<< <%SKIN-STRTRANS-SYNCTOC%> >> AT&T Gloabl Smart Messaging FAQ

Why can’t people see my updated profile picture/My contact updated their profile picture but I  still see the old picture?

 

AT&T Gloabl Smart Messaging uses vCards, a recognized format for transmitting contact information electronically, in order to distribute and update your profile information to your contacts. Your vCard is updated and distributed when you login to AT&T Gloabl Smart Messaging on your mobile device. A login is defined as closing the app completely, and then re-entering your password to access the app again. vCard updates are also distributed when you make a change to your profile.

 

Other users that have you as a contact need to be online in order to receive your updated vCard information. This can lead to a delay in other users seeing your updated profile picture if they are offline at the time you update it, and you leave your app logged in and running in the background. It may take until your next login or the next message you send to the affected contact for them to see the updated profile picture.

 

 

Can I  add or delete contacts in my AT&T GSM mobile app?

 

The currently implementation locks down the creating, editing and deleting of contacts to the AT&T Gloabl Smart Messaging web app. The hierarchy access built into the web app allows the customer administrator to decide whether individual users can add and delete their own contacts or whether it will be controlled by the admin team.

 

 

How are my contacts sorted? Can I rearrange them?

 

Contacts are stored alphabetically in the Contacts and Favourites tab, and by the time of the last message in the Recents tab. At this stage you cannot rearrange the order in which contacts are

stored.

 

I would like to have font settings in tune with my mobile's font size preferences. Will this be applied to my AT&T GSM App ?

 

AT&T GSM automatically adapts to your mobile's font preferences:

1. Navigate to ios Settings -> Accessibility -> Font.

2. Increase/decrease the font size.

3. Return to the AT&T GSM application and the font should appear same as set in the phone settings.

 

I wasn’t online and received an SMS fall back message, which I responded to with an SMS. I’ve logged into AT&T GSM again and can’t see my  SMS response  in  the conversation. Where  did  it go?

 

 

At this stage SMS messages sent in response to AT&T GSM SMS fallback notifications from your device are not synced back into your AT&T GSM app. Your contact will receive and see your response in their AT&T GSM app, however it will not appear in your own. Syncing these SMS messages back into your AT&T GSM app when you’re back online is a slated feature for upcoming releases.

 

 

I sent a message to my colleague and even though I have SMS Fallback off, they still got a fallback message. Why is that?

 

It’s important to note that if someone is offline then there are different settings for Fallback notifications. There’s two types of SMS messages (SMS with Content and SMS Notification), Push Notifications or Silent.

 

While AT&T GSM uses the sender’s settings as a first line to determine what notification should be sent, AT&T GSM also uses some internal logic to determine if the receiver has elected to receive Fallback messages and if their settings should be used instead of the sender’s settings. This means that the receiver may still receive a fallback message with content, or a different type of notification than what you (the sender) have set up.

 

It’s important to note that push notifications will not be seen when the receiver doesn’t have the app installed – if you expect to send messages to people who may not have the app, then it’s best to select an SMS Fallback option.

 

 

I’m a AT&T GSMS user and I want to use my Group or List Presentation settings in AT&T GSM. Is it available?

 

At this time Group and List Presentation is not a feature offered in the AT&T GSM platform.

 

 

You say that the password is not stored on the device. I could still unlock the app with my password even in flight mode, how could that be if the password is not stored?

 

AT&T GSM does not store your password anywhere – not on your device, and not on the server. Your password is used as a password to encrypt a random string of characters within the app. When you enter the password on your device, the decryption action runs and the app compares the result to the original set of random characters. If the results match, the password is correct and you can access the app.

 

This is why the password cannot be sent to you if you forget it – it’s not stored anywhere except your head. You will have to delete and then re-install the app to set a new password. All of this combines to make the app extremely secure as no password can be found within the app data on the phone.

 

 

Why do I sometimes need to re-enter my password to access the app, even though I remember leaving it  running in the background?

 

The phone OS, in particular iOS, monitors the apps that are running in the background for system resource use. If you’re using your phone a lot or the app is being particularly active in the background then your phone’s OS may shut down some background apps to free up more system resources. This is not a particular phenomenon to AT&T Gloabl Smart Messagingand is an action that is done by your device.

 

 

Security is important to me – why don’t I have to  enter the password every time I access the app? Can I configure AT&T GSM to request this?

 

This setting is configurable by the administrator using the web portal. This setting is on a team basis – every member of the team will inherit the same setting. Please click here to view full instructions on how to configure password Policies.

 

 

I’m using Android and I sometimes see a status of “TextView” underneath my messages. What does that mean?

 

Due to certain changes we needed to make in the background in preparation for AT&T GSM v3.0, older versions of AT&T GSM on Android may sometimes display a status of “TextView” instead of the expected message status in the following situations:

 

1.Messaging an offline user: The status will stay as TextView until the offline user comes online and either receives or reads the message. It will then update to “Delivered” or “Read”.

2.Messaging a corporate A2P address. The status will remain as TextView instead of saying “Sent”. Once you update your AT&T GSM app to v3.0 or later, you will no longer see this status.

 

 

If I download the app, but I’m not registered to a AT&T GSM account as a contact or user,  would I see any  contacts in the app?

 

If you download the app but you are not registered to any AT&T GSM account as a contact or user, you would not see any other contacts. You will only start seeing contacts if someone adds you as a contact or sends you an A2P message. The free version of AT&T GSM allows you to download the app and receive and respond to messages from A2P accounts or licensed users, but you have no control over adding contacts.

 

 

Does AT&T GSM use the handset address book for anything? If a friend of mine is a AT&T GSM user and in my handset address book, will I see them as a contact in the AT&T GSM app?

 

As of v3.2, AT&T GSM requests permission to access your device address book. The address book is used to help “fill in the blanks” of a contact’s name and avatar in case they don’t have one set up on the AT&T GSM platform.

 

What this means is if you have a AT&T GSM contact available to you who doesn’t have their name or an avatar set up in AT&T GSM, then the app will check your device address book to see if you have that contact number saved. If the contact exists in your address book, then the avatar and name you have stored on your device will be imported into the AT&T GSM app for that contact so that you can identify them via name and avatar instead of having to recognize their number. At this stage the AT&T GSM app does not scan your address book to see if your friends also have AT&T GSM – it will only match data for contacts that have been published to you through the AT&T GSM app.

 

 

I occasionally receive a duplicated message. Why?

 

As a priority communications tool, Soprano AT&T GSM has always prioritised the successful delivery of messages. Unlike with other media where messages may occasionally vanish, we will continue trying to deliver a message until we can be guaranteed it has arrived successfully.

 

What this means is that sometimes a message may be delivered more than once, particularly if the receiving device is not holding a stable connection. We are continuing to work on both short-term and longer-term improvements to lessen incidents where messages are delivered twice, but we do so whilst remaining committed to the idea that that a message arriving twice is preferable to a message not arriving at all.

 

What is the new URL preview message when I receive AT&T GSM fallback SMS?

 

The recent upgrade of Apple to iOS 10 has introduced a preview feature where the URLs are embedded and are shown as preview screen. So if you send a YouTube link or a music track to a user on iPhone, unlike previous display, it will show as preview and not just the URL.

 

Due to this reason, you see the AT&T GSM URLs as preview messages too as shown in the screenshot below. Note that there has been no change in the product from our end.

 

 

Why the URLs in fall-back messages are different than before?

 

The URLs have been improved by AT&T, using a URL shortener to ensure that the fallback messages are as short as possible, avoiding multi-part SMS messages. That makes it easier and handy for the user and has no impact in terms of functionality.