Direct Standard and Low Volume Standard registration overview

This guide provides an overview for Direct customers who want to register their own business for A2P 10DLC messaging capabilities as a Standard or Low-Volume Standard Brand.

Following this process lets US Carriers know who you are and what types of messages you'll be sending to end-users. This is important so that end-users can trust that they are receiving legitimate SMS traffic and so that carriers do not filter your messages to your customers. Learn more about A2P regulations and registration options here.

If you are an Independent Software Vendor (ISV) and want to register your customers for A2P, see this overview.

Direct Brand Standard registration steps

You will complete A2P 10DLC registration in the Twilio Console. The process involves the following steps:

• Create a Twilio Primary Business Profile in Twilio's Trust Hub
• Register a US A2P Brand
  • A Brand verifies who you are with US carriers
• Register a new Campaign use case and link to a Messaging Service with your 10DLC phone numbers
  • A Campaign describes the messages you will be sending to users and how they can opt in or out of these messages
  • Once you create a campaign, you will attach the campaign to a Messaging Service. Any 10DLC phone numbers in that messaging service will be registered for A2P 10DLC capabilities. If you have additional 10DLC phone numbers you’d like to use to send messages to the US, please add them to this Messaging Service as well.

Prerequisite: gather required information for A2P10DLC registration

Before you begin the registration process for A2P10DLC, collect the following information to ensure a smooth onboarding flow:

When you register an A2P Brand and Campaign, you will be assigned a Trust Score that will determine your messaging throughput to US networks as well as daily message limits to T-Mobile. In order to obtain the best possible Trust Score, you should provide accurate, up-to-date information. See best practices here.

1. Create a Twilio Business Profile in Trust Hub

Navigate to the Twilio Console → Messaging → Regulatory Compliance → Onboarding page. The first step is to create your Twilio Business Profile. This step validates your business identity. You will only need to do this once.

• Business Details: the Business name.
• Business Address: the Business Address and other metadata.
• Business Information: the Business’ identity within the ecosystem, the Business type, ID, industry, website URL, and region information.

While registering your business information, you will also provide:

• Authorized Representatives: information about Authorized Representative(s) associated with your Business Profile.
• Notification Settings: an email address for notifications about the status of your Business Profile.

Make sure to review your business profile information under Review and Submit before submitting.

The submission of your Business Profile may take up to 72 hours for approval. However, you can still continue and register a US A2P Brand while your Business Profile is pending approval.

2. Register your US A2P brand

Next, register your Business Profile for A2P 10DLC capabilities by creating a US A2P brand. You can register as either a Low Volume Standard or a Standard Brand.

A Low-Volume Standard Brand skips secondary vetting. It is less expensive, but also results in lower throughput and is more suited for customers sending fewer than 6,000 message segments daily. Learn more about Low-Volume Standard vs. Standard brands here.

This step registers your business for US A2P10DLC capabilities. You need to include:

• Your registered Business Profile (from Step 1)
  • This will be automatically filled out for you after you create your customer profile, but you can switch profiles if you would like to register your Brand for a different customer profile you have created in your account
• Your Brand type (Low-Volume Standard or Standard)
• Review the differences between Low-Volume Standard and Standard Brand registration
• Your Company type and stock information (if public)
• See the list of supported stock exchanges here

You also need to agree to the one-time Brand registration fee.

Once you hit the Register button, Twilio submits your application for approval. Approval typically occurs within a few minutes of submitting. You will receive an email and see a message on screen when your registration is complete.

3. Register your campaign use case(s)

Once you have created and registered your Business Profile and US A2P Brand, it’s time to register a Campaign use case for sending messages over A2P 10DLC routes.

Examples of campaign use cases are marketing messages and order confirmations. A specific US A2P Brand — like the one you created in Step 2 — may have one or more campaign use cases associated with it, such as one for marketing notifications and another for order confirmations.

The registration process is the same for each campaign use case that you create. However, you should check the pricing and other details before opting for use cases. For more information on campaign use cases, please see the Support Article on List of Campaign Types and the Support Article on Pricing for A2P 10DLC Service.

Starting January 26, 2023, all new Twilio US A2P 10DLC Campaign registrations (Standard, Low volume standard, and the soon-to-be released Sole Proprietor 2.0) will be subject to a manual vetting process and be charged a $15 campaign verification fee at the time of external vetting. If a campaign is denied by external vetting, additional charges may occur with re-submission.

