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Sending ngrok links via SMS to Verizon users?!

Jess Lee on February 13, 2019

I was publishing some funny article titles in development and wanted to share them with my partner. Naturally, I set up a ngrok link for easy shari...
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Edwin Klesman

TL;DR
ngrok uses xxxx.ngrok.io links so that might be why they don't get past the validation checks of T-Mobile and Verizon.

FULL EXPLANATION

So weird 🤔. Only thing I could think of is that they do this for security reasons.
But their rules seem outdated..

I found this on SO: stackoverflow.com/questions/223829...

They discuss that only .com and .org seem to be able to get through T-Mobile and Verizon's SMS service. Others (like short links) get blocked.

As I'm thinking about it more and more, this might be to prevent people from getting spammed or click on links with unknown destinations...

The accepted answer in that SO link (stackoverflow.com/a/42381616) says:

I had the same issue recently. All major carriers have some basic checks in place which blocks the SMS from getting delivered if you use short links (e.g.abc.gl/1432). The SMS will get delivered as long as you have a .com in the URL (e.g. abc.gl.com/1432)

ngrok uses xxxx.ngrok.io links so that might be why they don't get past the validation checks.

//off-topic
I recently discovered ngrok to test a .Net Core backend project that uses the Fitbit API and I needed to test publish/subscribe callbacks coming back as new activity data was tracked.... In ❤️love ever since

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Ben Halpern

I recently discovered ngrok to test a .Net Core backend project that uses the Fitbit API and I needed to test publish/subscribe callbacks coming back as new activity data was tracked.... In ❤️love ever since

Yup, perfect ngrok use case.

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morgana • Edited

Ngrok is a thing and I didn't know about it. Now I have a new toy to play with. Thanks! :P

#TIL

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Meghan (she/her)

And use serveo.net/ if you don't want to install a program 😄

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morgana

Nice one! I have a new weekend project now 😝

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Jess Lee

Oh! Cool!

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Mihail Malo

TIL people use SMS

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morgana

Yeah I see this approach taken a lot in infosec land.