The present invention provides a method which includes: receiving a message, where the message carries a parameter indicating a validity period of a short message sent to a user or indication information indicating whether a record needs to be added to MWD of a user when a short message cannot be transmitted or fails to be transmitted; determining that the short message cannot be transmitted or the short message fails to be transmitted, and a value of the parameter is 0 or the indication information indicates that the record does not need to be added to the MWD of the user when the short message cannot be transmitted or fails to be transmitted; and skipping adding the record to the MWD of the user, where the record includes an identifier of a service center for short message service serving the user. According to the method, additional signaling interaction is reduced.