With this new vetting process, a newly submitted Campaign will be put in a “Pending” state until it has been approved in the manual vetting process. You can only send compliant messages via A2P once the Campaign is fully approved. This vetting process may take 5+ days.

Once vetted and approved, any phone number within the connected Messaging Service will be identified as A2P 10DLC with the associated campaign use case, and you should see lower message filtering.

You’ll need the following information for the campaign use case creation process:

• The Messaging Service to be associated with the campaign (or, you can create a new service after filling out your campaign details)
• The A2P use case type
• The use case description
• Two sample messages, each up to 1024 characters long
• The message flow: details around how a consumer opts-in to your campaign, therefore giving consent to receive your messages
• At least one Twilio Phone Number to add to the Messaging Service’s Sender Pool. You can purchase a Twilio Phone Number ahead of time through the Console, REST API, or Twilio CLI.

First, you'll see the Register Campaign Use Case form. Here, you will need to enter several pieces of information.

Provide campaign details

In the first section of the form, you will provide the following information:

• The A2P campaign use case (see a list of use cases here)
• A description of the campaign use case: The description should be thorough and provide an explanation of the campaign’s objective or purpose.
• Two sample messages for the campaign use case
  • Sample messages should reflect actual messages to be sent under campaign and indicate templated fields with brackets
  • Ensure consistency with your use case and Campaign description
  • Include your opt-out message as at least one of the sample messages
• Select whether your messages will include embedded links and/or phone numbers

Provide end-user consent information

Additionally, within the same form, you will need to provide information about end-user consent for this campaign. This field should describe how and when a consumer opts in to the Campaign, therefore giving consent to the sender to receive their messages. You will need to provide:

• How do end-users consent to receive messages?
  • If there are multiple ways that users can consent to receive messages, you must include all of them.
  • The call-to-action must be explicitly clear and inform end users of the Campaign. If multiple opt-in methods can be used, list them all.
  • If a website is used for opting in, provide a link to the website. The website needs to have a privacy policy and terms of service. Privacy policies also need to include a statement of non-sharing for mobile numbers, message frequency, and "message and data rates may apply" disclosure. You need to provide a link to the policy.
  • If you indicate that users can opt-in through text, provide the opt-in message and opt-in keywords in the fields below.
    
    Example: "End users opt-in by visiting www.example.com and adding their phone number. They then check a box agreeing to receive text messages from Example Brand. Additionally, end users can also opt-in by texting START to (111) 222-3333 to opt in. Term and Conditions at www.example.com/tc. Privacy Policy at www.example.com/privacy"
• Opt-in keywords
  • If end users can text in a keyword to start receiving messages from this campaign, those keywords must be provided. If you do not support opt-in keywords, these do not need to be provided.
• Opt-in message
  • If users can text in to start receiving messages, you must provide the automated message that end users will receive when they opt in to your campaign. Message must include brand, messsage frequency, opt-in confirmation, and information on how to opt-out.

Indicate user opt-out and help options

Users must also have a way to opt out of campaigns and receive help. Most Twilio customers use default or advanced opt-out and will not need to provide these details. Twilio will complete this information for you with either the default opt-out and help messaging, or with the messaging you've configured as part of Advanced Opt-Out.

If you manage your own opt-out and help, you will see additional fields that you need to complete for your campaign:

• Opt-out keywords: The keywords end users can text to stop receiving messages from this campaign
• Opt-out message: The automated message end users will receive when they text in one of the opt-out keywords
• Help keywords: The keywords end users can text to receive help
• Help message: The automated message end users will receive when they text in one of the help keywords

Attach a Messaging Service to the campaign

Next, you'll need to attach this campaign to a Messaging Service. You can either choose an existing Messaging Service, if you have any, or create a new one. If you choose to create a new Messaging Service, you will be able to configure the new Messaging Service in the next step.

Do I have to use a Messaging Service?

If you currently do not use Messaging Services, you do not need to make any changes to your code. You can continue to pass a phone number in the From field when sending a message.

