Why aren't my SMS messages working?

If SMS confirmations, reminders, or AI replies aren't working, it's almost always one of three things. Walk through them in order — the first one that matches is usually the answer.

Cause #1 — Your number is forwarded, and customers are texting the wrong line

If you set up EMOR with call forwarding, your published number stays at your old carrier and forwards voice calls to a separate EMOR number. Outbound SMS still works— booking confirmations, reminders, and AI replies all send from the EMOR number. What forwarding can't do is pull in inboundtexts: a customer who texts your published number reaches your old phone, not EMOR, because carriers don't forward text messages.

So this is your cause if:

• Customers say they texted you and the AI never replied — but your outgoing confirmations and reminders are sending fine.
• In Settings → Phone your number shows a “Forwarded to EMOR” tag.

How to fix it:

Promote your EMOR numberas the text line — “Text us at …” on your website, signage, and email signature. Customers who text that number reach the AI. You'll find it on the Messages tab and the forwarding setup screen, with copy-ready lines ready to paste.

Down the line, portingyour number to EMOR will put calls and texts on a single number — that's coming soon. Until then, the EMOR text line above is how customers reach the AI by text.

Cause #2 — Business-text registration isn't approved yet

In the US, mobile carriers (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile) require every business sending texts to be registered before their messages will reliably go through. Until your registration is approved, the carriers silently blockmessages from your number — your customers don't see them, and you don't get an obvious error. (The industry term for this registration is A2P 10DLC; you'll see that label on the status badge in your dashboard.)

How to tell:

• Go to Settings → SMS in your dashboard.
• Look at the registration status badge. If it says “not registered” or “pending,” this is likely your issue.

How to fix it:

• If status is “not registered”, click Get verified on the SMS settings page. EMOR support will walk you through the registration steps. Most approvals come back in 1–3 business days, but some industries (loans, debt collection, cannabis, gambling) can take longer or get rejected outright by The Campaign Registry.
• If status is “pending,” your registration is in review with the carriers. No action needed; you'll receive an email when approved.
• If status is “rejected,” there's usually a specific reason listed (most often a business-name mismatch or missing tax ID). Reply to the rejection email or contact support.

Cause #3 — Recipient has opted out

US TCPA law (Telephone Consumer Protection Act) requires anyone sending texts to honor opt-outs. If a customer ever replied STOPto one of your texts, EMOR records that opt-out and won't send themfuture texts. On top of that legal minimum, EMOR also applies the opt-out across every other business on the platform as a safety policy — so the same customer won't be re-texted by a different EMOR tenant either. That cross-tenant scope is our choice, not a TCPA mandate.

How to tell:

• Open the lead's detail page in the dashboard.
• Look for a “SMS opt-out” badge near their phone number.
• If you try to send them a message from the dashboard, you'll see an error like “This contact has opted out of SMS. They must reply START to re-subscribe.”

How to fix it:

The contact must reply STARTto one of your previous EMOR texts to re-enable SMS to their number. Honoring the STOP is a TCPA legal requirement, so we can't override it on your behalf.

Other less-common causes

Plan downgrade

SMS automation (reminders, follow-ups, AI replies) requires the Professional plan. If you recently downgraded to Starter, those features stop. Booking confirmation SMS is still available on Starter but follow-ups are not.

Carrier-specific delivery issues

Occasionally a single mobile carrier has temporary delivery problems independent of EMOR or registration — usually a few hours, sometimes longer for major incidents. If a specific recipient on a specific carrier suddenly stops receiving SMS while everyone else is fine, it's most likely a carrier issue that will resolve on its own. Email inquiries@emorai.comif you're seeing widespread failures and we'll confirm whether there's an active incident.

Recipient's phone unable to receive SMS

Rare, but landlines and a small percentage of mobile numbers can't receive SMS at all. The dashboard shows a delivery failure status when this happens — different from the “sent” status normal messages get.

Still stuck?

If none of the above match, email inquiries@emorai.com with:

• Your business name (so we can find your account).
• The recipient's phone number you tried to text.
• Roughly when you sent the message.

We can usually trace what happened in our logs and reply with the specific cause within a business day.