Why did my message fail? (message statuses explained)

Every outbound text in emu.chat moves through a series of statuses, from the moment you press send to the carrier's final delivery receipt. This article explains what each status means and what to do when a message does not get delivered, so you can tell whether the problem sits with the carrier or the recipient.

To follow along you need to be able to send messages from an inbox. See Sending messages if you have not sent one yet.

What the statuses mean

In a conversation, a message shows a small indicator of where it is in its lifecycle:

• Pending — queued for sending, or scheduled and not sent yet. Shows a clock icon.
• Sent — the carrier accepted the message. Shows a single check.
• Delivered — the carrier confirmed the recipient's device received it. Shows a double check.
• Failed — the message did not get through. A failed message shows a failure badge, so you can spot it at a glance.
• Expired — a particular kind of failure: the carrier could not deliver within the network's validity window and gave up (often the handset was off or out of coverage). It carries its own badge.

"Failed" is the badge you see for any delivery that does not succeed, whatever the underlying cause (the carrier rejected it, could not deliver it after accepting it, or an error occurred handing it over). Expired is called out separately because the cause and the fix differ.

What to do about a failed message

• Failed — check the recipient number is correct and reachable, review your wording, and try sending again. If it keeps failing, a new conversation to a fresh, valid number may help; see Starting a new conversation.
• Expired — the handset was likely off or out of coverage. Try again later.

A dispatch error (emu.chat could not hand the message to the carrier) is usually transient and is not billed; just send again. If a message keeps failing and none of the above resolves it, contact support with the recipient number and the time you sent it.

If a message will not send at all

Before a message leaves emu.chat it runs through pre-send checks. If one fails, emu.chat shows an error as you send, explaining why, and the message is not delivered. Common reasons:

• The recipient number is invalid or missing.
• The message is empty (it needs text, an attachment, or both).
• An attachment is invalid or too large (the per-file limit is 20 MB).
• The recipient has opted out. See Opt-outs and STOP keywords: staying compliant.
• Your credit balance is too low. See Buying credits and setting up auto top-up.

Note: these pre-send checks mostly matter when sending through the API. When you send from a conversation, emu.chat catches the problem and tells you on the spot, so you can fix it before the message goes anywhere.

Longer messages

A long message may be split into several parts at the carrier. emu.chat combines them into one overall status: it shows as Delivered only when every part is delivered, and as Failed if any part fails.