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Sustainable Vision
Vortex Org

Campaign update

SMS is not a fallback, it is the front door

Designing for the handset people actually own, rather than the one we wish they had.

25 April 2026 · 4 min read · Product team

It is easy to write 'SMS fallback' into an architecture document and treat it as a checkbox. In the pilot zones it is closer to a primary channel for a meaningful share of households.

So the reminder that names which bags to prepare has to read correctly in 160 characters, with no app installed and no data bundle. If it does not work there, the households the programme most wants to reach are the ones it will quietly exclude.

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