FAQ for CityU SMS (for Staff and Student)
What is SMS?
Short Messaging Service is an effective means for asynchronous communication. It has long been used in customer services and peer messaging, either one-to-one (personal) or one-to-many (broadcast). SMS can be one-way as often seen in advertising, or two-ways where recipient can response.
Why CityU SMS?
The centrally-supported CityU SMS service is authentic and helps prevent department recipients from receiving fake SMS purporting to be the university or department.
How would I know SMS message is from CityU?
CityU SMS messages, sent via the central service, carry the phone numbers "CityU HK" or 8525567xxxx18, where the “xxxx” can be 3705–3730, 3901, 3923, 3931, 3969, or 4859. For example, 8525567370518 is a valid caller ID for a CityU SMS message.
Who may send SMS messages to me?
University IT services, such as the CAP (CityU Announcement Portal), and departmental IT services may make use of the central SMS to communicate timely matters to you.
How would the University know my SMS number?
The first university IT service to deploy central SMS is the CAP. Staff and students who have provided SMS phone numbers in AIMS (via the Personal Data for Communication option), will start to receive CAP SMS on their phones and mobile devices.
Will there be unsolicited SMS messages?
Staff and students do not have to worry about spam and unsolicited CAP SMS, as the service adheres to the service policy where senders (departments) can only send SMS to their respective constituent staff and students.
What’s the difference between CAP announcement and CAP SMS?
CAP announcement and CAP SMS are two separate messaging features in the CAP, and not every CAP announcement is accompanied by an SMS, and vice versa. Staff and students, therefore, must not rely on CAP SMS for receiving all their CAP messages. They have to regularly login and check for new messages from the CAP website, https://cap.cityu.edu.hk/studentlan, and read the 5:00 p.m. personalized CAP digest which is send to their CityU email account every day.
Would urgent University Announcements go through SMS too?
For university Urgent Announcement that is posted on the CityU Homepage, e.g. on special arrangement for examination during adverse weather conditions, an SMS will be sent to all staff’s and students’ primary contact or SMS phone numbers no matter they have provided their SMS phone numbers in AIMS or not.
Would I be charged for SMS services?
Local phone service plans are normally not required to pay for receiving local SMS. However, different service agreements may vary and to avoid unexpected charges staff and students are advised to check their service agreements, especially when data roaming is active when they are outside Hong Kong.