How can I get delivery report on SMS foe iPhone 4S ios7.1......please help

Hi,

As a long time nokia user now using iphone, this is a feature I do miss.

As this is a technical forum I'm not gonna discuss what's better or not, cause everybody has to buy the device he needs and/or wants, despite the features/price.

But I was suprised to not find this feature on my iphone.

Sms/text has several features/properties handled via metadata, like the option for a return receipt or how long a message can be buffered by the provider. So first the provider has to support these features, but also your phone must be able to construct the sms data with these options. On my nokia I always activated return receipts and said the lifetime of a sms was max 4hours. If it was not delivered to the destinations within 4 hours (like the person was on flight), i got a sms back from my provider.

When sending a sms on the iphone, the progress bar on the top is complete, it means the sms is delivered to the provider. It doesn't mean that it's delivered to the destination (as far as I could tell from my personal experience. I don't hold the iOS code to verify it. But I did send a sms to another iphone that was off and the progress bar cleared the sms as OK. So it was not delivered to the phone, but delivered to the provider)

This app seems to support delivery notifications for sms for certain countries / providers (which proves it's a feature that also requires code on the device, next to the fact that also your provider has to support it). Seems widely used outside US and perhaps therefor not a big priority to apple to forseeit standard in IOS.

The app is last updated in 2014, so no idea if it works for iOS 8. Maybe other apps out there that does the same. If anyone tried it, let me know.

Cheers

Christof

christofh wrote:

As a long time nokia user now using iphone, this is a feature I do miss.

Submit your feedback to Apple: http://www.apple.com/feedback

Already gave my feedback to apple.

So the more usersthat request this feature, the more likely they might implement it.

Cheers

you guys are really not massively helpful. I'm an iPhone user and don't want to buy another device, I'm happy with it, but I happen to also communicate with people that have other devices. A friend and I have issues with lost messages, before I go and complain to Apple, Blackberry or one of the providers, I want to know if I'm missing a setting or if it is a known issue. This forum seems quite appropriate and the answer of christofh shows that useful responses are possible here. Your and TJBUSMC1973's answers are just clutter. Good for you that you have fun, but can't you go somewhere else to play? It is not helpful to suggest to buy another device, or to say the OP shouldn't have asked. I found the question and some answers helpful, if you don't know the answer, don't post.

It's true that the network needs to support it, but it is nonsense to say that the network needs to support it differently for each device, SMS delivery is unreliable, but there are standards on how to do delivery reports http://www.ozekisms.com/index.php?owpn=538

Giving iMessage as example that the iPhone supports SMS delivery reports is like saying the iPhone supports terrestrial TV because it also shows YouTube videos - Apple puts both in the same app, but its completely different technologies and channels, iMessages are transferred via internet, SMS are on GSM.

From what I've found now the iPhone simply doesn't support GSM delivery reports properly (at least as of iOS7), which even as fanboy I have to admit is sort of ridiculous. There is a hack that adds the support when you jailbreak it https://code.google.com/p/iphone-delivery-report/wiki/PageName

This is a nuisance, but will I buy another phone now? No, it's not that much of a tragedy, I'll just try another messenger whenever possible and hope Apple sorts out their messages app at some point, there are plenty of problems http://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/iosapps/fix-ios-7-imessage-problems-bug-3470405 /

gismoat wrote:

you guys are really not massively helpful.

It's not clear what you expect us, your fellow users to do other than to explain that the feature you want does not currently exist and you should let Apple know that you would like such a feature by submitting feedback through the appropriate channel. It gets a bit wearisome to have people get their knickers in a twist over answers they don't like. I don't care what you do or don't ask, as long as it doesn't violate the ToU. I would appreciate the same courtesy: don't presume to tell me what I should or should not post as long as I am also not contravening the ToU.

It's not clear what you expect us, your fellow users to do other than to explain that the feature you want does not currently exist

I would have appreciated you telling me that it is a feature that is currently not supported, instead someone wrote it's the fault of the network provider, and you wrote its basically working anyway: "Yes, that is correct. That is what you should be seeing if your iPhone is operating as designed." and he should not write in this forum: "Why are you telling us? Tell Apple.". Sorry, I didn't want to tell you that you can't post, I just try to give some feedback.

I also don't like those "the iPhone is useless" posts. But that wasn't the original question and what is the use of this forum if not to ask other users what their experience is? And some useful answers did come, you don't have to answer if you don't want to or don't know about it.

I'm really not sure what it means when the iPhone does not complain about "not delivered", but I think it just means the delivery to the provider went alright, not to the destination device. Other devices can do that, a cydia hack for messages does that, my provider supports that, so if you know that apple doesn't then let me know and I can request the feature from apple. If you know the iPhone does automatically support delivery reports if the provider does, then please tell me because then I know that I'm fine on my end and can help searching for fixes for the device of my friend.

