize that is probably a bad idea and the Garmin agent did say that this would not work.

I spent about an hour on the phone with Verizon tech support this morning and they were unable to find any evidence of blocked texts - even when I gave them the exact date/time that I had sent the Garmin msgs. They had a couple of suggestions (network reset and checking settings in Messaging app to make sure it is not auto-rejecting unknown numbers).

I will check these things but I am skeptical that they are the root cause - partly because I have multiple Verizon numbers that aren't working and because she (Verizon agent) claimed there were no sign of blocked/rejected messages at the Verizon level (I tried to confirm did she mean on the phone itself vs. the carrier and I think we understood each other, but I can't be sure). I agree with you also though that it probably isn't a general problem with Verizon and SMS, but it isn't a one-off either.

Anyway, short of trying some things on my wife's phone - I guess I am back to Garmin tech support and try elevate. It seems like the only way to sort this is if Garmin tech talks directly to Verizon tech - someone there who understand what happens with Iridium messages at the carrier.

This really does bother me - what good is an emergency device if it can't be relied on to send a message! 

It is POSSIBLE that this is a problem with a third-party SMS gateway. When you send a message from an iR device to a cell phone, the message flow is something like:

iR device > Iridium mesh satellite network > Iridium ground station > Internet > Garmin Servers > Internet > 3rd party SMS gateway > Cell provider > Cell network > phone

Garmin uses a number of different gateways all over the world. I do not know details, but I assume that Garmin chooses the gateway which is nearest the "home area code" of the target number. To me (and I'm just guessing), this would imply that a problem with a specific gateway would affect numbers belonging to a particular carrier in a particular geographic region. If all of your target numbers are localized, this might be the problem.

Unfortunately, that gets you back to dealing with Garmin support.

Garmin-Leslie, what else are we missing?

OK, it seems like I have things sorted out after personally going over my wife's phone. It looks like the number associated with the incoming Garmin SMS texts was being blocked by the messaging app on her phone - not by the carrier, but at her phone level. When I physically got hold of her phone today and went thru her spam/blocked messages, I found my most recent test.

Now I don't know if including the short-link was what caused it to be initially flagged but I have turned that off now. I also checked on a second contact (also with Verizon) and it worked for them now as well.

I guess there is no way to know what arbitrary number will be used by the carrier to deliver the SMS message. It does look arbitrary and so a lot like spam. I'm not sure what to tell other contacts to try and minimize the chances that it gets flagged/blocked by their either.

Anyway - I guess Garmin is off the hook on this one!

thanks for the good suggestions,

No, there is no way to know the sending number in advance. The SMS goes from the Garmin servers to a third-party SMS gateway. The gateway uses one of a pool of numbers which it “owns” to forward the message to the recipients cellular provider. It DOES report the number it used back to the Garmin servers - which indirectly enables the recipient to reply to the message.

It is not usually the use of a “random” number which triggers the “spam detected” flag by the recipient’s cell provider. It is usually the use of the short link.If the provider blocks messages containing short links - that’s when Garmin typically gets involved. Configuring your account to omit the link is a work-around.

So now that I have manually intervened the unblocked the number, I should be able to go back to including the short link in subsequent messages, correct? Or is it possible (or even likely) that the number being used by the SMS gateway may change in future and I will end up being blocked again? Or be blocked on another phone that I can't manually check on?

Is there actually something Garmin can do to reduce the likelihood of this happening (vs. the work-around of not including the link) - I would like to include the link if possible

If the recipient has manually blocked the number on the individual phone, or if the recipient employs a blocking app which somehow makes its own decisions, there is nothing whatever that anybody other than the recipient can do.

on the occasions when a particular provider (for example, Verizon or AT&T) blocks messages containing short links, Garmin makes arrangements with the provider to exempt GARMIN messages from the block. I have no idea of the mechanics, but - this has happened several times in the past. And in each case, Garmin has arranged to get the messages and the short links delivered. This is why I suggest a Garmin support ticket. But ONLY when the problem really IS that a particular provider is blocking all of the Garmin messages. Which was not the case this time. And which was why Garmin said they could not fix it.