Verizon Wireless quietly shuts down SMS delivery confirmations
According to DSL Reports, Verizon Wireless has been quietly ending their SMS delivery confirmations. You know those quick icon changes (letter D or a green checkmark) that occur when your text message has been delivered to your recipient; well, they’re suddenly not working anymore. Discontinuation of the service reportedly started on September 9th on a regional basis and all regions should see the service gone by the end September. According to the word on the forums, the service was stopped in order to reduce network traffic. For every text message sent, Verizon had to send out the text message data to the recipient and then send back the data with the status information to the sender. We suppose don’t believe that 1KB of data being sent back per text message could bog down “The Network”. Rather, we wonder if they are phasing it out so they can offer it as a value add-on to your text messaging plan. You will now be able receive “dynamic” text message delivery status notification for just $1.99/month. Pure speculation here so don’t be spreading rumors that BGR said this or that about some new charges for SMS delivery confirmation. We’re just saying that with the way Verizon Wireless nickle and dimes their customers to death, it would not be outside the realm of speculative possibility.
Disclaimer: I have Verizon Wireless.
Tags: text messaging, Verizon, Wireless
Hopefully they will allow business customers to pay a small fee to get it back so that those who find it useful can still use it.
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It has started out here in the West region in Arizona, New Mexico. It will start going to other states in the region, you can call and complain if you like it. If enough people want it free it will remain free.
Delivery Confirmation still works here in California as of 10PM Pacific Time.
And yes Delivery Confirmation ONLY works for Verizon to Verizon texts.
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Here in Utah it is on. Sad really tbis is going away
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Lol I love the Disclaimer Kelly…you know people were going to eat you up if you hadn’t put it lol. But those delivery acknowledgements were helping, though subtle. Verizon needs to stop taking shit out of their contracts and features for dumb reason. I’ll probably stick with them forever but still, come on man. Great wireless companies shouldn’t be this nit-picky and greedy for lack of a better word
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invasion of privacy…never had VZW. I’ve always had Bellsouth/Cing/ATT but in my humble opinion what I read on my phone is my business.
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@likeabite
you summed it up for me. Both about the delivery acknowledgements and verizon in general.
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I disliked the fact that people would actually tell me “it shows you got the message”
yeah I GOT it, but it’smy day off, and the hell if I am gonna be READING it while at a football game or doing something else that I enjoy in my free time.
delivery confirmation SUCKED and it bugged me to no end. good riddance to it.
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I’m in western NY and its still working for me. it sucks that theyre taking this away. Here we dont get the best of service and its nice to see if ppl around here actualy got your message.
ps- come on verizon give us a towerrr. im like 30 mins from buffalo and the service here blowsss. =[
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does this affect mms delivery confirmation, for example im on att and i send an mms to someone on vzw..will i know if they got the pic i sent? or is this sms only?
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@ Beef Jerky
You and a number of other people who post in these comments are a little to sensitive. Get over it.
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You are sorely mistaken if you think VZW nickels and dimes its customers. Have you ever taken a look at regional cell carriers. Centennial Wireless for instance. They charge you 1.99 a month for basic voicemail. Yea and per mb data charges at 1.99 per mb are %80 cheaper than say sprint or USCC’s .03 cents per kb. Mabye you should learn a thing or two about the cellular industry before you speak kelly. Just a suggestion
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We suppose don’t believe that 1KB of data being sent back per text message could bog down “The Network”.
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Umm… when you multiply those notifications by a few billion, yes, they do.
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OMG! I never even knew I had that, and yes I just looked and it is only verizon to verizon.
SOME PEOPLE MAKE A BIG DEAL OUT OF NOTHING!!!
WHO CARES IF THEY TAKE IT OUT!
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Actually, VZW didn’t just send a confirmation when a text hit the gateway. In one case, the text was delayed like 8 hours (because the phone battery was dead all night.) In another, ~45 minutes because the phone was in a “no service” area (there’s still a few of them around heh.)
I suppose I can deal with not having text confirmation, 1) I’m rarely in an area without texting, and I NEVER* have texting delays to other VZW users. 2) It never worked intercarrier anyway, which was where I actually did end up having texting delays. (Well, if I’m roaming on USCC for example, confirmations work, but texting *to* a USCC user the confirmation doesn’t happen.)
*Except when I do. The dead battery was a surprise. But the no-service area, I knew my relative’s house had no service, that’s why I send a text instead of phoning.
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It amazes me the way everyone rips into VZW fees. They are not alone in charging money for stupid things or raising rates on mildly handy things.
I mean, isn’t the whole basis of the SMS collusion thing that ALL carriers raise and lower rates at the same time?
And look at AT&T…forcing iPhone users to use the pricier iPhone data plan? and didn’t they raise rates this time around? For crappier 3G service?
Look, the wireless industry is out to empty our pockets. Not just VZW, not just AT&T…everyone.
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It’s working fine for me. As of 2:04am on 9/22/08. I’m on a BlackBerry 8330 though so maybe that has something to do with it.
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This will just make me use Blackberry Messenger more rather than SMS Text. Plus, in addition to the little “D”, Blackberry Messenger also has an “A” for Acknowledged, so it says when the user opened the messenger application and displayed the text on the screen.
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I loved this feature, and now it peeves me when I go to my sent texts and can’t find out if someone has received my text message. It was also a good way for me to tell who had verizon or not, therefore I would know who I could call/text whenever I wanted.
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it has its ups and downs, text capacity is no longer limited to 50 on my phone, i am showing 73 in the inbox without that annoying inbox 80%% full, delete messages.
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That’s fine that they’re shutting it down, but they should update the phones so that the Message Info Delivery Status doesn’t say “Delivery incomplete” all the time now.
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i stopped getting the check mark on september 21st, it was a good feature and i dont see how the messaging system needs to get faster. texts come in and go out very quikly already
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Yay! I found my answer! And here I was wondering if something had gone wrong on my Treo last week! Gotta admit, I did like knowing that the SMS was rec’d on the other end, even if just with Verizon users!
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I loved having this acknowledgement feature eapecially with my children living with their mom. I knew that my text message received them.
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Hmmm, if they have a few billion text messages being sent, then they are making quite a pretty penny aren’t they? Therefore, they can afford to upgrade their system to maintain that service that was provided. Service industry, you always add to the service, not take away from it!
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boooooooooooooooooo verizon you suck….
those check marks where the shit.
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