How can I get a delivery confirmation for sent sms?

Yeah, I didn't switch my provider since that time, didn't want to lose my number 😁 However, I'm from Germany and I know that all providers here are supporting that since I can remember, don't know how it is in other countries with other providers. But since there is no company building phones in Germany (my older phones were from Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sharp etc.) I always was "forced" to buy my phones from companies all around the globe and they all had that function, so I can't imagine that we're the only ones in Germany having that feature, else that surely wouldn't have been implemented in my old phones. Of course that function can only be provided on the iPhone when the provider supports it, but especially the iPhone which can download provider settings directly from the provider could be fed very easily with information if the provider supports that. The easiest method would be to add an option in the settings to get those confirmations, so you can activate that for yourself if you want to use it and if your provider supports it.

Well, that's just my opinion, that's why I've written "I doubt". Compared to all the other stuff they do, let's say Siri for example I really doubt that it is that hard to implement delivery confirmations for SMS. Of course I've never seen the sources for the messages app and therefore I don't know it for sure.

When you didn't feel a need for it, then probably you just didn't enable them in the past? 😉

I always like to know if the receipient has their phone enabled and if the delivery process of my SMS was successful. But in general, trusting in my provider is good, controlling is better. I wanted to get an echo too if I'm the only one missing that feature because I can't imagine that everyone but Apple has that function when there wouldn't be a need for it.

Hrm well, you're right, it is a network feature. The lack of the automatic request should be fixed though in my opinion. I can't force any provider to add it but when it is available, then why should the device not make any use of it, at least if the user wants it explicitly?

I fear you're right too with your assumption that they'll probably never add that though. Someone already mentioned to me that the SMS has way not that importance in other countries than it has in Germany, especially for the younger generation. Our providers make most of their money not because people are using their phones for calling each other but for sending SMS to each other. Comparing iMessage with the traditional SMS is wrong in my opinion though. It is not that I wouldn't like iMessage, the idea behind it is great. The problem is, most of the people I'm texting with either have no smart phone at all or are using some Android model, so iMessage doesn't work with them and I have to use the traditional SMS system instead.

If the code for getting that confirmation is different from provider to provider, how can it be that other phone manufacturers provide that feature then? The only two possibilities are that those phones have a list of all providers of all countries in it, which I doubt because providers can change and can change their network features too but old phones weren't able to do any updates on the firmware like modern ones can do today or the other possibility would be that there is some international code or stuff too which is the same for all providers worldwide.

Well, that would be a possibility too 😝 The iPhone could just read it out from there then, or use the providers settings.