Mosio is a messaging service specifically tailored for REDCap users, allowing for automated survey invites, alerts, and survey invitations via SMS/text messaging. Mosio is available for project teams through a monthly subscription model. For more information about the subscription plans and how to get an account, please read Getting a Mosio Account.
This article will cover how to configure your initial Mosio settings in REDCap after Mosio has been enabled in your project. If your REDCap project has not been connected to your Mosio project yet, please read Linking a Mosio Project to a REDCap Project before continuing with this article.
Jump to:
Accessing Mosio Settings
After Mosio has been enabled on your project, you will need to configure how you would like Mosio to be used. This can be done by navigating to your project, and opening the "Project Setup" page. You can access this webpage by clicking the "Project Setup" hyperlink found on your left-hand sidebar, underneath the "Project Home and Design" heading.
From the Project Setup page, scroll down until you see the text reading "Mosio Two-Way Text Messaging (SMS) Services".
Click the "Configure settings" button that appears underneath the bold text.
This will trigger the pop-up window pictured below, titled "SMS Settings".
This menu will be the primary location where you will configure Mosio functionality. We will now review each section step-by-step.
Settings Explanation
Select the project features for which the telephony services will be enabled (e.g., surveys and/or alerts)
This setting determines what messaging features will have the option to send Short Message Service (SMS) messages instead of emails.
1. The default selection is "Surveys and survey invitations only", which means that you will be only able to send SMS messages from the following features:
- Automated survey invitations (accessed by clicking on the "Designer" hyperlink on the left-hand sidebar, and clicking on of the "+ Automated Invitations" buttons that appear to the right of instruments enabled as surveys). Read more about Automated Survey Invitations here: Automated Survey Invitations
- Public Survey URL invitations (accessed by clicking on the "Survey Distribution Tools" sidebar link, selecting the "Public Survey Link" tab, and pressing the "Invite participants via SMS" button.
- Survey invitations (which are sent by clicking on the "Survey Distribution Tools" sidebar link, selecting the "Participant List" tab, and clicking the "Compose Survey Invitations" button.
2. The next option from this dropdown menu is "Alerts & Notifications only". This will prevent you from sending SMS messages from the features listed above. Instead, you will only be able to send SMS Alerts, which can be customized on the "Alerts & Notifications" page, which is accessed by clicking the "Alerts & Notifications" hyperlink on your left-hand sidebar, underneath the "Applications" heading. Read more about the Alerts & Notifications feature here: Alerts & Notifications
3. The final option is "ALL: Surveys and survey invitations + Alerts & Notifications". This will allow you to use SMS messaging with all the features discussed above.
Choose survey invitation types to use
By default, the "Send survey invitation with survey link via SMS" option will be enabled. In nearly every case, this should remain enabled. This will allow you to send SMS survey invitations containing a survey link.
There is also an option to administer REDCap surveys via SMS, "Survey as SMS conversation", where each item within the survey would come through as a text, and the participant would reply to answer the given item. While this option is made available to teams on our instance of REDCap, a REDCap Administrator must enable this on your behalf. As SMS is not a secure form of communication and this functionality can become quite costly due to the number of outgoing SMS messages per participant, we typically discourage the use of this functionality. If you believe you have a valid use case and would like to discuss this further, please reach out to us by submitting a ticket.
Choose the default invitation preference for new survey participants
You may select one of three options from this dropdown. Your selection will determine the default mode of communication when sending participants survey invitations. You have three options in this dropdown, with the default value being "Email invitation".
Alternatively, you can default to an SMS invitation with a link. The third option will only be functional (though still selectable) if the "Initiate survey as SMS conversation" checkbox is checked.
Control each participant's invitation preference using a multiple choice field
In addition to having the ability to select a default method when sending a survey invitation in REDCap, you can also allow the participant to select a preference that would override the default method.
Clicking on the dropdown menu provided here will generate ALL multiple choice fields on your project, but, in order for this functionality to work, you will need to select a field that contains one or more of the raw values listed in the blue in the screenshot above. For steps on how to create a field for this purpose, please read Mosio - Set an Invitation Preference Field.
Designate a phone number field for survey invitations sent via SMS or voice call (optional)
With this feature, you can identify a primary field where you would like to collect the participant's phone number for SMS messaging communications. This field will automatically capture the phone number for participants who were invited to a survey via the participant list (assuming a phone number was listed), or the number entered will be added to the participant list (if the record does not have a phone number listed already).
Only fields with phone number or integer text validation will appear in this dropdown. If you would like to make a field have this type of validation, you will need to use the validation dropdown that appears when creating/editing a field.
After this validation is added to a field, you can select the field from the "--- select a phone field ---" dropdown
Automatically append response instructions to questions?
This option will only be relevant if you are sending SMS surveys. If "Yes, auto-append response instructions" is selected, REDCap will automatically list the response options and the raw value(s) the participant will need to send to select said response option. When "No, do not append" is selected, this will not occur, and you will need to provide the participant with instructions response instructions in the field label.
Behavior for overlapping SMS invitations
This option will only be relevant if you are sending SMS survey invitations. If multiple invitations were to go out at the exact same time, you will need to dictate the behavior that occurs. Your selection this field will determine if you only send the most recent invitation, trigger surveys in the order in which the participant, or allow the participant to select which survey they complete next.
Next Up
Learn about invitation preference fields in Setting an Invitation Preference Field.