Smart Routing

Smart Routing is Smooven’s intelligent channel selection engine. Instead of hard-coding which channel to use, you let Smooven evaluate the recipient’s context and pick the best option automatically.

How Smart Routing works

When you send an intent-based notification (or use preferred_channel without forcing a specific channel), Smart Routing evaluates:

Available channels: which channels does this recipient have registered? (phone number, device token, email, etc.)
User preferences: has the user set a preferred channel or quiet hours?
Device state: is their device online? Is RCS supported on their carrier?
Message urgency: critical messages may use multiple channels simultaneously
Cost optimisation: push is free, SMS costs per message. Smart Routing considers this.
Historical engagement: which channel has this user responded to most in the past?

Channel priority by urgency

Urgency	Default priority order
`low`	Push > In-App > Email
`normal`	Push > RCS > SMS > Email
`high`	SMS > Push > RCS > Email
`critical`	SMS + Push (simultaneous)

These defaults can be overridden at the project level in the dashboard.

Fallback behaviour

If the primary channel fails, Smart Routing automatically tries the next channel in the priority order:

RCS (failed: not supported) → SMS (delivered) ✓

The /status endpoint includes the full fallback_chain showing each attempt.

Enabling Smart Routing

Smart Routing is active by default for all intent-based notifications. For direct channel requests, you can opt in by setting "fallback": true:

{
  "channel": "rcs",
  "to": "+61400000000",
  "message": "Your order has shipped!",
  "fallback": true
}

With fallback: true, if RCS delivery fails, Smooven will attempt SMS, then push, then email.

Custom routing rules

Enterprise plans support custom routing rules via the dashboard:

Channel exclusions: never use SMS for this project (e.g., cost control)
Geographic rules: use SMS in Australia, push everywhere else
Time-based rules: prefer push during business hours, SMS for after-hours critical alerts
Segment rules: VIP customers get RCS, others get SMS