Visual IVR supports multiple output channels. While web, mobile web and native iOS and Android are very popular, there are large sections of users who do not have smart phones. Visual IVR can support non feature rich phones through the USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) protocol. USSD is supported across most GSM carriers and provide an alternative mechanism for rendering a visual IVR interface to these users. Availability of USSD is on a per country basis.

By utilizing the USSD protocol, information can be displayed on GSM phones, even where the phone is not a "smart phone". USSD is particularly prominent in regions where smart phone adoption is lagging, however, it is used by most GSM carriers even with smart phones to display basic account information, such as the user's account balance.

Because Visual IVR supports USSD, we are able to present a visual navigation of your IVR for your non smart phone customers or those utilizing a WAP interface. Your customers will see the visual IVR menu displayed as text on their mobile device. They are able to select an option and be presented with the next step in the sequence, much as if they were using a smart phone.

While USSD is fully supported, the protocol has some inherent limitations. As a result, we advise USSD customers to be aware of the message length limits of USSD and tailor their IVR scripts accordingly. In addition, some features such as entering alphanumeric data may be more cumbersome if the phone is not a "smart phone" (ie. has no keyboard for data entry), although alphanumeric is supported by the protocol. Images however are not supported within USSD. Nonetheless, all these limitations can be accommodated with the result that your customers with older phone technology can still benefit from Visual IVR.