Soft bounce
A temporary message delivery failure that may succeed on a later retry.
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A temporary message delivery failure that may succeed on a later retry.
A soft bounce is a delivery failure that is temporary. The number is valid and capable of receiving messages, but delivery did not succeed this time — the handset was switched off, out of coverage, or the network was congested.
This contrasts with a hard bounce, which is permanent: the number is invalid, disconnected, or fundamentally unable to receive SMS, as with most landlines. Hard bounces will never succeed and the number should be suppressed.
Distinguishing the two matters for list management. Soft bounces are worth retrying. Repeatedly retrying hard bounces wastes spend and signals to carriers that you are sending to a poorly maintained list.
Related terms
- SMS deliverability — The proportion of sent SMS messages that are actually delivered to a recipient handset.
- Disconnected number — A number that is no longer assigned to an active subscriber and cannot be reached.
- List hygiene — Keeping a contact list accurate and current by removing or flagging unusable records.