Your phone numbers will need to be in a Messaging Service associated with your campaign use case, but it is not necessary to send your Messaging Service SID in your API requests. However, you will need to add those phone numbers to a Messaging Service for SMS campaign use case registration purposes. Using a Messaging Service also allows you to group phone numbers together for similar campaign use cases, making the registration process more straightforward.

Click Register Campaign when you are ready to proceed. You will then see a window that asks you confirm the costs associated with campaign registration and agree to the terms and conditions of registering the campaign. Click Confirm to continue.

If you selected an Existing Messaging Service for this Campaign, the Campaign will be verified. You will then skip to adding additional senders to your Messaging Service.

Create a new Messaging Service

If you are creating a new Messaging Service for this campaign, Twilio will create a new Messaging Service for you automatically. The name of the new Messaging Service will be the name of the A2P Campaign Use Case that you selected earlier.

You will need to attach a phone number to the new service. You will see a list of available phone numbers in your account that you can register.

If you do not have any phone numbers, you should purchase one and then refresh the list. Once you've selected the phone number(s) to attach and agree to Twilio's Messaging Policy, click Add Phone Numbers to the Messaging Service.

Add additional senders to your Messaging Service

After you have created a new Messaging Service and added a phone number, or selected an existing Messaging Service, you will see a review of the phone number(s) you have added to this service already. You can add additional senders to this Messaging Service now, or you can do so later in the Messaging Service section of the Console.

Finalize your campaign registration

Click Continue when you have finished adding Senders to this service and are ready to finalize the campaign registration.

Due to the new manual vetting process, it is normal for your campaign to stay in the “In Progress” state for days. The Twilio ops team will reach out to you if additional information is needed.

Once approved, you can register additional campaign use cases and view all of your registered US A2P brands.

Congratulations, you have successfully registered for US A2P Messaging capabilities by creating a Business Profile, submitting a US A2P brand, and registering a campaign use case associated with a Twilio Messaging Service!

Carrier Post-Approval

There are six Special Campaign Use Cases that require additional carrier review (post-approval) of all attempted registrations immediately following registration:

• Agents, franchise, local branches: brands that have multiple agents, franchises, or offices in the same brand vertical, but require individual localized numbers per agent/location/office.
• Proxy (formerly Conversational): peer-to-peer app-based group messaging with proxy/pooled numbers.
• Emergency: notification services designed to support public safety/health during natural disasters, armed conflicts, pandemics, and other national or regional emergencies.
• Social: communication between public figures/influencers and their communities.
• Sweepstakes: all gambling and sweepstakes messaging.
• K-12 Education: Messaging platforms for grades K-12 and schools. Note: Post-Secondary institutions should continue to use the "Higher Education" use case.

Post-approval for these special use cases is required before the phone numbers on the campaign are registered for A2P 10DLC and before unlocking associated pricing or throughput benefits available. Carrier review for post-approval campaigns takes an average of 7 days.

Campaigns requiring post-approval can either be approved or rejected by carriers. If approved, all SMS messages sent or received from the phone numbers in the Messaging Service you used to register the campaign will be routed as registered A2P messaging traffic. If rejected, you will not be able to send or receive A2P-registered SMS messages from the phone numbers in the Messaging Service until you re-register your campaign with an automatic approval use case.

Register Post-Approval Campaign Use Case

During the "Register Campaign Use Case" section of the registration process, click the Available A2P campaign use cases dropdown menu. The campaign use cases types that require post-approval are categorized as Requires Carrier Review.

Select your A2P campaign use case and continue with the setup process for your Messaging Service.

Monitor status of Post-Approval Campaign

After registering a campaign requiring post-approval, your campaign will be updated with a status of "In Progress" while the carriers review it. Your traffic will not be moved to registered A2P routes until approved by carriers. If you are already sending messages using the associated Messaging Service on unregistered SMS routes, this will continue to function as normal in this state.

You will receive an email from Twilio with the results of the carrier review after it is completed. Carrier review takes an average of 7 days.

You will either be approved or rejected by the carriers. This is separate from the manual vetting process mentioned previously.

If approved, your messaging traffic will be successfully registered on A2P routes in accordance with the pricing and throughput of the selected campaign type. Your campaign will be marked as "Verified" in the Console.

If rejected, you will have the opportunity to resubmit your campaign with a different use case that will be automatically approved by the carriers. Your campaign status will be marked as "Failed" in the Console.