Practical Insights on SMS

EduTech Surprise! SMS Beats WhatsApp for Teen Test Prep

EduTech Surprise! SMS Beats WhatsApp for Teen Test Prep

Published on: Apr 04 2019 by Wayan Vota - 2 Comments
Secondary school students in Cameroon spend the entire last month of their final year in school preparing for their Baccalaureate. Passing it and scoring well marks...
Do Financial Incentives Increase SMS Survey Response Rates?

Do Financial Incentives Increase SMS Survey Response Rates?

Published on: Nov 14 2018 by Guest Writer - Comments Off on Do Financial Incentives Increase SMS Survey Response Rates?
When organizations set out to use our platform for mobile data collection via SMS or IVR, implementers often ask, “what response rate will I get from my survey?”,...
Beware the Mobile Phone Hardware Quality Divide for Rural African Women

Beware the Mobile Phone Hardware Quality Divide for Rural African Women

Published on: Sep 20 2018 by Wayan Vota - 12 Comments
We all can celebrate the massive adoption of mobile phones across the African continent, and be astonished at the rapid uptake of smartphones in countries like...
5 Guidelines for Using Mobile Messaging Applications in International Development

5 Guidelines for Using Mobile Messaging Applications in International Development

Published on: Sep 10 2018 by Wayan Vota - Comments Off on 5 Guidelines for Using Mobile Messaging Applications in International Development
By 2018, 3.6 billion people were using mobile messaging applications – nearly half of humanity. This has been both a driver and a result of increased connectivity...
The Feature Phone is Not Yet Dead in Africa – Your Weekend Long Reads

The Feature Phone is Not Yet Dead in Africa – Your Weekend Long Reads

Published on: Feb 24 2018 by Steve Vosloo - 1 Comment
Quartz Africa reports that last year feature phones won market share from smartphones in Africa. The market share of smartphones fell to 39% in 2017 (from 45%),...
Reinventing the Call Centre for Better Healthcare Services in Uganda

Reinventing the Call Centre for Better Healthcare Services in Uganda

Published on: Feb 07 2018 by Guest Writer - 2 Comments
Uganda is one of the youngest countries in the world with 81% of Uganda’s population under age 35. Public health programs in Uganda are constantly faced with...
Three SMS Program Learnings that Will Surprise You

Three SMS Program Learnings that Will Surprise You

Published on: Oct 23 2017 by Guest Writer - Comments Off on Three SMS Program Learnings that Will Surprise You
In early 2017, USAID’s StopPalu malaria control project in Guinea started implementing an SMS program to motivate pregnant women to seek antenatal care visits...
Are Messaging Apps and Emoji-Driven M&E a Game-Changing Innovation?

Are Messaging Apps and Emoji-Driven M&E a Game-Changing Innovation?

Published on: Jan 16 2017 by Jacob Korenblum - 3 Comments
Ten years ago, very few people mentioned cell phones and M&E in the same sentence. Phones were for phone calls, or for texting friends; monitoring surveys were...
4 Reasons for Large Scale SMS Text Surveys in Developing Countries

4 Reasons for Large Scale SMS Text Surveys in Developing Countries

Published on: Jan 09 2017 by Guest Writer - Comments Off on 4 Reasons for Large Scale SMS Text Surveys in Developing Countries
We know that SMS is a cheap, convenient, easy to adapt and automate, and non-intrusive way to collect data. But compared to face to face or phone interviews, text...
The Blind Spot of SMS Projects: Constituent Illiteracy

The Blind Spot of SMS Projects: Constituent Illiteracy

Published on: Aug 03 2016 by Guest Writer - 5 Comments
With the overwhelming optimism around mobile phone-based communication technologies, it is reasonable to ponder: Do literacy levels pose a serious limitation to...
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