Active Testing SMS with HeadSpin

April 12, 2026 · 12 min read · Testing Guide

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Combat-ready Testing SMS with HeadSpin

Take control of global devices and automate functional, performance, and load try to optimise mobile experiences.

Active Testing SMS with HeadSpin

Published on
March 12, 2020
Updated on
Published on
August 25, 2021
Updated on
 by 
JOSH STAPLESJOSH STAPLES
JOSH STAPLES

SMS testing is a challenge regardless of location, device, or network- due to inaccurate reporting and regional regulations it ’ s near impossible to systematically and accurately generate reports. DLR, or Delivery Reporting, is a feature of SMS message endpoint that reports back if the SMS message has been delivered. Typically, this content is sourced directly from the handset.

Telecoms provider can report whether an SMS has been deliver, but with no regulation in reporting, lots of the data is inaccurate. To make matters more complex, many of the reports that are generated can only account if the dealing was a success or failure.

In this post, we demonstrate how we can leverage the for SMS testing in three high-volume countries: India, China, and Brazil, and discuss how each can be improve.

What is “ active quiz ”?

Active try means your service sends an SMS to a sound or device that you control and then checks to see if the SMS was received and what aspects of the substance changed in the process. However, the scope of active testing is big than running unit or. Test SMS messages can be sent ad hoc when setting up a new service, or for detecting bringing issues on a especial toter or within a specific country. The classic approach to “ fighting testing ” is to call your co-worker in India and tell him you ’ re sending a message. Understandably, this approach doesn ’ t scale.

What does active testing look for?

Fighting examination is the best tool for determining if a message direct via a provider will arrive at the destination looking like it is expected to. Active testing can identify many of the following topic:

  • Character encoding topic
  • Consolidator substitution
  • Concatenation behavior
  • Content modification
  • Sender ID modification
  • Blocking or contented filtering
  • URLs
  • Telephone figure
  • Email address
  • Existent bringing (recall, DLRs can lie)
  • Invalid/valid phone routine support

With HeadSpin, you can identify all kinds of telecommunication pitfalls from the exploiter ’ s perspective include:

  • Is your Alpha-Sender ID preserved? Shortcode?
  • Are your US long codes working in Europe? EMEA? APAC?
  • Are any of your figure re-written?
  • Does your app signup really act in the middle of Africa?
HeadSpin Testing Dashboard

HeadSpin ’ s POP, or Point of Presence, phones grant any support or engineering squad to have a physical presence across the orb.

Examples of failures identified with HeadSpin and “ active testing ” include:

  • Identifying speech failures in China.
  • Customer ’ s improper regex earphone number configuration in African countries.
  • Identifying bearer rescript in legion commonwealth.

Active SMS Testing in India, China, and Brazil

Let ’ s see how a Leading CPaaS supplier ’ s general (CPaaS SMS) and turnkey (CPaaS Turnkey) solutions act out of the box to present in three high-volume countries – India, China, and Brazil. India has a heavily regulated telecom system with many rules around when and what you can send. China, on the other script, is constrained by the great firewall which could, at any clip, suspend or postponement substance. China is also quite draconian if you send content with illicit substance. Doing so may rattling well result in the suspension or loss of your SMS sending privileges. Brazil has historically had subject with carrier and Unicode get it another fun country to experiment with.

We ’ ll use theCPaaS TurnkeyAPI ’ s default configuration to send OTPs. For India, this means it should render to receiver via a registeredAlpha Sender ID. For Programmable SMS, we ’ ll simply file a US long code with CPaaS provider to send directly to the HeadSpin POP handsets.

Once we ’ ve institute a phone to prove with, the rattling first step is to simply text your own earphone as a reality assay. Honestly, it ’ s moderately amazing to initiate an SMS from the other side of the world and watch it show up to your own local phone within second. This maiden step just demonstrates that everything is working.

Global SMS Testing

Discovery Data Points

The aim of this testing is to see the real-world SMS experience a user has on their phone in each fix. We will tape each data point as below:

For autonomous testing across multiple user personas, check out SUSATest — it explores your app like 10 different real users.

