CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

Hey there,

At the moment, we use one activity type for inbound and outbound SMS.  I think that we should use two different activity types for these.

Some reasons for this include:
* i think it will make API-izing and HOOK-izing the SMS system easier
* that is inline with what CiviMail does
* it makes the activity summary screen easier to read (see attached image). at the moment, we use the subject line to record whether it was sent or received - and a text field doesn't feel like the right place to store this info.

Also, there are currently two activity types for outbound SMS: 'Text Message (SMS)' and 'Mass SMS'.

From a usability POV, I think we should rename 'Text Message (SMS)' to just 'SMS' since 'Text Message (SMS)' is too long and has some redundancy.

I am wondering about why we have both these activity types.  I know this the way that CiviMail does it (good reason from a user experience POV) but also am aware that from a mechanics point of view, there might not be that much difference between bulk and normal SMS.

Just wondering out loud why we have two different names for outbound SMS and if we might be better having one. Anyone have arguments for one or the other?