Changes to SMS Service

EDIT: Users with US phone numbers can text YES to 844-647 to opt in at any time after September 25, 2019. Anyone who has opted in prior to that date will need to opt in once more.


UPDATE 9/26/2019: We have completed the aforementioned changes to our SMS service. US users may now opt in at any time by texting YES to 844-647 for each phone number set up to receive SMS.

We apologize for the short notice, and we appreciate your patience with these critical changes to ensure continued compliance with legal regulations and adjusting our services for improved support and scale.

What does this change mean for you?

US Customer: You must opt in to continue receiving SMS from SmartThings. You can do this by texting YES at any time to 844-647 for each phone number set up to receive SMS. If you choose not to proactively opt-in, the next time a SmartApp triggers SMS, we will send you an opt in text. You will not receive any further texts from SmartApps until you opt in.

Customers outside of the US: We hear your feedback that SMS is a valued function and will evaluate future options.

We recommend using push notifications to send alerts about activity in your home for the best experience. Other potential alternatives for SMS notifications include:


We are implementing changes to our SMS service.

US customers

After September 25, 2019, US customers must opt in to continue receiving SMS notifications from SmartThings SmartApps.

  1. Opt In - When you receive your next SMS notification from SmartThings, opt in by replying YES. If you do not opt in, you will no longer receive text messages from SmartThings.

    Text YES to 844-647 to opt in at any time.

  2. Rate Limits - You can receive a maximum of 100 messages per phone number, per configuration, per day (12:00:00am-11:59:59pm). Some of your SmartApps may be approaching this level. Review your settings to ensure your SMS messages are not affected by the limits.

Non-US customers

On September 25, 2019, we will be discontinuing our SMS text notification service outside of the US. A small number of customers with non-US phone numbers will no longer receive SMS notifications from SmartThings.

You can still receive alerts about activity in your home using push notifications. Enable push notifications in your Routines, Smart Home Monitor, or other SmartApps in the SmartThings Classic app.

Contact us on support.smartthings.com if you have any questions or need assistance.

hmm, @anon36505037 may not be happy

Any chance we ever see SMS notifications as an option in the new app?

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Ouch. 30 hours’ notice for this loss of service and for us non-US customers to try and implement workarounds? That’s poor.

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@SmartThings What’s the logic / motivation here? GDPR compliance? Cost?

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LOL, I think that’s basically BoJo’s Brexit plan too.

Sorry, couldn’t resist…

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Do we need to opt in just once for the account? or is it opt in for each number we send SMS to?

I sent “YES” and got back “Service access denied.” Why?

Maybe try again? I got this:
image

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What is “per configuration”? Per location? Per smart app?

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UK customer here really upset about this announcement. My Huawei P20 Pro phone is useless for Push notifications due to an aggressive memory management algorithm which Huawei use to close things it thinks I don’t use, so I get all my door notifications via SMS for a definite notification. :pensive:

Can I ask others how they plan to use the US to route messages via?

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Oh man, recently sonos stopped working and now SMS…what will be stripped from the service next? Are they going to say we are discontinuing the app, and we all need to connect through the web interface? A damn joke if you ask me!

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A bit of a naive question, will webcore still allow us to use sms alerts or does that piggy back of smartthings?

They say US but is that CONUS or NA? I.E. is Canada screwed too?

As a UK based user, I agree this is not a good indication of ST future plans. But Id like ST to explain the reasoning behind this please?

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I purchased many of your products, spending a great deal of time and money outfitting my home and business setting up routines based on functionality that you offered, then you arbitrarily decide to remove functionality I based my decisions on, at your whim and you give me 2 days notice and you think this is OK?

What is the reason for this??

Are non-US customers substandard??

I need to buy a bunch of appliances for my kitchen right away. I think I’m going to pass on Samsung and remove your products from my list of potential purchase options.

There are many other manufacturers that I’m sure would be happy to have their products in my Canadian kitchen.

If you won’t support me moving forward…I won’t be supporting you!!!

BAD MOVE!!!

EDIT 9/26/2019:

You can see a $20 (Canadian) Solution further down in this thread that worked for me (Post 104).

Link: Changes to SMS Service

I used webCoRE with ClickSend SMS. Problem Solved!!

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Just a heads up that you agreed to this possibility when you activated the service. I’m not saying I like it, I am saying it’s in the terms of use.

UK:

https://www.smartthings.com/uk/terms

Will SmartThings ever change the Services?
.
We’re always trying to improve the Services, so they may change over time. We may suspend or discontinue any part of the Services, or we may introduce new features or impose limits on certain features or restrict access to parts or all of the Services. In some cases, the changes we make to the Services may cause older hardware devices, third party services, software configurations or setups to no longer work with the Services, and you may be required to upgrade or change these devices, services, configurations or setups in order to continue using the Services. We’ll try to give you notice when we make a material change to the Services that would adversely affect you, but this isn’t always practical. Similarly, we reserve the right to remove any Content (including any SmartApps or device or external service connections provided by SmartThings or by third parties) from the Services at any time, for any reason (including, but not limited to, if someone alleges you contributed that Content in violation of these Terms), in our sole discretion, and without notice.

US:

Will SmartThings ever change the Services?
.
We’re always trying to improve the Services, so they may change over time. We may suspend or discontinue any part of the Services, or we may introduce new features or impose limits on certain features or restrict access to parts or all of the Services. In some cases, the changes we make to the Services may cause older hardware devices, third party services, software configurations or setups to no longer work with the Services, and you may be required to upgrade or change these devices, services, configurations or setups in order to continue using the Services. We’ll try to give you notice when we make a material change to the Services that would adversely affect you, but this isn’t always practical. Similarly, we reserve the right to remove any Content (including any SmartApps or device or external service connections provided by SmartThings or by third parties) from the Services at any time, for any reason (including, but not limited to, if someone alleges you contributed that Content in violation of these Terms), in our sole discretion, and without notice.

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Apologies for the confusion. We updated the original post with additional details.

EDIT: Users with US phone numbers can text YES to 844-647 to opt in at any time after September 25, 2019. Anyone who has opted in prior to that date will need to opt in once more.

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I think, you need to add an option for using webhooks/SMS APIs. Or just make a prepaid option for fucking non-US SMS. Push notifications works… or not. Usually not. Usually lates a lot of mins. or hours. or never goes up… I think, i could pay for 10-20 SMS per month… but this way, there is no option… It’s a shit…

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This is pretty poor from ST. Seems things are slowly falling apart and my work around list is growing to the point where it may be time to start over elsewhere…

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I’ve bought a Samsung Smart TV back in 2015, it was advertised with Skype for TV. And some fancy features of being able to watch stuff on your phone, what is on the TV. Skype has been removed from service in 6 months. I was never able to use the feature of the watching stuff on the phone or tablet, because it was already removed when I bought the TV.

People just fed up with the attitude of Samsung, that they cannot stick to that what they advertised and printed on the box of the product.

The 2 days notice is definitely a dick move. Especially without any replacement by a third party SMS service.

I wouldn’t be surprised that next the Weather API would be removed completely, because some has abused it, or maybe the TTS through AWS Polly.

@Smartthings should show their customers what are the future plans. Will they start a premium service with monthly fees? So first need to produce some thirst for the premium services? Then someone should provide premium support first and decent communication. Recently that wasn’t working so well.

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