Limiting Incoming Messages

Inbound messages to your iR device are limited to (a) replies to messages you send, (b) inReach to inReach messages from other iR users who know your inReach address ([email protected]), (c) messages sent from your MapShare page (you can disallow this). Limiting inbound messages to replies is protection against spam. However, there is no way to limit the number of replies. The assumption is that if you sent the original message, you want to be able to hear back from the recipient.

With regard to SMS, the ability to reply to a given message has a limited lifetime. It's on the order of several weeks. I do not know if there is a similar time-based limit on the ability to reply to an email via the web page linked from the original email message.

I do not know the answer to question about VOIP numbers as SMS recipients from iR devices. Garmin uses third-party SMS gateways to deliver messages from iR devices to cell numbers. If you can send SMS to your VOIP number from your cell phone, it might work. Worth a try at least. Do note, however, that even if it works in a given circumstance, it might not work all the time. Garmin uses a variety of gateways with varying capabilities.

twolpert said:

The assumption is that if you sent the original message, you want to be able to hear back from the recipient.

 Thanks for confirming, and that's rationale I was thinking why it works that way.  I was also thinking it would be a pretty complicated option to setup.

I was thinking if sent the message to a Google Voice number that was forwarded to my Gmail then I could setup a rule to forward that message to the intended party.  Once the message enters the email format it might insulate me from replies.

I would test this out, but I haven't purchased an InReach device yet.

I really appreciate the reply.  Thanks for taking the time.

That would definitely insulate you from replies. This is the way replies work:

For an SMS message received on a cell phone, the recipient uses the native "reply" functionality in the SMS app. That is, recipient replies to it just like any other text message. The SMS gateway and the Garmin servers cooperate to deliver the reply to your iR device.

The recipient cannot reply directly to an email. The email they receive contains a link to a web page. The recipient can reply from the web page.

An SMS which has been "forwarded" to an email does not contain the link to the web page, so no reply is possible.

That said, I still do not know whether or not the gateway would deliver the SMS to a VOIP number. 

twolpert said:

That said, I still do not know whether or not the gateway would deliver the SMS to a VOIP number. 

 Yep!  That would be something I would something I would need to test out, and I could prolly do some of that testing before purchasing.  

That being said, I feel my current level of activity could still justify using InReach even if this route didn't work.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.