HELP must work in every form it arrives in

The requirementstatement

HELP must be case-insensitive, functional over both SMS and MMS, and functional in the programme's language without erroring on the English keyword.

Severityseverity: HighHIGHRejected by at least one carrier or provider, and a common cause of failure at the rest.
When it bitesphase: After you are livepostFalls due once you are sending: STOP handling, quiet hours, suppression, record retention.
What is checkedobject: HELP keyword handler
Where it liveslayer: OperationalOPERATIONAL
How Ekas settles itdetectability: Post-submissionUNDETECTABLE_PRE_SUBMISSION; The subject does not exist yet at submission time: a reply window, an expiring PIN, a queue position. Reported with its deadline.
What the fix involvesfailureClass: Wait on someone elseTERMINAL_EXTERNAL; Needs an external system or a waiting period, such as IRS propagation, a vetting result, or a carrier queue.
Who requires itauthorities: CTIAMMA
When it appliesapplicabilityText: Applies to every 10DLC registration.

Why this rule existsrationale

HELP is the fallback when everything else has confused somebody, so it is the last handler that should be fussy about how it is spelled or which protocol carried it. Each of these variations is a separate code path in most platforms, and the ones that fail are invariably the ones nobody tested because the happy path was obvious.

How to fix itremediation

Normalise the inbound body before matching, share one handler across SMS and MMS, and register the local-language help word alongside HELP rather than instead of it. Done when "help", "AYUDA" and a HELP sent as an MMS reply all return the same information.

A compliant exampleexample

Keyword table: HELP, INFO, SUPPORT, AYUDA — matched case-insensitively on either protocol.

Check this yourselfattestation

No tool can settle this one for you. Here is the check, and what wrong looks like.

Do "help", "AYUDA" and a HELP sent as an MMS reply all return the same information?

1Send all three to your own number after launch.
2Confirm the local-language help word was registered alongside HELP rather than instead of it.
3Confirm one handler serves both SMS and MMS.

What wrong looks like: Each variation is a separate code path in most platforms, and the ones that fail are invariably the ones nobody tested because the happy path was obvious.

Notesnotes

Three code paths we cannot see. What the user has to do is send the three variants to their own number after launch; OPS-081 is the registration-side twin, checking that the destinations inside the reply actually reach help.

Rules you will hit next

One other rule reads HELP keyword handler. Fixing one field to satisfy a single rule is how a resubmission trades one rejection for another, so read these before you change anything.

OPS-078HELP is answered whoever asksBlockingBLOCKING OPS-034A programme in another language still owes the English keywordHighHIGH OPS-035The mandatory keywords must work over MMS tooHighHIGH OPS-044Suppression is brand-wide, not per numberHighHIGH OPS-047A state may give you less time than the federal limitHighHIGH OPS-052Silence after a scope question revokes everythingHighHIGH

All operational rules

OPS-079 is one of 139 operational rules in the 915-rule 10DLC registry. Free to cite under CC BY 4.0.