[HFDlist] I AM Responding Alert - ATT users

[Russ Hall]

All:

Please see the alert from IAR regarding some text to email message 
issues with ATT.  If you are not receiving messages and alerts, please 
try the steps outlined below and if it persists, please let us know.

Thanks:

Chief Hall

6.30.2023: We are aware of an issue outside of our network affecting the 
delivery of IamResponding text messages to some AT&T text addresses. We 
suggest that you NOT rely on AT&T text messaging as your primary method 
of receiving IamResponding notices and alerts. Instead, we highly 
suggest using push notifications to the IaR app, and email alerts as 
your primary messaging pathways for receiving IamResponding notices and 
alerts, as those are not affected by this AT&T issue. This is why we 
provide these redundant messaging pathways for all users. Why is this 
AT&T issue happening? AT&T has made some changes recently to how they 
process and deliver (or block) email-to-text Text Messages to your 
device. This is when your text message originates from an email address. 
This is how IamResponding sends text messages to all our users, through 
their cellular carrier’s email-to-text Text Message Address. We received 
the following information from AT&T relevant to this issue (If you have 
not done so already, please consider downloading the AT&T ActiveArmor 
app described in their notice below, and ALLOW Email-to-Text messages as 
outlined in their notice): Due to the increasing spam text messages our 
customers receive, AT&T has enabled Email-to-Text Blocking. This gives 
AT&T mobile device users the ability to block all SMS and MMS messages 
coming from email addresses, which is a major source of spam. This 
feature can be enabled on the AT&T ActiveArmor mobile security app. It 
works on an “all or nothing” basis. If a customer turns this feature 
“on,” they may inadvertently block emergency or urgent text messages 
sent by govt. agencies if the agency used email to send text messages. 
(Note that FirstNet users will not have the option to turn this feature 
on.) Why does this matter? AT&T wants public safety and government 
entities to be aware of Email-to-Text Blocking’s availability. Any group 
or organization that legitimately uses email origination of SMS/MMS as 
part of its communication toolkit should make sure that its user 
community understands the tool’s potential for unintended disruption of 
those valid messages. We give a clear notice when a customer activates 
the switch that all texts from emails will be blocked, which may include 
wanted messages. Customers who enable Email-to-Text blocking can also 
choose to cancel it using the same on/off toggle on the ActiveArmor app. 
The email-to-text switch will not block Wireless Emergency Alerts. Most 
phones give the ability to turn off emergency alerts, as well. Should 
users of Email-to-Text Blocking have questions or issues, they should 
contact AT&T Customer Care by dialing 611 from their AT&T mobile device.

-- 
Russ Hall
Fire Chief/EMD
Holden Fire Dept.
1370 Main Street
Holden, MA 01520
508-210-5650
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