Sinch and AAA partner to expand chat capabilities for individuals needing roadside assistance

Stockholm, Sweden, and Atlanta, USA – Sept. 28, 2023 – Cloud communications leader Sinch and one of North America’s largest and most trusted membership organizations, AAA, are partnering to expand chat capabilities for individuals requesting roadside assistance. These changes will allow those stranded in remote areas to seamlessly connect with AAA for help.

Yearly, millions of Americans are at risk of having need of road assistance while not being nearby a cellular network.

On Sept. 12, AAA announced that users of the newly announced iPhone 15 line up, as well as iPhone 14 users can now get access to Roadside Assistance via satellite utilizing AAA services. As one of North America’s largest and most trusted membership organizations, AAA responds to approximately 30 million calls for roadside assistance annually and serves more than 63 million members.

Sinch, which has been an official Apple Messaging Service Provider since 2018, will serve as the software provider making it seamless for AAA agents to be in near-live contact with motorists and localize them using satellite connection. This new option to contact AAA will relieve millions of Americans a year from fear of needing to have road assistance while not being nearby a cellular network.

“We are thrilled to further partner with AAA to leverage our industry-leading customer communication cloud to bring two-way conversational experiences to people precisely when they need it most,” said Sinch CEO Laurinda Pang. “We are able to combine our long experience of multi-channel communications, our investments in Conversational AI and our Sinch Engage engagement suite to deliver this much-valued innovation to AAA and the many motorists they excel in servicing.”

Sinch and AAA have long worked together in initiatives to drive meaningful member experience through mobile messaging. For instance, Sinch has made the AAA’s 800-HELP number text-enabled. When a member texts, the response from AAA includes a web link that allows the user to create a request for roadside assistance without having to speak to a AAA agent.

“AAA’s top priority is taking care of our members when they need us most,” said Marshall Doney, president and CEO, AAA. “Sinch has been an excellent partner in furthering that mission and their innovation has allowed us to take our roadside assistance to the next level.”

Enabling roadside assistance via satellite builds on Sinch’s previous experience in delivering robust communications services that meet the highest possible requirements. Last November, T-Mobile partnered with Sinch to launch another important first: NextGen 911 Real-Time Text (RTT). This first-ever NextGen 911 RTT technology is operating at an Emergency Communications Center (ECC) in Hood County, Texas, allowing T-Mobile customers to communicate with 911 through simultaneous conversational text and voice — text messages can be sent and read at the same time — without the need for teletype (TTY) technology.

This is particularly critical for up to 48 million Americans who are Deaf or hard of hearing, as well as those who have speech-related disabilities or are non-native English speakers. RTT also gives public safety centers the ability to make better-informed dispatch decisions during a crisis and shave crucial time off a response.