Two-way SMS
ما هو Two-way SMS?
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Two-way SMS is the capability of a messaging deployment to both send outbound (MT, Mobile Terminated) messages and receive inbound (MO, Mobile Originated) replies — a full conversation loop in one API call. The capability depends on the destination country's sender support: destinations on numeric long codes or short codes usually allow two-way, while alphanumeric sender IDs are one-way by design and can't hold a reply path.
More detail
For the inbound direction, Orbit fires a webhook on every MO — the enable and the trouble is naming the direction correctly. A reply isn't two-way until the inbound hook routes the MO to the right application, and country policy varies: alphanumeric sender IDs are one-way, so a two-way deployment requires a numeric sender with support.
For the outbound MT direction, the MO/MT primitives pair with the sender-resolution chain — a direct sender, a sender pool, or a Messaging Service — so two-way isn't a channel of its own but the combination of MT out and MO in on the same route.
الأسئلة الشائعة
- Which countries support two-way SMS?
- Destinations that allow numeric long codes or short codes as the sender — alphanumeric sender IDs are one-way by design and can't be a reply path. The docs' country capabilities listing tells you which route a destination supports.
- Why can't my message on an alphanumeric ID receive a reply?
- Because alphanumeric sender IDs are one-way — the network can't route an inbound reply back to a brand name, so a 'we can't text you but here's the OTP' flow sends fine and a conversation-style flow silently loses the inbound.
See also
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