Broadcast text alerts appear to have fallen out of fashion among mainstream news outlets -- CNN discontinued its text news alerts last month, and most other news organizations let their text alert services lapse long before that. Yet text messaging remains one of the most popular ways that people use cell phones. Here's why text alerts (broadcast or customized) still hold ample potential for local community engagement.

Text messaging may seem passé, now that 72% of U.S. cell phone subscribers use smartphones. Also, over half of all digital media time is now spent in mobile apps. Yet, over 90% of cell phone users send and receive text messages.

Some mobile experts now claim that app push notifications are the new text alerts. Yet there are some important differences, which offer different value for audience or community engagement.

However, App push notifications can quickly create clutter. Mobile apps which offer push notifications generally either enable them by default (a practice notoriously annoying to mobile users), or they must prompt users to accept their notifications. However, a Business Insider analysisof research indicated that only about half of mobile app users accept push notifications at all -- and most mobile users are highly selective about which apps they'll accept push notifications from.

So: If you create a mobile app that offers push notifications, chances are slim that users will elect to see your alerts. Or, if they're receiving alert from many apps, they may not notice yours.

Also there's the problem of app abandonment. According to Localytics, even with push notifications, only 40% of all apps are opened more than 11 times, and 20% are opened only once. Also, it's debatable whether push notifications increase app usage. And this happens afterorganizations go to the trouble and expense of developing, deploying, promoting and maintaining their mobile apps. App abandonment means that even when you succeed in getting users to download your app, many will forget it's on their mobile device -- and so it offers you (and them) no value.

In contrast, text messaging capability is ubiquitous-- not just for smartphones, but all mobile phones. You don't need to download and install a particular app to do text messaging; every cell phone comes with this feature. You can send and receive text messages even on a non-smart "feature" phone (making text alerts especially helpful for engaging low-income communities). Also, while a small percentage of U.S. mobile users still have limited texting plans, most are now unlimited -- meaning users incur no extra costs to receive text alerts.

Both text alerts and push notifications can support further action and engagement.App push notifications usually do this by driving traffic to your app -- but they can also include hyperlinks that will launch the user's mobile web browser or e-mail, or even initiate a phone call. Similarly, text alerts need not be just text; they can also include interactive elements such as hyperlinks (which may open in a third-party app, such as YouTube), e-mail addresses, or phone numbers.

However, push notifications aren't directly conversational. Typically, users cannot reply directly to a push notification, or forward it to others. However, text messages can be forwarded, increasing their reach -- and they can be used by forward recipients who have not installed your app. Furthermore, texting services supported by platforms such as Twilio or Mobile Commonscan offer robust, user-specific interactive capabilities that are not dependent on phone features or a mobile data connection.

Text messaging does have some challenges, of course. Primarily: It's not free to send text alerts.Depending on the number of subscribers and messages sent per month, costs for SMS vendors range from about $20-$200/month. But compared to the cost to develop, deploy, maintain and promote Android and iOS apps, this may be the less costly approach. (Yes, there are "free" broadcast text services which rely on email-to-SMS gateway technology, but these are easily blocked by wireless carriers and therefore unreliable for ongoing engagement.)

Perhaps the biggest benefit of text alerts is this: People who subscribe to your text alerts will almost certainly notice them when they arrive.This is a key advantage over the clutter problem of push notifications. And it's why text alert services remain highly popular for keeping people connected to high-value organizations and services that affect timely daily decisions -- such as banks, schools, sports scores, transit routes, and air travel updates.

Several community funders, local nonprofits, local governments, local activists and local engagement projects rely on text messaging as a key part of their local mobile strategy. (Here are some examples.) This is, in part, because they're generally seeking to connect with audiences that are smaller than what most app developers hope to reach -- which helps keep texting costs manageable.

Local use cases for text alerts. Text alerts work especially well in conjunction with:

• Service provision support, such as reminders to schedule appointments, checking whether it's safe to each locally caught fish, or driving registrations for a program or class.
• Events or deadlines, such as meetings or votes (or their cancelation/rescheduling).
• Breaking news, such as city council decisions
• Awareness campaigns, which can be supported by "did you know"-style messages, quizzes, or polls.

If you're starting to plan your local engagement strategy, don't discount the value of text messages just because apps are "cool." Texting is technically easier to implement, and inherently applicable across the widest range of devices. If you make sure every text message is high-value, and don't barrage subscribes with messages, chances are you'll be able to leverage this foundational mobile technology into valuable engagement.