Topic

When and how to enable two-step confirmation for SMS and email Notifications. If whitelisting Everbridge isn't possible, two-step confirmation allows recipients whose devices might be scanning and inadvertently responding to Everbridge Notifications to have an additional confirmation step, ensuring the correct responses are being sent.

Description

Notification recipients may have scanning software installed on their devices to check for malicious links or other content, which can result in an automatic response being sent when the contact previews the link in their browser or inbox. While it's generally advised to whitelist Everbridge as a safe sender to prevent this issue, that's not always possible for every organization. In that case, the next best thing is for an administrator to enable two-step confirmation, which adds a confirmation step before sending the desired response. 

See the following articles for more information on this issue and permit listing:

• EBS: When Contacts Try to Confirm Receipt of an Email or SMS Message in Everbridge Suite, They See 'We appreciate your response, but you already responded to this message'
• EBS: Everbridge Permit Listing Best Practices

Enabling Two-Step Confirmation

Two-step confirmation can be enabled at the Organization level for both email and SMS Notifications. 

Enabling Two-Step Confirmation for SMS

Enabling two-step SMS URL confirmation will prevent carrier and phone scanning tools from responding automatically. This only applies when Short URLs are included in SMS. 

NOTE: The Include Short URL in SMS Confirmation toggle must be enabled.

Administrators can enable two-step confirmation for SMS Notifications from Settings > Notifications > SMS Options by toggling Enable 2-Step SMS Confirmation and clicking Save.

Enabling Two-Step Confirmation for Email

Administrators can enable two-step confirmation for Email Notifications from Settings > Notifications > Email Options by toggling Enable 2-Step Email Confirmation and clicking Save.

Using Two-Step SMS Confirmation

Using Two-Step Confirmation for SMS Receipt Confirmation

When enabled for SMS Notifications, recipients can tap the provided link to open the Confirm Response page in their device's browser, and then tap Click to acknowledge receipt. 

  

A message will appear confirming that the response was successfully recorded.

Using Two-Step Confirmation for Polling SMS

When enabled for SMS Notifications, recipients can tap the provided link to open the poll in their device browser before selecting the correct response. 

After selecting the desired response and tapping Submit, a message will appear confirming that the response was successfully recorded.

Using Two-Step Email Confirmation

Using Two-Step Confirmation for Email Receipt Confirmation

When two-step confirmation is enabled for email Notifications, contacts can confirm receipt by clicking on the link in the email, which will open the Confirm Response page in the device's browser. 

After clicking Click to acknowledge receipt, a message will confirm that the response was successfully recorded. 

Using Two-Step Confirmation for Polling Emails

When two-step confirmation is enabled for email polling Notifications, contacts can respond by clicking the desired response, which will open the Confirm Response page in the device's browser. 

After clicking the polling answer again, a message will confirm that the response was successfully recorded.

Important Considerations

Enabling this setting may lead to questions or issues if contacts fail to confirm their responses correctly, as recipients must click or tap the confirmation button on the webpage that appears after attempting to respond to a Notification. If the confirmation button isn't clicked, the response will not be submitted.