  • Mobile Number:Phone numbers associated with HeadSpin device
  • Device:What kind of twist?
  • Location:Where is the device site?
  • Carrier: Carrier the gimmick is using
  • Country to US:Are we able to send an SMS from a Country to the device in the US
  • CPaaS SMS to Country:Are we able to send an SMS to the device from the US via Programmable?
  • CPaas Turnkey to Country:Are we able to send an SMS to the device?
  • Expected Body:Did the carriers treat the body correctly?
  • Message Body: “ Hello from San Francisco?! ”
  • Long Message Body: “The lazy brown fox jumped over the fencing. The slothful brownness fox jumped over the fence. …… ”
  • Unicode Body:★ ☆ ☇ ☈ ☉ ☊ ☋ ☌ ☍ ☏ ☐ ☒ ☓ ☚ ☛ ☜ ☞ ☟ ☡ ☤
  • DNA = Did Not Arrive

India Testing

A Note 5 Pro device on HeadSpin ’ s public cloud is depicted below. This is one of 3 device we ’ re using to screen telephony delivery in India. Each gimmick uses a different carrier mesh and supports both automated and manual via any testing framework.

Data from Testing in India

Mobile Number+91XXXXX+91XXXXX+91XXXXXDeviceiPhone 6iPhone 11XIAOMI Redmi Note 5 ProLocationBangaloreBangaloreBangaloreCarrierAir TelJioVodafoneIndia to USNo lagNo lagNo lagCPaaS SMS to IndiaDNADNADNACPaas Turnkey& gt; IndiaNo lagNo lagNo lagExpected Body? YesYesYesUnicode Issues? NoNoNoDelivered By? 57575565757556 / BZ-AUTHMS503501 / 5676735LagNoNoLittle

India Conclusion

Admittedly, this is a middling small sample size but it yield you a general idea of what sort of experience a user can hold with different carriers in each location.

The virtually obvious issue hither is the non-delivery of SMSs to India via theCPaaS SMSAPI. This is await behavior as delivery to India typically requires startle throughseveral technological and bureaucratic hoops.

The real winner in this small sample size is theCPaaS Turnkey. Obviously, they get nab their implementation as everything was deliver in a timely style. The interesting reflexion is that out of the six attempts, it seems merely one was render via the Alpha Sender ID registered in India. This could be a side-effect of the intelligent retry logic or simply Amerind bearer roguery.

China Testing

SMS Testing from China

For test in China, we pore on two major subway areas, Shanghai and Beijing. You ’ ll also note that each earphone used a completely different carrier. DNA denotes, did not arrive.

Data from Testing in China

Mobile Number+86XXXXX+86XXXXX+86XXXXXDeviceiPhone 7XIAOMI Mi A2iPhone 7LocationBeijingShanghaiShanghaiCarrierChina MobileChina UnicomChina TelecomChina to USZero LagZero LagZero LagCPaaS SMS to ChinaDNAMinimal LagMinimal LagExpected Body?DNAYesYesUnicode Issues?DNAVery FastVery FastDelivered By?DNA1306764314513136240203LagDNANoneFew secondsMultibody?DNASupportedSupportedCPaaS Turnkey& gt; ChinaDNADNADNA

China Conclusion

Testing with HeadSpin in China resulted in the complete opposite experience from India. In this case, 33 % ofCPaas SMSfailed to arrive, and NOCPaaS Turnkeycontent sent to China arrive. Like most Voice or SMS API name to phones terminating in China, misconfiguration or mischief by the Chinese firewall is sure to blame.

Interestingly enough, the message sent from China to the US arrived spry than any early test.

Brazil Testing

SMS Testing from Brazil

Testing in Brazil was limited to a individual bearer network. Overall, Brazil establish the best performance across device. The carrier behavior did not vary between phones and provided the fastest experience across all three test countries.

Data from Testing in Brazil

Mobile Number+55XXXXX+55XXXXX+55XXXXXDeviceiPhone XSiPhone 6siPhone 7LocationSão PauloSão PauloSão PauloCarrierVivoVivoVivoIndia to USNo lagNo lagNo lagCPaaS SMSto BrazilNo lagNo lagNo lagExpected Body? YesYesYesUnicode Issues? NoNoNoDelivered By? 271992719927199LagNoNoNoCPaaS Turnkey& gt; BrazilNo lagNo lagNo lagExpected Body? YesYesYesUnicode Issues? NoNoNoDelivered By? 271992719927199LagNoNoNo

Brazil Conclusion

Testing in Brazil seem to have provided the best results out of the three countries. At the time of testing, there were limited Brazilian carriers to test with but on a positive note, the experience was precisely the same across each gimmick.

