Why are my messages coming from a "Guest"?

Why do I have messages from "Guest" and a random set of numbers?

That is a guest record in our system, basically a way to capture any and all messages that are inbound if we do not have a corresponding student to that phone number or mobile device. That random set of numbers is an internal Full Measure identifier, you can see it in the URL.

What are all the ways to create a guest record?

Great question. There are two ways to create a guest record:

1. If someone texts into our system, and we do not have a corresponding student record that shares the same phone number, we will create a guest record in our system so that the end users can see and respond to those messages
2. If a mobile users clicks "Continue as Guest" in their mobile app, that will also create a guest user

The best way to distinguish between these two is to see if the student has the icon next to their name that indicates they have downloaded the mobile app.

All of this makes sense, but I think they are meaning to text someone else and I'm not thrilled with the content. Can I block them?

Unfortunately it is possible for outside users to text the specific numbers that counselors own in our system, meaning we cannot block them or preemptively prevent them. Most likely this is nothing nefarious, the sender just has the wrong number. Here is an article on twilio.com, our texting platform, explaining why they are unable to block incoming numbers on their SMS numbers. We recommend responding to them to let them know that they have the wrong number.