SMS Fallback

The issue
Our solution
The end result
Server requests

Inspiration

What if you were using your favorite app and suddenly lost mobile data? SMS Fallback gives app developers a way to provide basic online functionality to their users through SMS.

How it works

We provide a fully functional Android library, coupled with a generic backend you can hook onto any API.

The Pitch

Scenario

As a company you want your user experience to be the best on your app no matter what the connection. As a user it's super frustrated when connection drops while using your favourite app. It could happen in a rural area, places with intermittent signal, or in an developing/emerging country.

What typically happens, a dialogue box appears saying 'No data connection' and your actions are paused until your device is back online. We noticed in this scenario, you can usually still send SMS.

SMS Fallback allows any app developer to provide a way to stay connection through SMS, so you can continue using your app without data.

How we did it

We built an Android library that takes a HTTP request, splits it up, and sends it to a Nexmo phone number (as an endpoint).

Nexmo hands the message to a server that combines the messages and performs the request for your device.

The response is split and sent back to the device throught he Nexmo SMS API.

In our example (see images above), we built a simplified clone of Uber to illustrate the implementation.

We select a journey and prepare to press 'Request Cab'. We turn data off, and demonstrate how the app uses SMS Fallback to make the request, and allows you to finish your request and get a confirmation using only SMS.