7 New Ways to Make a Great First Impression in 145 Countries: Announcing Six New International Phone Numbers and Alphanumeric Sender ID

May 19, 2015
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Before your customers read your message, they see the number you used to send that message. You only get one shot to make a good first impression with a customer. Using a local, familiar sender ID to send your SMS & MMS helps you set the tone for how your audience receives your content.

We want to help you make a good first impression. That’s why we’re excited to announce two new capabilities from Twilio: new mobile numbers in six countries and Alphanumeric Sender ID.

Introducing New Mobile Numbers In Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Hungary, and Israel

Over the last few years, we’ve made a habit out of adding new global numbers to our phone number inventory. Today at Signal, we’re expanding on that in a big way by adding new mobile phone numbers in six new countries.

That means you now have Twilio Phone Numbers in nearly 50 countries and mobile phone numbers in 24 countries – offering you an easy way to send messages with a local feel and make a solid first impression. You can learn more about pricing and capability in the chart below.

pricingtable

Note that France* mobile numbers, per local country regulations, are restricted to person-to-person, 2-way messaging use cases such as anonymous communication. (Learn more here). That said, if you plan to send one-way, marketing or notification messages to end users in France, you can use Alphanumeric Sender ID.

Alphanumeric Sender ID in 145 countries

Alphanumeric Sender ID lets you send SMS messages with the company or brand name as the sender, instead of sending from a phone number. Using a name instead of a phone number is the norm in many countries outside of the United States. It is also a surefire way to ensure that your customers recognize you as the sender.

To use Alphanumeric Sender ID capability, set the From parameter in the Twilio SMS API as a name instead of a number. From there, your users will see your business name in their messaging inbox when you send SMS. This familiarity increases read rates and improves your brand presence.

Note that there are some key best practices to keep in mind when using Alphanumeric Sender ID, including which countries you can send to (145 countries as of today) and how to manage opt in/opt out given that Alphanumeric cannot accept incoming messages. (Learn more here). Make sure to read up on those before embarking with branded message sending.

Alphanumeric Sender ID is available today, in addition to the mobile numbers in six countries. We’ve altered our beta program such that any Twilio customer automatically has access to any beta number we launch. That means — no application or form submission is necessary to start using these numbers.  You can purchase them just like you would any other number, but these numbers will have a notation that marks them as Beta.

They are ready to go whenever you are, and will be in your account portal. Happy (global) sending!