Sending absent alerts to parents by SMS and WhatsApp: what colleges need
DLT registration, sender IDs, approved templates and WhatsApp message templates — what has to be in place before the first alert goes out.
← All articles · Published 16 Oct 2026 · FaceBiometric team
An absent alert that reaches a parent the same morning is one of the most useful things an attendance system can do. In India, sending those alerts by SMS or WhatsApp needs a few things in place first. This guide explains them in plain terms.
SMS: DLT registration comes first
Commercial SMS in India must go through the DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) system set up under TRAI's regulations. Before the first alert:
- Register the institution as a principal entity on a telecom operator's DLT portal.
- Register a sender ID (header) — the short name that appears as the sender, for example the college's initials.
- Register content templates — the exact wording of each message, with placeholders for variable parts such as the student's name and the date. Messages that don't match an approved template are blocked.
- Choose an SMS provider (for example MSG91, Fast2SMS or Textlocal) and link your DLT details to it.
Example template: "Dear Parent, {#var#} was absent from {#var#} on {#var#}. - [College name]". Keep templates short and factual.
WhatsApp: approved message templates
- Alerts sent by a business to people who haven't messaged it recently must use approved message templates on the WhatsApp Business Platform.
- You need a WhatsApp Business account and a phone number for it, set up through Meta directly or a WhatsApp business solution provider.
- Create a utility template for the absent alert, get it approved, and use its name and variables in your attendance system.
Good practice
- Send once, at a fixed time — for example an hour after the first period — not for every missing scan.
- Skip holidays and weekly offs, and members on approved leave.
- Keep parents' numbers current; a wrong number means a missed alert and a privacy problem.
- Set a daily limit so a mistake can never send thousands of messages.
- Tell parents in advance that they will receive these alerts, and from which sender.
How FaceBiometric handles it
Absent and late alerts, a daily summary for the principal and kiosk-offline alerts can each be switched on separately, by Email, SMS (MSG91, Fast2SMS, Textlocal) or WhatsApp, through the institution's own account — so message costs stay under your control. Holidays, weekly offs and leave are skipped automatically.
More: All features.
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