Unique replies to multiple sms messages

Question

Our scenario is as follows:

1. We have a marketplace where sellers will receive multiple messages throughout the day from users.

2. We want to send message notifications etc via sms to sellers

3. We would like sellers to be able to reply to a sms message notification on their phone. We want what they text to appear as their reply on our site. Is this possible?

4. Say a seller checks their phone as sees that they have 5 notifications, is there a way they can reply to a specific message rather than the last one sent?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

As you describe the use case, it is not possible. As you suspect, there's no way to link one inbound message to a particular outbound message. I'd suggest borrowing an idea from Twitter and including a Base-36 code in the notification. If a reply contains that code, then it's in response to that original message. For example...

Notitification: A seller is interested in your widget. LFLR

Reply: @LFLR Sorry. We are sold out of the widgets.

It will take a slight bit of effort from the sellers. But, then, they are motivated to sell. Using a Base-36 code will keep the number of characters to type under five even for a million plus messages.