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Why can't I ack my page via SMS?
Why can't I ack my page via SMS?
incident.io Engineering Team avatar
Written by incident.io Engineering Team
Updated this week

If you're having trouble acknowledging escalations via SMS in the UK, this is likely due to restrictions of your mobile plan. Some mobile operators, such as Smarty, VOXI, and giffgaff, will not allow you to reply to shortcode numbers.

โ“Why does this happen?

Sending messages to shortcode numbers is not included in standard "unlimited messaging" on phone plans. With prepaid plans, your provider needs to ensure you have sufficient credit available before allowing these premium messages.

Unlike traditional monthly contracts where charges can be added to your next bill, prepaid plans require you to have credit available upfront. To protect customers from unexpected charges, many prepaid providers disable shortcode messaging by default.

For that reason, some providers prevent you from sending SMS to shortcode numbers entirely. Others may allow you to configure this.

๐Ÿ“ฒ Which phone plans are affected?

This limitation typically affects:

  • Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) prepaid plans

  • Pay-as-you-go services

  • Some budget-focused mobile plans

Common providers where you might experience this include:

  • Voxi

  • Smarty

  • Giffgaff

  • Other prepaid services

๐Ÿ”ฝ What can you do?

Depending on your provider, you may have several options:

  1. Check your account settings - Some providers allow you to enable shortcode messaging in your account settings.

  2. Contact your provider - Reach out to your mobile provider's customer service to understand if they offer any options for enabling shortcode messaging, if it's not available in your settings panel.

  3. Acknowledge pages via some other method - You can always open the mobile app to acknowledge an escalation, even if you weren't paged through the mobile app!

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