Telerivet

Description Updated
Feb 13, 2023
Description

Civic, political, and governmental groups need to keep in touch with their people, and reaching audiences on their near-omnipresent phones has been proven to be one of the most effective ways to do so. Telerivet is one of the easiest ways for small organizations to have conversations, using a cloud-hosted contact database to send messages in various ways, including over the cellular connection of Android phones you control yourself.

Notes

Any small organization that wants to send messages to, get information from, or open a conversation with dozens or hundreds of supporters and interested parties via text message could make use of Telerivet. The built-in data analysis systems can be helpful for quickly getting a pulse on issues of interest or tracking your most communicative supporters, aggregating all the information in a central repository for organizations with the interest and ability to do basic analysis.

Telerivet is a cloud-hosted messaging platform enabling individuals and organizations to reach their contacts, whether customers, constituents, voters, or supporters. It was initially designed for and is particularly effective with SMS-based communication for bulk sending or receiving of messages. Communication can be sent in various formats, including both text messaging and voice, using a technology called Interactive Voice Response (IVR).

Telerivet provides a cloud-hosted console for managing your contacts, viewing your communication history, and aggregating data collected. There are built-in features for polls, surveys, and other ways of collecting information. Telerivet has some capabilities for “natural language processing” - using automated intelligence to determine some meaning from unstructured messages.

In a development context, one of the most powerful capabilities of Telerivet is the ability to use an Android or iOS smartphone as an SMS gateway - using the built-in messaging capabilities of the device to send and receive texts, while the cloud management console supplies the lists of numbers to contact and the contents of the messages, with the smartphone sending responses back to the online repository without the complication of setting up a relationship with a mobile network operator (MNO) to get a shortcode or capture messages.

Cost

Telerivet requires a subscription. The basic entry level is $45 per month, which permits up to 1,000 contacts. There is no cost for the phone apps. More information: https://telerivet.com/pricing Sending messages via SMS from a phone incurs costs just as if sending them manually.

Technical Requirements/Capacity

Setting up the Telerivet console and apps on linked Android phones does not require sophisticated technical know-how, but can be a bit confusing and complicated when getting started. There are a range of things that can go wrong when configuring the interaction with smartphones, so expect some difficulty when first getting started.

Support Available

Telerivet has a great deal of online help, and NDI has found the staff extremely responsive and helpful on email. https://guide.telerivet.com/hc/

Maintenance considerations

As a cloud-hosted application, there is little ongoing maintenance required. However, if one is using the smartphone apps, the phones themselves can require some care, ensuring they have sufficient credits, are charged, and have wifi access to communicate with the cloud console.

Cybersecurity

It is important to be careful with Telerivet console access; anyone who gets into the website will have full access to your contacts and history of messages, including any information you may have received. Also, anyone using the console may accidentally or maliciously send communication to your audiences.

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