Why an SMS gets read faster than any other message

SMS has one property no other channel has: nothing sits between the sender and the screen.

No filter, no algorithm

Email passes a spam filter and an inbox with tabs. A push notification from an app can be switched off. Social media decide for themselves what somebody sees. An SMS arrives exactly as it was sent.

No installation

Every device can receive SMS, including devices without internet and without apps. For an audience you cannot compel to install anything — residents, parents, patients — that is often decisive.

Which is precisely why you should use it sparingly

That strength is also the weakness. An SMS interrupts. Anyone using it weekly for advertising burns through, in a few months, the trust that makes the channel valuable in the first place.

The rule of thumb

Send by SMS what the recipient needs to know today and will act on. The rest belongs in an email.