> Why would Uber: 1. need to send messages through text instead of in the app
SMS is still the most attention getting messaging medium. When these messages are in an SMS it looks more like it's coming from the driver's personal number. If it were instead sent through the app, people are far more likely to ignore it as a broadcast corporate marketing message.
> 2. message only this one user instead of everyone else who also has registered like me (and probably you too)?
I got the same sort of message purportedly from an Uber driver, but enough people had reported that number as a source of SPAM by than that my phone automatically marked the message as spam.
Therefore, it sure seems like the same numbers are being reused via an SMS proxy service of some kind - or drivers are being provided a list of numbers by Uber to send the same form message.
It's really no different in that way from all the political text messages that have flooded our phones of late.
SMS is still the most attention getting messaging medium. When these messages are in an SMS it looks more like it's coming from the driver's personal number. If it were instead sent through the app, people are far more likely to ignore it as a broadcast corporate marketing message.
> 2. message only this one user instead of everyone else who also has registered like me (and probably you too)?
I got the same sort of message purportedly from an Uber driver, but enough people had reported that number as a source of SPAM by than that my phone automatically marked the message as spam.
Therefore, it sure seems like the same numbers are being reused via an SMS proxy service of some kind - or drivers are being provided a list of numbers by Uber to send the same form message.
It's really no different in that way from all the political text messages that have flooded our phones of late.