Looking to get high-quality insights and reach consumers in real-time? In today’s always-on world, people are constantly on their phones—but their email inboxes? Not so much. That’s why if you want to engage people where they actually are, SMS surveys—delivered straight to someone’s phone via text message—are the way to go.
And when SMS surveys are powered by AI and conversational research, you don’t just get answers—you get better engagement, richer insights, and faster turnaround. That’s what agile research is all about.
Let’s explore how text message surveys are changing the game for modern research teams.
SMS surveys (or text message surveys) are exactly what they sound like: surveys sent via text message. But the best ones go way beyond a basic link in a text.
Imagine a survey that looks and feels like a real conversation. You text a survey to your customer, and they respond in a natural, chat-style interface—sometimes with words, sometimes with a quick tap on an emoji, or even a short video.
It’s frictionless, intuitive, and surprisingly effective. No need to ask participants for a mobile survey app (because, let's face it, no one wants another app).
The best SMS survey platforms turn boring questionnaires into something that feels more like messaging a friend than filling out a form. And when you combine that with features like personalization, media uploads, and AI-powered feedback analysis, you're looking at a whole new level of agile research.
According to Gartner, text messages have a 98% open rate and 45% response rate. That’s impressively high, especially given that a 20% open rate for emails is usually considered good. Most people check their texts within minutes—which means you can go from question to insight in a matter of hours, not days.
Text messages have a 98% open rate and 45% response rate.
Survey fraud is a huge issue in the insights space today, and it's a problem even if you're using a reputable sample provider. Thankfully, SMS surveys can provide a solution.
Why? Because people typically only have one mobile phone. So it's easier to avoid bots and professional survey takers who are only interested in incentives.
Action-triggered insights let you send out text message surveys at the right time—like after a product purchase, an app download, or customer service call. This reduces recall bias, while boosting response rates and completion rates.
And because SMS survey distribution happens over text, you can send real-time reminders and invites. This could be very valuable for common research use cases like mobile diaries, watch parties (during event broadcasts) and more.
Newsflash: Gen Zs (and to a lesser extent, millennials) are ignoring emails. And they're not the only ones, by the way. People who don't work in front of their computers are also typically harder to reach via email. So if email is your primary survey distribution channel, you're missing a huge chunk of people.
SMS helps you reach new voices and expand your sample to include modern consumers.
No more overpaying for panels or chasing down emails. With SMS, you can re-engage your existing insight community or tap into CRM contacts instantly—at a fraction of the cost.
Research from Wharton School of Business shows that consumers are more willing to share personal information on their smartphones. This is critical because, after all, isn’t our goal in research to uncover people’s unfiltered opinions and attitudes?
“Our findings suggest that smartphone-generated content may be more diagnostic of how consumers actually think and feel,” Shiri Melumad, one of the co-authors of the report and a Wharton marketing professor, said. “Marketers and firms may want to encourage customers to provide certain types of information or to respond to certain types of sensitive questions on their phones in particular.”
If you want deeper depth of disclosure, SMS surveys are a modern way of getting to it.
"Smartphone-generated content may be more diagnostic of how consumers actually think and feel."
SMS surveys aren’t just convenient—they’re versatile. Here’s how researchers are putting them to work:
If you want to pick the best SMS survey software, it's important to consider both the researcher's experience and the participant experience. A robust customer insights platform like Rival’s gives you everything you need to run sophisticated, high-impact research. But it should also improve engagement and ongoing participation.
Here’s what to look for—and why it makes a difference for you as a researcher.
Boring surveys are never effective—especially on mobile. Look for insight platforms that lets you create experiences that feel like texting a friend. SMS-based, conversational surveys should be easy, familiar, and fun to complete.
Why it matters: You’ll boost engagement, reduce drop-offs, and keep people coming back. (In fact, Rival sees a 65% recontact rate.)
When used right, AI tools can help improve all aspects of your research. From survey authoring to the quick analysis of unstructured data, AI holds a lot of promise. Look for AI market research capabilities that enhance and amplify human skills, rather than those that completely remove researchers from the process. (We call this Human in the Loop.)
Why it matters: Spend less time analyzing and more time storytelling. AI takes care of the heavy lifting.
Collecting quant and qual separately not only adds unnecessary time to the research process and your costs—it also delivers a clunky respondent experience. (No one is really eager to jump from one platform to another just to answer a survey!)
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So, when evaluating top SMS survey software alternatives, choose ones that allow you to get quant, qual and video feedback on the same platform. This is very useful in enabling agile research and getting you to deeper insights faster!
Why it matters: You get the flexibility to design studies your way, all in one place.
Just because it’s done over text doesn’t mean an SMS survey should be less robust or sophisticated than a “real” survey. The most common question types (single choice, multi choice, grids, images, open-ends, etc.) should be available, as well as things like piping, masking, skip logic, etc.
You can even go further than that and look for a market research platform that lets you use Profile Variables and past responses to personalize surveys.
Why it matters: Robust SMS survey platform = Robust data. Better participant experience = better data. And no one’s answering irrelevant questions.
Trigger conversational surveys automatically based on actions or attributes. Schedule SMS sends by timezone. Re-contact previous respondents with a click.
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Why it matters: In-the-moment research is more accurate—and lets you stay agile without extra effort.
Research is a brand touchpoint. Your surveys are part of the brand experience.
So, look for features that let you bring your brand to life. You should be able to add your logo, brand colors, and even a contact card so your texts look official.
Why it matters: A polished, recognizable brand builds trust and encourages response.
Research is a brand touchpoint. Your surveys are part of the brand experience.
The top market research platforms today make it easy to analyze your data and generate reports that support effective storytelling techniques. Running significance testing, creating crosstabs and exporting charts to PowerPoint, for example, are table stakes for a modern SMS survey software.
Next-gen features give you access to real-time video transcripts and sentiment analysis, and even AI Summarization features to make sense of your open-ends and video feedback.
Why it matters: Turn insights into action, fast. Extend the visibility and impact of your research by sharing reports and deliverables that your CMO and stakeholders will pay attention to.
At Rival, we believe that research should be as intuitive and engaging as the apps people use every day. That’s why we’ve built a conversational research platform that enables easy SMS distribution of surveys. (Email distribution is also available on Rival, but SMS and mobile-first research is our bread and butter!)
Can do both email and text / SMS surveys through traditional market research platforms like SurveyMonkey and Qualtrics? Yes, of course, but Rival is one of the few solutions in the market that’s created specifically for mobile-first consumers.
If you’d like to learn about the Rival platform, feel free to check out demos on our website or to contact us for an overview.
Final Thoughts
Let’s be honest: traditional surveys aren’t keeping up with how people communicate today. But SMS and text messaging surveys? They meet people where they are—on their phones—with research that feels natural, relevant, and even fun.
So if you’re ready to level up your research game, reduce fraud, increase participation, and get better insights faster… it might be time to start texting.
SMS surveys aren’t just the future of agile research. They’re already here.
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