Android SMS Gateway for field service: KPI measurement

Android SMS gateway for field service KPI measurement is for dispatch desks that already text techs from a local SIM and still report “on-time” from a spreadsheet that never saw a delivery report. Recipients see your MSISDN. The radio sleeps if OEM battery killers win. This is not a packaged FSM SDK and not aggregator rented numbers.

Service pricing is based on device count and total SMS sent through the gateway. Pair with transactional SMS and delivery reports. Live request shapes live in API docs.

If dispatch SMS has no owner and no DLR, your on-time KPI is a spreadsheet fantasy.

What field SMS actually measures

Time from “job assigned” in your FSM to POST /messages accepted. Time to a terminal DLR (delivered or failed). Time until the tech’s reply or in-app ack — that last one is your product, not the gateway. Do not mix marketing blast rates into the same dashboard. Google’s SMS Retriever notes are for in-app OTP hashing, not for van dispatch: SMS Retriever.

KPI table

Dispatch, not open rates

“Your engineer Ahmed, window 10–12” is logistics. “20% off boiler service this weekend” is marketing. STOP lives on the promo SIM. Dispatch templates stay boring: job id, window, callback. Canary on a staff MSISDN before the Monday 07:45 flood.

curl -X POST "https://app.sms-gateway.app/api/v1/messages" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SMS_GATEWAY_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: 3f1b0c8a-9d2e-4c77-9f5a-2b6d1e0f4a83" \
  -d '{"to":["+14155552671"],"text":"Your verification code is 481920","type":"sms"}'

Two-way inbox ownership

If techs reply YES/NO by SMS, one person (or one bot) must write that into the job. Unattended auto-reply that rebooks without checking the calendar is how you double-book. Name an on-call owner before the gateway sits on a charger in a closet. Auto-reply and STOP.

Device fleet vs job volume

A hundred jobs a day that all fire at 08:00 is a radio problem. Spare charged handsets, OEM exemptions, and a second deviceId on the plan beat a brochure SLA. Isolate portal OTP. Device setup.

Airtime in the unit cost

You need a working Android phone with a SIM and SMS credit from your mobile operator. Operator message costs are yours—we do not sell carrier SMS balance. UCS-2 maps and long tracking URLs eat parts. Count failed loops. Franchise shops need a named owner for SIM top-ups — otherwise the KPI dies on an empty prepaid pack.

Checklist

• Job-id idempotency on every dispatch event.
• DLR dashboard separate from marketing.
• OTP / dispatch / promo SIMs split.
• Inbox owner named; no orphan YES replies.
• p95 measured on cold regional handsets.
• Spare charged device paired.
• Airtime retries in the weekly review.

Next steps

Pair a phone via downloads, send one canary job SMS, then wire DLR into the same board that already shows “jobs on time.”