MobileConnect Delivery Receipts

MobileConnect reports a successfully deployed message as delivered until an undelivered DLR is returned.

A market’s aggregator and carrier generate these DLRs:

• Aggregator DLRs indicate that a message was received by Marketing Cloud Engagement and passed to the carrier.
• Carrier DLRs are terminal and indicate that a message was delivered, undelivered, expired in the carrier network, or is unknown. There are two types of carrier DLRs:
  • Handset DLRs: Confirmation from a handset that a message was delivered
  • Network or SMSC DLRs: Acknowledgment from the carrier that a message was received.

Delivery receipts share these characteristics:

• DLRs indicate that a message was delivered or not delivered.
• DLRs don’t indicate when a message was delivered or that it was read.
• DLR timestamps indicate when a DLR was returned.
• DLRs can take up to 72 hours to be received from carriers.
• DLRs aren’t read receipts.
• DLRs don’t indicate when a message was received but do indicate that it was received.
• DLRs sometimes aren’t returned in chronological order.
• Although rare, some carrier DLRs aren’t returned to Engagement.

Engagement depends on mobile providers to generate a pass-back DLR, which can take up to 72 hours but typically come back within 1 hour. The delay between message deployment and DLR confirmation can be due to these reasons:

• A message is in the carrier retry process and is still attempting delivery.
• The carrier is experiencing high volumes and the DLR channel is latent.
• The carrier is experiencing a major or minor outage, and DLRs are being queued.
• Some handset DLRs aren’t returned to Engagement.

DLRs in International Sends

DLRs are a universal delivery reporting service, but DLR fidelity and reliability vary by country. Some carriers don’t return DLRs at all. Also, the industry is known for SMS application-to-person services where fake DLRs are used via gray or low-quality routes. This practice provides an inflated or 100% delivery rate.

Important Although SMS has a high delivery rate, delivery of an SMS message depends on following best practices when sending to a particular market or region. For country-specific guidance, consult the MobileConnect Guides for SMS Sending.

Where Can I See Delivery Receipts?

Standard reports in MobileConnect simplify delivery with either a delivered or undelivered status. To see the full suite of DLRs, refer to SMS Status Codes.

Note DLRs are slightly different for each global carrier. Engagement consolidates them in standard status codes to allow for universal reporting of SMS delivery.

You can also see DLRs using the SMSMessageTracking Data View and this API call.