Replacement of Connect SMS notification service (from Finalsite) to Anthology SMS Microservice – 3900.71
Blackboard Learn SaaS, Blackboard Learn 9.1
Ultra Experience, Original Experience
Ultra Course View, Original Course View
Impact: Clients who leverage the Connect SMS notification service
Blackboard divested the Connect SMS Service to Finalsite in 2021. Our agreed service continuation contract with Finalsite is expiring in the coming months. Some North American Blackboard Learn clients continue to use the Connect SMS Service provided through Finalsite.
We have implemented a microservice and partnered with an SMS provider to provide those clients with continuity. This will allow us to continue supporting clients who use SMS notifications in Learn today.
SMS notifications are now provided through the new microservice.
- Self-hosted instances are not supported on the new microservice.
- Managed-hosted instances are not supported on the new microservice.
- Text-to-voice is not supported in the new microservice.
Learn more in the Behind the Blackboard article No. 000077570
Existing user SMS notification settings will remain in place for students and instructors. Text-to-voice options will be removed for Original navigation environments. We have updated the SMS notification setting screen wording to reflect where the messages originate. We have also simplified the administrator settings to reflect the new microservice.
Image 1. Example of end-user SMS notification settings
Image 2. Example of the administrator settings for SMS notifications
For administrators: The new microservice is included in the 3900.71 release and is available on your test/stage environment while we finalize work with the new SMS provider. While we don’t anticipate any delays, we will communicate any changes as we approach the production release scheduled for August 3, 2023.