Forum Discussion
Did I miss the announcement of the end of support for SMS messaging from Exchange Online?
Hi Adrian Hyde
Searched - nothing to say that the functionality has been deprecated.
Follow the link Victor provided (https://outlook.office.com/owa/?path=/options/textmessaging) and it will take you to the Text Messaging section under General mailbox options
Select Set Up Text Messaging and it will give you the options
AFAIK on 365 this is for Web App Only, so wouldn't likely appear in the ribbon.
Hope that answers your question.
Best, Chris
Is there any news about why this is was deprecated and any plans to replace it?
I used it all of the time and it was exceptionally useful. I just changed phone carriers and it stopped working, so I accidentally deleted it.
Getting a text message every time a change occurred to a meeting on your calendar was exceptionally useful and there is no way to replicate that as far as I know. I also used to get get messages when a VIP emailed me, but that I can replicate in an Outlook forwarding rule.
TdewarI am going to guess that MSFT didn't want to deal with the hassle of managing text messages with multiple carriers. IF you recall when it was working that they only had a small number of carriers available to choose from.
I am also guessing this led to lots of complaints about "Why is my carrier not available".
You could take two paths - work on adding more carriers, or just turn it off for everyone.
P.S. I agree - it was very useful.
Adrian Hyde I think it had more to do with the following, per their announcement:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-ie/office/text-message-notifications-in-outlook-on-the-web-retiring-soon-d72fe813-95ea-435b-ac77-b76e68c8b672
"If you want to receive notifications on your phone, download Outlook for Android or Outlook for iOS."
Unfortunately, contractors to the Fed Gov that have connectivity to an agency's outlook server get that via virtue of an agency issued laptop. Agencies rarely issue a mobile device as well.
Adrian Hyde I get it, but that is not even a good excuse. Just change the implementation to use the email address of the SMS receiver instead of the phone number. Every carrier has an equivalent email address. Put it on the user to figure it out and enter that. Can I create a rule to forward emails to that email address now, sure, but the SMS system allowed me to get a text every time an appointment was changed, There is no equivalent mailbox rule. This was a great feature. I can't count the number of times I got a text message an appointment was changed as I was on my way out the door to that appointment. It was very useful. I didn't need to check email to see it. If they created an equivalent mailbox rule, they could set it up as an email rule and we could enter the SMS email instead. That would also help people who just wanted it as an email alert. Problem solved.
