Introduction

Ushahidi Platform USSD Service Summary.

USSD, which stands for Unstructured Supplementary Services Data, is a protocol that allows for the transmission of information via a GSM network.

Users enter a USSD string and press call to send the message. A typical USSD message starts with a * followed by digits which indicate an action to be performed or are parameters. Each group of numbers is separated by a *, and the message is terminated with a #.

For example, in Kenya, to find out what your airtime balance is on Safaricom, a user will dial *144#. Unlike SMS, USSD messages create a real-time connection during a session, that remains open, allowing a two-way exchange of a sequence of data.

This documentation explains details about a service that allows for users to send in reports to ushahidi deployments via USSD on Ushahidi v3.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-3LGJRNMH1Qi9ZAdconb3raRmPR4UzNEdrive.google.com

Ushahidi Platform USSD Service Demo

Source codes for the Ushahidi Platform API USSD Service is available here on GitHub.

You can read about My Google Summer of Code Experience (GSoC) with Ushahidi