AWS SNS is sending weird SMS

I apologize, but I'm unable to see the image you've tried to share, so I can't comment on the specific "weird content" you're experiencing. However, I can provide some general information about SMS delivery through Amazon SNS that might be helpful.

Amazon SNS uses AWS End User Messaging for SMS delivery. While SNS is generally reliable for sending SMS messages, there can occasionally be issues that affect message content or delivery. Here are a few things to consider:

1. Message encoding: Ensure that your message content is properly encoded, especially if it contains special characters or non-ASCII text.

2. Message length: SMS messages have character limits. If your message exceeds these limits, it may be truncated or split into multiple messages, which could cause unexpected results.

3. Carrier issues: Sometimes, problems with the recipient's mobile carrier can affect message delivery or content.

4. Retry mechanism: The fact that retrying the same SMS delivers the expected content suggests there might be an intermittent issue with the SMS delivery pipeline.

5. Check your logs: Review your Amazon SNS logs and AWS CloudWatch metrics to see if there are any error messages or unusual patterns when these issues occur.

6. Contact AWS Support: If you're experiencing consistent problems, it's best to contact AWS Support. They can investigate your specific use case and provide more tailored assistance.

7. Consider using the SMS simulator: AWS End User Messaging SMS provides an SMS simulator that you can use to test your SMS workloads before sending them to actual recipients.

Remember, AWS is continually working to improve its services, so make sure you're using the latest version of the SDK and are aware of any recent updates to the SNS service that might affect SMS delivery.

If the problem persists, gathering more data about when and how often this occurs, along with examples of the expected vs. received content, will be helpful when seeking further assistance from AWS Support.
Sources
Amazon SNS now delivers SMS text messages via AWS End User Messaging - AWS
Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) Features | Messaging Service | AWS
Mobile text messaging with Amazon SNS - Amazon Simple Notification Service

Based on the description and the picture, it could be due to message encoding issues or could be due to downstream carrier issues.

If you continue to see this issue, I recommend enabling SNS SMS delivery status logs if you have not enabled them yet and reaching out to AWS Support with at least the messageIds and timestamps(with timezone) for this particular message. Please make sure that the logs you provide are from within the last 3-4 days from the time of opening the support case.

With the messageIDs and timestamps, AWS Support should be able to determine the cause and resolution for this issue.

SNS SMS CloudWatch logs - https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sns/latest/dg/sms_stats_cloudwatch.html#sns-viewing-cloudwatch-logs Create a Support Case - https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awssupport/latest/user/case-management.html#creating-a-support-case