Delivery reports are a convenience feature that lets the sender know if the message they sent has been received (not read) by the recipient’s device (for this, it has to be online and have sufficient storage space, though modern phones usually have so much storage the latter is no problem at all).
Every single phone I ever had, from early Nokias in the 00s to Androids and iPhones, had it disabled by default. While feature phones often delivered these reports with a pop-up and sometimes notification sound, which some people could deem annoying, this trend continues even with smartphones, which typically display it merely as an indicator in the chats list of your messaging application.
So, is there an actual reason why it’s turned off by default everywhere? The feature has to be enabled on the sender’s device to receive these and the recipient has no way of opting out of this, so it’s not a privacy thing by any means.
UPD: Apparently, carriers in some countries charge customers for receiving delivery reports as if they were sent messages. I’ve never realized this - reports always were absolutely free where I live. Thank you for your responses!
Text messages cost $0.10 each where I live. And it used to cost up to $0.35 each 20 years ago.
The delivery report would count as a message, thus, doubling your bill.
It was used exclusively to deliver news like death or wedding invitations. For other matters which usually need going back and forth, it was cheaper to just make a call.
Nowadays, we just use WhatsApp.
the markup on text messaging has always been northern of 99.999%. it costs them almost nothing.
Originally they were planned to be free. Until the providers realized how popular they are.
Even crazier is they take up almost no bandwidth because they were sent in the unused part of the control packet which was being sent anyway.
This is true. When I checked on this about five years ago (in the UK), the cost per message was about £0.00001
With the reduction in the number of SMS sent, it now costs more to bill them. In the UK, even the cheapest monthly contract has unlimited calls and texts. There a pre-pay tariffs as low as £3 a month with calls, texts and some data.
Sure, the marginal cost is basically nothing. Once you have invested billions in infrastructure.
Not saying 10 cents isn’t outrageous, just that 0.001 cents seems low
Damn wtf. People still pay per text? Wack
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Damn that math checks out!! 16.50 for 20gb of data is wayy more worth it than unlimited text
Even though many phone plans today have unlimited texts, some still don’t. A delivery report is basically a second SMS, that you then have to pay for, so I think that is why it is an opt-in feature.
Yeah, but it’s an incoming SMS? Are there still any tariffs with paid incoming messages (possibly except when roaming)?
clarification: it is sent by the network, not by the recipient’s handset, so they pay nothing for it
Back in the day, I paid for every single received text, network provided or not. If some asshat decided to mass text me, it could easily run my phone bill up real fast.
As well as the charges issue there are three other points.
They are delivery reports not read reports.
Because of the way they are implemented they are low priority on the network and will be dropped at busy times. (This means the lack of a delivery report doesn’t necessarily mean it wasn’t delivered)
They don’t work reliably across different message centres. If you and the recipient are on different message centres, You’ll get a delivery report when it reaches the next message centre. (This means that a delivery report doesn’t necessarily mean the message was delivered)
No one seems to be discussing that when a spammer learns that your number is in active use, they add it to a list and sell it to other spammers, so you get a lot more spam (particularly robo-dialing).
This is a worse problem in countries with weak anti-spam enforcement for phones (cough - USA - cough).
I’m not aware whether spammers and scammers are using these message receipts to scan across random numbers ro build their robo-dial lists, but I would be surprised if they are not doing so.
If they are not already doing it, I guarantee they’re working on getting it to work for them in an affordable and convenient-to-them way.
For that reason, I keep message receipts off on my devices.
Edit: If it’s really only for your incoming messages, none of the above applies. I’m not going to go look that up for a rude Internet stranger. That said, I would be wary, I’ve only seen this as an “opt-in” setting where if you’re getting receipts, you’re also sending them.
Message receipts are issued by the network, turning them off only applies to messages sent by you.
Sorry if it sounds rude, but you didn’t even read the post carefully, did you?
It does sound rude. Yes.
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They don’t know about class0 sms
privacy, maybe? I know I don’t want certain people notified that I have received their text
Nope, read the last sentence.
Which is wrong. You can disable it on either end. If I disable it, I won’t send out “I’ve seen this” messages. It is about privacy. I have mine turned off so annoying bosses can’t be like “but you saw my message!” even if I was busy and couldn’t do anything about it.
Isn’t that for MMS only?
You might be correct there. I seem to remember it being part of the MMS settings, BUT I know I can also force sms vs MMS for a conversation. I can also require both of us are encrypting(I think, been a bit since I checked).
Pixel 6 Pro, fyi. So “stock” android.
I don’t think this setting does what you think it does.
I get a check mark next to a sent text, and a double check for a delivered text, but I never turned on Get SMS delivery reports. So, this option must not control that feature. From what I can tell, with a quick Google search, it’s a more detailed report that includes which towers and switches the message went through and is more intended for marketers to make sure that their spam is reaching their audience.
You get the second check mark because Google Messenger sends RCS by default instead of SMS if the receiver is compatible.
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Could it be that it’s just not reliable on all networks in all countries?
Honestly seems like a good question for chatGPT (is this frowned upon? —edit: yes ):
Phones typically come with SMS delivery reports turned off by default for several reasons:
- User Experience: Enabling delivery reports for every SMS can clutter the messaging interface and make it more complicated for users, especially those who are not familiar with the feature. Keeping it turned off by default ensures a cleaner and simpler user experience.
- Privacy: Some users may be concerned about their privacy, and enabling delivery reports can reveal when they read a message. By defaulting to off, phone manufacturers respect users’ privacy choices. Network Overhead: Sending delivery reports consumes a small amount of network resources. When enabled for all messages, this can add up and potentially lead to increased network traffic. By defaulting to off, network operators can manage their resources more efficiently.
- Compatibility: SMS delivery reports may not be supported by all carriers or may work differently on different networks. Keeping them off by default ensures that users have a consistent experience regardless of the carrier they use.
- Simplicity: Many users don’t need or want delivery reports for every message they send. By keeping the feature turned off by default, phone manufacturers reduce the complexity of messaging settings. Users who want to enable SMS delivery reports can usually do so through their phone’s messaging settings. This allows for a more customized experience based on individual preferences.
ChatGPT answers always have this vibe of someone who’s never heard of the subject, quickly googles it and then explains it to you in detail with a smug look on their face.
I get the same vibe from accounts that post ChatGPT or any LLM generated replies.
Now you just need to post this as a separate question to check if it’s accurate.
