What you should know about Australia's new SMS Sender ID Register

What you should know about Australia's new SMS Sender ID Register

More businesses than ever rely on SMS to connect with customers, and as text volume grows, so does the need for trust. That’s why in Australia, regulators will require telecommunications providers to adhere to the new SMS Sender ID Register for Alphanumeric Sender ID services.

Let’s dive into what’s changing and how we’re helping customers navigate it.

What’s changing with Alphanumeric Sender ID services in Australia

The SMS Sender ID Register was established under the Telecommunications Act 1997. Beginning on July 1, 2026, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) will need to approve any Sender IDs used in messages sent to recipients in Australia through the register. This major regulatory change will help the telecommunications industry spot the difference between legitimate Sender ID traffic from potentially fraudulent activity. Industry participants will need to apply an “Unverified” label to any messages where the Sender ID hasn’t been approved on the register.

On the register, the ACMA can approve the following types of Sender ID brand owner customer entities:

• an individual
• a corporation
• a corporation sole
• a body politic
• a government entity within the meaning of the A New Tax System (Australian Business Number) Act 1999
• a partner
• any other unincorporated association or body of person
• a trust
• a superannuation fund (within the meaning of the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993

How Twilio is responding and what you need to know right now

As a registered service provider, we’re taking an active role in this new framework. We’re eager to help you get your Sender IDs approved on the register. To support this, we’re enhancing our onboarding processes to help our customers navigate these changes smoothly while also determining the best way for new customers to join.

For our customers already using Twilio Alphanumeric Sender ID Messaging Services to communicate to recipients in Australia, the next steps are to confirm the identity of your authorized entity representatives and other details about your business. We’ll support this process by coordinating information gathering and by guiding customers through each stage. If we’ve collected certain details from you before, we’ll reuse them where possible to save you time.

If you’re already a Twilio Alphanumeric Sender ID customer, you’ll receive further and more customized guidance on what exactly is needed when it’s time to register your Sender ID.

We’d like to make it clear from the beginning that your brand belongs to you. Even if we’ve offered (and you’ve accepted) our help to register your Sender ID, we’re not the only service provider that can send messages for you using that Sender ID once it’s registered. The Sender ID brand that becomes registered to your entity is ultimately your own brand to use as you see fit.

For Australian entities with an Australian Business Number

If you’re an Australian entity with an Australian Business Number (ABN), it's worth making sure your Australian Business Register (ABR) information is up-to-date. Make sure it includes your authorized representative's details and the names of representatives that are responsible for managing the use of your Sender ID in your messaging communications. Having accurate information on your files and the ABR will help us move quickly when it's time to register your Sender IDs for approval on the register.

Alphanumeric Sender ID format requirements

The ACMA has specific requirements for Sender ID formats and won’t approve your Sender ID on the register if your Sender ID formats  don’t meet their requirements. Your Sender ID’s must:

• Only include characters A-Z, a-z, 0-9, and all supported special characters
• Be at least 2 and no more than 11 characters long
• Not consist only of numbers
• Not contain a space or underscore at the beginning or end of the Sender ID
• Not contain the word ‘Unverified’
• Not contain a word or words that are offensive, deceptive or misleading, using the commonly understood definitions of those terms
• Not solely consist of a word or words that the ACMA restricts

Use case verifications

The new regulatory framework requires all service providers, including Twilio, to collect evidence from customers to confirm a Sender ID has a legitimate use case. This is one way the ACMA aims to make sure that only authentic businesses are approved to use an appropriately connected Sender ID. That’s because an entity needs to demonstrate to its service provider that it has a valid use case before it can have its Sender ID registered in the register. The matching evidence you’re asked to provide could depend on if you’re an Australian entity customer with an ABN, or not.

A registerable Sender ID must have one of the following “matches” to the entity name as it appears on an official corporate business name register or a trademark register:

• the same as the entity name; 
• a contraction or abbreviation of the entity name; 
• an acronym of the entity name; or
• an initialism of the entity name.

What happens next

We’re currently ironing out the details, but we’ll share updates as soon as possible about:

• How we can assist you with the registration and approval of your Sender ID approved on the register
• Specific information we’ll require for that registration as your service provider in the scheme 
• Additional support to make the registration and approval process a breeze

In the meantime, Alphanumeric Sender ID messages sent to recipients in Australia will continue to flow as usual. This is a forward-looking impact, and we're getting ahead of the curve to optimize your experience. For those who really love reading the fine print, the ACMA has shared detailed information about the SMS Sender ID Register on their website.

Thanks for building with Twilio. And if you aren’t yet, the door is open, the coffee is hot, and the work to support our Alphanumeric Sender ID customers in this new regulatory scheme is already underway.