Why Active Testing Matters to You!

Working with telecom is a fickle beast. When talking with customers, I frequently compare post an SMS to send a UDP package. With both of these technologies, you originate a send and the data is off! But, you never know if it has gotten to its terminus. Any number of issues could affect the delivery.

  • Queueing (is thither a football game in Munich, a cricket game in Lahore?)
  • Infrastructure Issues
  • Political Suppression
  • Grey Routes

Another way to consider of SMS telephony is to reckon hiring a container ship to render goods to a embrasure of call. You can hire a cheaper companionship that takes the long route around South America or the more expensive company which goes through the Panama Canal. It is this latter path that has a far high likelihood of arriving on time at the port of cry. Your flash fellowship ’ s container ship may end up at the bottom of the sea while rounding Cape Horn.

As a mobile developer, you ’ ll have a open understanding of how your roving experience will play when leveraging HeadSpin ’ s robust suite of testing and performance monitoring solutions. You can take immediate control of a phone anyplace in the reality with ourGlobal Device Cloudand test to your bosom ’ s message. Looking for a more rich long term solvent? Leverage your own private cloud forautomated testingor setup hourly, daily, hebdomadary examination and benchmark reportage to place movement and issues around your KPIs.

HeadSpin can help you automate functional, performance, and load testing across application, device, and networks to optimize digital experience enabled by mobile, web, IoT, and 5G. Want to give HeadSpin a try? We have a Point of Presence in more than 50+ locations, consist of grand of devices and endpoints. Reach out via our form and we will organise a discussion and demonstration.

FAQs

Q1: What are the characteristics of active testing?

Active testing is the testing procedure where the tester interacts with the package and directly executes the test. It usually verify that the critical constituent of the application are working as intend. Some examples of active prove include functional examination and structural testing.

Q2: What is passive testing?

Passive examination is encounter issues and bugs in the software without the tester interact with the application, e.g., extracting and analyzing the application logarithm. Passive testing is practical when the regular run of the application can not be interrupted, or the QA team does not have access to the covering interface.

Q3: What is API testing?

API testing validates an API ’ s functionality, security, robustness, execution, and dependableness. Automated examination of APIs is recommended as machine-controlled prove can name jeopardy and protection vulnerabilities of APIs, which manual testing can easily lose.

Q4: Who performs espousal prove?

User acceptance testing is usually close to the final phase of SDLC and execute close to deployment. The customer or the end-user typically do it once the growth squad is reasonably sure that the application is bug-free.

Author & # x27; s Profile

JOSH STAPLES

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Author & # x27; s Profile

Piali Mazumdar

Lead, Content Marketing, HeadSpin Inc.

Piali is a dynamical and results-driven Content Marketing Specialist with 8+ days of experience in crafting pursue narratives and marketing collateral across various industries. She excel in collaborating with cross-functional teams to evolve innovative substance scheme and deliver compelling, authentic, and impactful content that resonate with target audiences and enhances brand authenticity.

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Combat-ready Testing SMS with HeadSpin

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Discover how HeadSpin can indue your business with superior testing capacity

Our Platform enable you to:
accelerate time-to-market
Accelerate time-to-market, gaining a competitory edge
faster development cycles
Boost developer/QA productivity with faster growth round
automated buil-over-build regression testing
Automate build-over-build regression testing for ordered consequence
gain better visibility into functional & performance issues
Gain better visibility into functional and performance matter
reduce mean time
Reduce mean time to identify/resolve during examination, QA, and production
evaluate audio, video & qoe
Evaluate audio, picture, and content quality of experience (QoE) effortlessly
The trusted choice for global endeavor
Close

Discover how HeadSpin can empower your business with superior essay capabilities

Our Platform enables you to:
accelerate time-to-market
Accelerate time-to-market, gaining a competitive edge
faster development cycles
Boost developer/QA productivity with faster development cycles
automated buil-over-build regression testing
Automate build-over-build regression testing for logical results
gain better visibility into functional & performance issues
Gain best visibility into functional and execution topic
reduce mean time
Reduce mean time to identify/resolve during test, QA, and production
evaluate audio, video & qoe
Evaluate sound, video, and content caliber of experience (QoE) effortlessly
The trusted choice for global enterprises
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