How can I send my students an SMS to their cell-phones instead of an email?

[sabuelh]

I want to send my students notifications as an SMS instead of an email. Is this doable on Canvas and how?

[chofer · Accepted solution]

Hello sabuelh@gmail.com Welcome to the Canvas Community.  Thank you for posting your question.

Every user in Canvas (instructor, student, TA, Admin, etc.) can control his/her own notification preferences.  There is nothing that I am aware of in Canvas that would allow you to target a message specifically to your students' cell phones via text message.  Take a look at these two Guides (which are quite similar, by the way):

How do I set my Canvas notification preferences as an instructor? 

https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-10624-4212710344 

As you can see from the screen shots in those Guides, each student has the option to add his/her own cell phone to his/her account (it's not a requirement in Canvas).  And, once a student adds his/her own cell phone number, he/she can further decide what kinds of text messages to receive.  This is not per course.  Rather, it is for an entire account...so if a student chooses to receive text messages for course announcements, he/she will get those notifications for all courses...not just a single course.  So, using this Notifications screen, it is very possible that one student may choose to get notifications only via a school-issued e-mail address, but another student may only wish to receive notifications via text message.  A third student may wish to receive a combination of the two.  It's completely up to the user.

I hope this helps to answer your question.  Please let Community members know if there are any additional related questions.  Thanks!