My impression now is that the messaging app does not support delivery reports and it is in Apple's hands to change that. Do you agree on that?

btw. just did try to prefix the message with *0# - that didn't work either

gismoat wrote:

My impression now is that the messaging app does not support delivery reports and it is in Apple's hands to change that. Do you agree on that?

I neither know nor care.

Dear guys,

us living in Europe are used to the very convenient features of having SMS delivery reports and setting the lifetime of the message on the network. It seems like these features are not commernly supported in the US. I suppose that people living there are not accustomed to the convenience of these features and therefore do not care.

I find it is mandatory for serious use of SMS at work to know that your client, customer, pupil, colleage (and your children for that matter) has recieved your message.

Having been committed to the Mac for 25 years and recent years the iPad too I have just bought an iPhone. And I was dissapointed and surprised to find the iPhone does not support these basic cellular network features. Every other cellular phone I have had supported this.

Apple makes great products. But of couse they can make them even better. So I too have posted a request to Apple.

Best regards

Anders Nilsen

anilsen wrote:

I find it is mandatory for serious use of SMS at work to know that your client, customer, pupil, colleage (and your children for that matter) has recieved your message.

If you find it "mandatory", you will need to get a different phone. Many of use who have used (or do also use) Android phones are quite familiar with delivered and read receipts. We are also familiar with them from iMessage. I find read receipts somewhat invasive. I keep them turned off on iMessage. If it were an option to turn them off so that people couldn't see them on SMS, I would do that, too. People will know I have read their messages when I answer them. That's all they need to know.

I don't know why people are so angry?!

Yes its true, 'sms delivery notification' is network dependent. However, most networks WORLDWIDE switch this service 'on' and make it available to customers by default (meaning this service is openly available - by default - so that as long as your device has got the option, you WILL get an sms delivery notification). Sms delivery notification is therefore device dependent and NOT service provider dependent as has been claimed

Also, it is true that the iPhones do NOT have this facility. As we all know, Cellphone companies make decisions and change them due to customer demand. For example, Apple resisted making 5-inch phones until very recently (iPhone 6 & iPhone 6 Plus). In the same way, due to popular demand Apple are going to include the 'sms delivery notification' and make it available on future iPhones (or maybe even as an update to Software, hopefully)!!!

However, does the absence of this future on current devices make them USELESS? No, not by any stretch of the imagination. It would be foolish for anybody to pay the price of an iPhone if it were "TOTALLY USELESS" as some would claim. I hope this answer is polite enough. I don't understand why people should insult each other in these forums simply because of the availability (or lack thereof) of any particular service. It is TOTALLY COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY

Thank you

My understanding is SMS read receipts are available on iPhones if the service provider offers it but since I am in the US where no carrier offers it I have no way to check this.

deggie, so sorry to hear carriers in the USA do NOT offer this service. Some of us who live elsewhere (South Africa) and do travel a bit to other places (Europe, Asia & the Middle East) find the 'sms delivery notification' service very useful. If a contact chooses not to respond to a text you send them, you would at least know whether they received it or not. Not having the service however leads to frustrations as you would NOT know whether the recipient received your text or is ignoring it.

Maybe guys in the USA need to start a campaign requesting this service from carriers. I don't thing you would need to persuade them too much. I assume that Managers of USA carriers would realise how useful this service is, if it is requested from them. I'm sorry I can't help you any further....

the-Beloved wrote:

Maybe guys in the USA need to start a campaign requesting this service from carriers. I don't thing you would need to persuade them too much. I assume that Managers of USA carriers would realise how useful this service is, if it is requested from them. I'm sorry I can't help you any further....

SMS is the most reliable form of cellular communication. It will go through even when a signal is not good enough for a voice call. Carriers in the U.S. already tell you if the message failed to send. If has been sent, the likelihood of it failing is extremely low. Therefore, it is a safe assumption that, if someone doesn't respond to your text, it is because they chose not to or because there phone was off. Either way, knowing changes nothing. So, no, I won't be agitating for a service that seems of little use.

Best of luck.

Thank you. Your response should be USEFUL to those 'guys' in the USA who seemed quite frustrated by not having a FORMAL delivery notification sent to them, by their carrier. The discussion got to a point where insults were being traded but, thanks to you for informing US citizens that the chances of their sms's not being delivered are minimal. I hope those who were worried will now relax. Locally, I thank my carriers for allowing us the privilege to receive delivery notifications...

I don't really have a problem with this. Like Meg I keep when I read an iMessage turned off and if US carriers and Apple were to offer this I would want them to include a feature, like in iMessage, where I can turn it off and no one can see when I read it. If I am truly concerned as to whether the person has received the important information my iPhone has a feature where I can dial them and verbally ask.