Topic
How contacts can confirm a notification via SMS by replying with anything.
Description
A contact can confirm a notification sent via SMS (text message) by replying with any response, as long as the notification has Confirmation enabled. Contrary to what the message prompt instructs, contacts are not limited to only replying with "YES" or, if included, clicking on the short URL. As shown in the image to the right, the contact was able to confirm two separate notifications by replying with "I am fine" and "No".
Important: If the notification's Confirmation setting is disabled (set to No), replies are not captured or reflected in reporting. Even if recipients respond (for example, with numeric options or other text via SMS), the Manager Portal will continue to show them as Not Confirmed and no response data or acknowledgements will appear.
Note: The "Reply with Yes to confirm" text that appears in SMS notifications cannot be modified or removed independently. This confirmation phrase is tied to the notification confirmation setting. If you disable message confirmation, it will remove both the confirmation phrase and the confirmation link. There is currently no way to remove just the "Reply with Yes" text while keeping confirmation enabled.
If you respond "NO" to an Everbridge SMS notification with Confirmation enabled, the system will still mark the notification as confirmed. The system does not restrict confirmations to only "YES" responses, so any reply will be processed as an acknowledgment of the notification.
Viewing contact confirmation replies is not possible when looking at a notification detail page, but can be viewed by using a custom report, which is explained in the steps listed below:
Log in to the Manager Portal and select the desired organization from the upper right-hand corner.
Click on the Reports tab from the top of the page.
From the Custom Reports pane, click the Create Report button.
Drag and drop the desired Notification and Delivery Details fields into the DATA pane.
The field to view contact confirmation replies is Recipient Response.
Drag and drop any desired fields into the FILTERS pane.
Click Preview Report.
Additional consideration:
Standard Universe notifications sent via SMS, the mobile app, or email do not support free-form, two-way text conversations. Recipients can confirm using the supported confirmation options (for example, replying with a keyword such as "YES" or using numeric choices), but general free-text replies are not treated as conversational messages.