Aaahhhh! What happened to the old style text message alert format? Until yesterday an alert (when one of my aircraft files a flight plan) the text would show which airports it was filed to and from, and would show the time the flight was filed for, the ETA and in some instance the expected route to be given. This information is very useful to copilots like myself. The new format is more layman friendly but I have yet to see a text that can fit the entire message in 160 characters, and the message does not list ETA, filed time, or expected routes. Please change it back!
ETD and ETA are of course essential, but I would have to agree that it would be nice to have all the info contained within 160 characters, so it doesn’t get split across multiple text messages. Perhaps some creative trimming can be done to reduce mobile alert message length.
Does the new style have the 4-letter A/C type code in the text? I shut off text alerts for now.
My bid is a text alert should ideally have Tail num/callsign, A/C type, origin and dest airport, ETD and ETA…anything else?
A quick test…
NXXXXX/C182/KXXX → KXXX/2400Z 0200Z
That’s 36 characters at my count, although primitive.
It could be:
Nxxxxx/C182 filed to depart Kxxx 2400Z for Kxxx ETA 02000Z
which is 58 characters and has all the same info…
But then again, I’m not a pilot, so maybe I’m looking at this from a fairly ignorant perspective.
I’ve made changes to the formatting of the text alerts to address much of the feedback from this thread. Most notably I’ve got it including equipment type in departure, arrival, and diversion alerts (previously it was only including equipment type in filed alerts).
I like your suggested format, linemanKMFD, but I’m afraid it’s a little bit too terse to be understandable for many of our users. I want at least one verb in there!
It’s worth pointing out that you receive different formats for the alerts sent to your email address vs. your mobile email address, so depending on your configuration you may want to subscribe to one or both targets to get all the information.
Looking forward I think we may end up moving to two different types of alerts – information and operational (or something along those lines) – so that users can tailor the information to their needs. Operational alerts could be pilot-centric with equipment and route unrolling and include information which might be intimidating to someone who just wants to track a commercial flight as a passenger.
Aww verbs??? We gotta?
I like the ideas in your last paragraph!
EDIT: Just tried the new alert and it’s pretty much exactly what I had in mind! As long as it has Tail#/Callsign, A/C type, departure and arrival airport and times of departure and arrival, it has everything I need! Thank you!!
