Feature Request: Configurable SMS Recipient Fallbacks & Disable "Sender" Default

[binokaryg]

What feature do you want to improve?

SMS recipient resolution: Add alternate recipient(s) and way to disable the default behaviour of sending it back to the sender

Describe the improvement you'd like

I am requesting two specific enhancements to the recipient resolution logic:

• Priority/Fallback Lists: The ability to define a list of potential recipients. The system should attempt to resolve them in order and use the first valid phone number found.

• Disable Default Redirection: A configuration option to prevent the system from defaulting to the report sender (submitter) when no recipient is found.

CHT provides several ways to specify the SMS recipient.

Example Use Case: I want to send a reminder related to a patient in a household.

I can either send it to:

• the patient using patient.phone
• or, to the household primary contact with patient.parent.contact.phone

I want this instead:

• If the patient has a phone number -> Send to patient.
• If patient has no number -> Send to patient.parent.contact (Household Head).
• If neither has a number -> Do not send the message. (Currently, CHT forces this message to the CHW/sender, which is confusing for them).

Proposed configuration syntax:
Instead of a single string, allow an array for recipient:

"recipient": [
  "patient.phone",
  "patient.parent.contact.phone"
],
"default_to_sender": false

Describe alternatives you've considered

• Form Calculation: Saving the phone number in the report during submission. Drawback: If the contact's phone number is updated later, the report data remains stale, and the SMS goes to the old number.

• Mustache Logic: I attempted to use {{#patient.phone}} blocks in the message template to suppress content if the number is missing. Drawback: This still triggers the message sending process, resulting in empty, failed messages cluttering the messages tab.

messages.registration.a.patient = {{#patient.phone}} Hi {{patient_name}}! You have been registered to our system with ID: ({{patient_id}}). {{/patient.phone}}{{^patient.phone}}{{/patient.phone}}

Additional context
Related CHT Forum discussion: Is there a way to disable SMS recipient redirection?

[1yuv]

Hi @binokaryg , I assume the content of the message would be same regardless of which sender the CHT resolves to send and we don't need to worry about that part right?

[binokaryg]

Hi @binokaryg , I assume the content of the message would be same regardless of which sender the CHT resolves to send and we don't need to worry about that part right?

It would be great to have the messages customized per recipient, if it doesn't make the configuration and implementation too complex. That way, we can address them individually like:

• patient -> "Your report"
• patient.parent.contact.phone -> "Your household member {{patient.name}}'s report"

Another important thing to consider is that, the recipient numbers might not be always available at the time of the schedule assignment (when the report is received). The users can add/remove/change the numbers. The messages should pick the available number at the time of sending.

[1yuv]

Hi @binokaryg , as we discussed, we'll make only the recipient configurable for now and the message can be constructed so as to match to either recipient. If that also feels strict requirement in the future, we can address that. For now, we'll make recipient accept arrays of input and CHT will try to resolve them in order.

So the schedule can be configured like:

{
  "group": 2,
  "offset": "105 days",
  "send_time": "07:00 +05:45",
  "recipient": ["patient.phone", "g40_clinic", "g30_health_center"]
}

For this schedule, CHT will send the message to patient.phone. If that doesn't exist, it'll try to send to g40_clinic, if that also doesn't exist, it will try to send to g30_health_center.