Help for SMS Users

No, your mobile phone can’t have two SIM cards in it. Pick one SIM number to register your phone and remove the other when using Beacon.

To switch your Beacon account from DATA messages to SMS messages when you don’t have internet to connect to the app, send an SMS with 789 to your Beacon number (ask your admin if you don’t have it saved in your contacts). This will change your phone’s settings from DATA to SMS within Beacon and then resend the last Beacon message to you.

Please watch this video to see how it works in practice.

You can also read more about all the SMS Codes here

If you want to change your Messaging configuration from DATA to SMS, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Settings screen in your app
2. Click on the Messaging option
3. Select SMS from the pop-up
4. Close the app without switching to any other screens in the app

The Beacon mobile app requires data for all screens, so if you change your settings to SMS and then go to another screen in the app, Beacon will change you back to DATA so you can see the other screens. To avoid this, close the app immediately after you switch from DATA to SMS.

Or, more easily, close the app and send a text message with 789 to the Beacon gateway number (see #8 in the diagram here).

There are several things that could cause Beacon to skip messages:

1. Technical Error: If you’re using Beacon by SMS, it might be because of the local infrastructure, for example:
   1. The mobile phone signal was bad
   2. Your telecom carrier refused the message (this can sometimes happen when sending messages internationally)
2. User Error: You may be having an issue on your end if:
   1. Your SMS inbox is full
   2. You don’t have credits on your phone
   3. Your phone has two SIM cards installed (it only can only have one installed, the same one that’s registered with Beacon)

It’s also possible that you may not understand the sequence of messages that Beacon sends. Depending on Beacon’s settings and how the incident goes, you may or may not receive all of the messages that you’re expecting.

Here are a couple resources to help you figure it out:

1. Download the Responder Type practice pdf to walk through each sequence and see how the messages can change
2. Visit this page to see a video and learn the difference between Broadcast Alerts and Manual Assignment