Skip to main content

Message Delivery Status

"Sent" means Pulse successfully handed your message to the delivery network — it does not guarantee the message reached the customer's phone or inbox. This article explains each status, the most common reasons a sent message never arrives, and what to gather before contacting support.

Pulse shows the message as sent — why didn't the customer get it?​

Because sending a message is a relay, and Pulse is only the first leg. Every message passes through several hands:

  1. Pulse builds the message and hands it to the messaging provider (the service that actually transmits texts and emails).
  2. The provider accepts it and passes it on — to the phone carrier for a text, or to the recipient's mail server for an email.
  3. The carrier or mail server decides whether to deliver it to the phone or inbox — and this is where most silent failures happen.

Pulse records the outcome of each leg as it learns about it. A message can be accepted at step 1 and 2 and still be stopped at step 3 by:

  • A wrong or outdated number or email. The most common cause. Check the customer's record first.
  • A landline number. Texts to landlines are never delivered.
  • An opt-out. If the customer previously texted STOP, the provider blocks all texts to that number — even though Pulse accepted the send. See Opt-Outs and Resubscribing.
  • A full inbox, spam filtering, or a mail server that silently discards. Emails can land in spam or promotions folders, which looks identical to "never arrived" from the customer's side.
  • A previous bounce or spam report. Once an address hard-bounces or the recipient marks your mail as spam, the provider stops attempting delivery to that address and reports the message as Dropped.
  • Carrier filtering. Carriers sometimes block texts that look like spam, especially messages with links sent to many people.

Where do I see a message's delivery status?​

Open the conversation in Pulse Connect. Every outbound message bubble shows a small status icon next to the timestamp:

  • Clock — the message is on its way (sending, queued, or accepted; no final word yet)
  • Double checkmark — good news: delivered, opened, or clicked
  • Alert symbol — a problem: failed, bounced, blocked, dropped, or reported as spam

Statuses update as delivery reports come back from the provider, so a message can show a clock for a few minutes and then change.

How do I know a reminder or notification failed to send?​

When Pulse gives up sending an automatic appointment reminder, an on-the-way, job started or job completed notification, a schedule-change notice, or a scorecard, it opens a note on the customer's record named after the message, for example One Day Before notification failed to send to …, with the address or number it tried. Any text sent from a template that the carrier rejects, or whose number is not a valid phone number, opens the same note, unless the customer has opted out of texts. Contact the customer another way, then close the note.

When you or a technician tap On the way and the message fails, Pulse also shows an error on screen.

Two other cases open no note: a message the provider accepted but later bounced, which shows an alert icon in Pulse Connect instead, and a message that could not be sent because your email or Twilio account is missing or not working, which Pulse retries for two days.

What do the message statuses mean?​

Text message (SMS) statuses​

StatusMeaning
Sending...Queued with the provider, transmission in progress
SentThe provider handed the message to the phone carrier
DeliveredThe carrier confirmed the message reached the phone
FailedThe message could not be delivered — bad number, landline, opt-out block, or carrier rejection

Only Delivered means the text reached the device. Sent with no follow-up usually means the carrier accepted it but never confirmed — often fine, sometimes filtered.

Email statuses​

StatusMeaning
AcceptedThe provider accepted the email for delivery
SentHanded off for delivery
DeliveredThe recipient's mail server accepted the email (it may still land in spam)
OpenedThe recipient opened the email
ClickedThe recipient clicked a link in the email
DeferredThe recipient's mail server asked to retry later; delivery is delayed, not failed
BouncedThe mail server rejected it — usually a bad or dead address
BlockedThe mail server refused it — often a reputation or policy block
DroppedThe provider did not attempt delivery — typically because the address previously bounced, unsubscribed, or reported spam
Spam ReportThe recipient marked the message as spam

Delivered for email means the mail server took it — not that the customer saw it. Opened is the strongest confirmation Pulse can show.

What should I check before contacting support?​

Work through this list — it resolves most cases without a ticket, and gives support what they need when it doesn't:

  1. Check the status icon on the message in the conversation. A clock, checkmark, or alert tells you which leg of the relay to suspect.
  2. Verify the contact info. Open the customer's record and confirm the phone number is a cell phone (not a landline) and the email has no typos. A message "delivered" to the wrong address looks exactly like a delivery failure.
  3. Check for an Unsubscribed badge on the contact. Opted-out contacts are blocked from receiving messages. Hover the badge to see when and why the opt-out was recorded.
  4. Ask the customer to check spam/junk and promotions folders for emails.
  5. For a bulk send, open Campaign History and confirm the campaign shows Complete — a campaign stuck in Queued or In Progress means the batch never fully went out. See Sending Bulk Messages.

What to include in a support ticket​

  • The customer's name and the exact phone number or email address the message went to
  • The date and time the message was sent (from the message bubble timestamp)
  • The status icon or status shown on the message
  • Whether it was a one-on-one message or a bulk campaign — for campaigns, include the subject and send time from Campaign History
  • What the customer reports on their end (nothing received, found in spam, etc.)

The customer received the same message more than once​

Duplicate copies of a campaign message are not expected behavior — report them rather than assuming the customer is mistaken. In your ticket, include the campaign subject and send time, the recipient's name and number/email, how many copies arrived, and the timestamp on each copy from the customer's phone or inbox. Exact timestamps let support trace which send produced each copy.