The short answer
- Push cannot rely on Firebase alone. A device is registered on several transports at once and the send picks whichever one that device is reachable on.
- SMS goes out on the customer's own account with the customer's own gateway key, which is a sanctions constraint before it is a pricing one.
- The whole platform runs on infrastructure inside Iran, so an international link outage does not stop event intake, but it does stop anything whose server is outside.
- WhatsApp uses your own Business account, voice and IVR connect through your provider by webhook, and the Android SDK ships as source rather than from a public package repository.
- The build itself cannot reach Docker Hub reliably, which is an ordinary Tuesday here and a novel failure mode for a global team.
Push: Firebase is not a delivery guarantee
On a large share of Android devices in Iran, Google Play Services is missing, out of date or unable to reach Google. Firebase Cloud Messaging then delivers nothing, and the failure is silent: the send succeeds from your side and the notification never arrives. A send count will never tell you this happened.
A device is not limited to one transport. On Android, the app can register FCM, Cafe Bazaar and Myket tokens on the same device, and the campaign picks a route that can actually reach it rather than assuming Firebase is always available.
The full version of this one has its own page:
- Android push without Google Play ServicesWhat breaks, the three delivery routes, and how one device carries several at once.
SMS: the line and the key belong to the customer
We do not resell SMS. Messages go out through the customer's own account with an Iranian gateway, on their own sender ID, with their own key. The platform composes, decides and schedules; the gateway that the customer already has a contract with delivers.
Read as pricing, that means we charge nothing per message and the message allowance on every tier is zero. Read as architecture, it is the only arrangement available: an aggregator relationship that a foreign platform would set up centrally is not something we can hold on our customers' behalf, and a sender ID belongs to the business that registered it.
There is a consequence a global vendor would not think to warn about. Delivery is not ours to guarantee. A recipient who has switched off promotional SMS at the operator is on a blacklist we cannot see and the message does not arrive, however healthy the platform is. The campaign report therefore shows filtered and opted-out messages as their own lines rather than folding them into a delivery rate.
Infrastructure: inside the country, and what that buys and costs
Everything runs on infrastructure inside Iran and backups do not leave it. No law requires that of a private company, so it is a decision, and it has a specific operational consequence worth stating in both directions.
What it buys: an international link disruption does not take event intake or the panel down, because neither of them crosses the border.
What it costs: anything whose server is outside is affected immediately, and the clearest case is push through Google and Apple. Our Service Level Commitment lists upstream infrastructure as an exclusion for exactly this reason, and names it rather than hiding it in a general force majeure clause.
The build is a constraint too
This is the part a team outside would find strange, so it is worth writing down. The deployment pipeline pulls base images from Docker Hub, and from here that connection times out rather than refusing, which means a build fails on a network timeout in the middle of a step that has nothing to do with the network.
It is survivable and it is not free. A layer cache hides it most of the time, which makes it worse rather than better: the failure appears only on the cache-less path, so it looks intermittent and unrelated to whatever changed. Anybody planning to operate a platform from here should assume every dependency registry is a dependency, and mirror the ones they cannot lose.
What still needs a different integration path
The core platform works inside these constraints, but a few capabilities use a different path or still have a clear limitation:
- WhatsApp templates send through your own Business account. Segmentic does not resell the account or Meta conversation fees.
- Voice and IVR connect through the specialist provider you choose by webhook; the journey decision and reporting remain in Segmentic.
- The Android SDK is available as source and integrates through Gradle, but is not distributed from a public package repository. There is no packaged iOS SDK yet, so iOS uses the stable REST path.
- International card payments. Settlement is by domestic transfer or USDT.
- ISO 27001, SOC 2, and a third-party penetration test report. The audit market that issues those is not reachable from here today.
What this means if you are evaluating from outside Iran
The honest summary is that the constraints are real, they are listed above rather than discovered later, and the ones that matter most have designs behind them rather than intentions. Push is multi-transport because it had to be. SMS runs on your account because it could not run on ours. The platform sits inside the country because a buyer's security review asks where the data is and the answer needs to be checkable.
These choices also make the operating cost predictable: Segmentic charges for the platform, while SMS, WhatsApp and specialist voice-provider fees remain on the accounts you already control. The pricing page separates those costs clearly.
The pages a technical evaluation usually opens next:
- Data residency and on-premise deploymentWhere the data sits, who can read it, and what we do not have.
- The technical documentationThirty pages: the API, the event model, identity and the SDKs.
- How the pricing worksThe meter, what every tier includes, and what we never bill for.
Questions you may have about this
Does push actually work on Android devices in Iran
Yes, but not through Firebase alone. A device can register FCM, Cafe Bazaar and Myket tokens at the same time, and the campaign picks a route that can actually reach it. Relying on FCM by itself fails silently on many devices without working Google Play Services.
Do you resell SMS
No. Messages go out on your own account, your own sender ID and your own gateway key. That is why the message allowance on every tier is zero and why we charge nothing per message. It also means delivery is between you and your operator, and the campaign report shows filtered and opted-out messages separately rather than folding them into a delivery rate.
Is WhatsApp available
Yes, for approved templates through your own WhatsApp Business account. Segmentic handles audience selection, timing, consent and reporting, while Meta conversation fees stay on your account. Bale, Eitaa and Rubika are also available as one local-messenger channel.
Does an internet disruption stop the platform
Event intake and the panel run inside Iran, so an international link disruption does not stop them. Push through Google and Apple is affected immediately, because those servers are outside. The Service Level Commitment lists upstream infrastructure as an exclusion for that reason.
Can we get an ISO 27001 or SOC 2 report
No. We hold neither, and we have no third-party penetration test report either. The Security Document says so in its own article rather than leaving it to be discovered.