Guidelines

Canada (CA)

We've compiled regulatory and compliance information to help ensure you're communicating effectively and compliantly around the world.

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Locale Summary
Locale name	Canada
ISO code The International Organization for Standardization two character representation for the given locale.	CA
Region	North America
Mobile country code A three digit code associated with the given locale and used in conjunction with a Mobile Network Code to uniquely identify mobile networks.	302
Dialing code The dialing prefix used to establish a call or send an SMS from one locale to the given locale.	+1

Guidelines
Two-way SMS supported Whether Twilio supports two-way SMS in the given locale.	Yes
Number portability available Whether number portability is available in the given locale.	Yes
Twilio concatenated message support Concatenation refers to the capability of splitting a message that is too long to be sent in one SMS into smaller pieces and then joining the pieces at the receiving end so that the receiver sees the message as one.	Yes* For certain sender ID types this may not be supported. Where messages are split and rejoined may vary based on character encoding.
Message length How many characters can be sent given a particular message encoding before the message will be split into concatenated segments.	Inbound long code: GSM 3.38=136, Unicode=70 Outbound long code: GSM 3.38=136, Unicode=70
Twilio MMS support Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) provides a standards-based means to send pictures and video to mobile phones.	Supported
Sending SMS to landline numbers How Twilio handles an SMS message destined for landline telephone number.	Twilio will not check whether the number is a landline and will attempt to send it to our carrier for delivery. Some carriers will convert the SMS into text-to-speech messages via voice calls.
Compliance considerations Twilio strongly encourages customers to review proposed use cases with qualified legal counsel to make sure that they comply with all applicable laws. This table lists some general best practices.	Twilio recommends sending application-to-person (A2P) traffic over short codes or verified toll-free numbers for optimal delivery results. Canadian mobile carriers enforce strict filtering on A2P messages. Carriers will not cease filtering, but mobile subscribers may wish to reach out to their mobile carrier to petition them to do so. Twilio strongly encourages customers to review proposed use cases with qualified legal counsel to make sure that they comply with all applicable laws. The following are some general best practices: Get opt-in consent from each end-user before sending any communication to them, particularly for marketing or other non-essential communications. Only communicate during an end-user’s daytime hours unless it is urgent. SMS campaigns should support HELP/STOP messages, and similar messages, in the end-user’s local language. Do not contact end-users on do-not-call or do-not-disturb registries.

Phone Numbers & Sender ID

Alphanumeric

	Pre-registration	Dynamic
Operator network capability Whether mobile operators in the given country support the feature.	Not Supported	Not Supported
Twilio supported Whether Twilio supports the feature for the given country.	---	---
Sender ID preserved In some countries sender IDs for certain sender types are not preserved and are changed for compliance and/or deliverability reasons. In these countries mobile subscribers will see a different ‘from sender ID’ than the one sent by you.	---	---
Provisioning time Provisioning is the process of getting the sender ID approved and registered with mobile networks (depending on country requirements). Provisioning time is how long this process takes in the given country.	N/A	N/A
UCS-2 support	---	---
Use case restrictions	N/A	N/A
Best practices	N/A	N/A

Long codes and short codes

	Long code domestic	Long code international	Short code
Operator network capability Whether mobile operators in the given country support the feature.	Supported	---	Supported
Twilio supported Whether Twilio supports the feature for the given country.	Supported	---	Supported
Sender ID preserved In some countries sender IDs for certain sender types are not preserved and are changed for compliance and/or deliverability reasons. In these countries mobile subscribers will see a different ‘from sender ID’ than the one sent by you.	Yes	---	Yes
Provisioning time Provisioning is the process of getting the sender ID approved and registered with mobile networks (depending on country requirements). Provisioning time is how long this process takes in the given country.	N/A	N/A	12-16 weeks
UCS-2 support	Supported	---	Supported
Use case restrictions	High-Risk Financial Services Payday Loans Short Term- High Interest Loans Auto Loans Mortgage Loans Student Loans Debt Collection Gambling/Sweepstakes Stock Alerts Cryptocurrency Get Rich Quick Schemes Deceptive Work from Home Programs Risk Investment Opportunities Multi-Level Marketing 3rd Party Debt Collection or Consolidation Debt Reduction Credit Repair Programs Lead Generation Controlled Substances Tobacco Vape Federally Illegal Drugs Cannabis CBD Alcohol Pornography Profanity Hate Speech Phishing Fraud Scams Deceptive Marketing Snowshoeing Filter Evasion Firearms Adult Content Fireworks For additional insight into these uses cases, including limitations, and exceptions, visit: Forbidden message categories for SMS and MMS in the US and Canada	N/A	High-Risk Financial Services Payday Loans Short Term- High Interest Loans Auto Loans Mortgage Loans Student Loans Debt Collection Gambling/Sweepstakes Stock Alerts Cryptocurrency Get Rich Quick Schemes Deceptive Work from Home Programs Risk Investment Opportunities Multi-Level Marketing 3rd Party Debt Collection or Consolidation Debt Reduction Credit Repair Programs Lead Generation Controlled Substances Tobacco Vape Federally Illegal Drugs Cannabis CBD Alcohol Pornography Profanity Hate Speech Phishing Fraud Scams Deceptive Marketing Snowshoeing Filter Evasion Firearms Adult Content Fireworks For additional insight into short code requirements see https://www.twilio.com/guidelines/us/short-code
Best practices	N/A	N/A	The character limit for Canada short code SMS is 160 Ascii characters. Messages with more than 160 characters will not be delivered. Refer to our FAQ for short code best practices for: + Mobile Marketing Opt-In + Help and Stop Standards + Opt-In S

Toll-Free

	Toll Free
Operator network capability Whether mobile operators in the given country support the feature.	Supported
Twilio supported Whether Twilio supports the feature for the given country.	Supported
Sender ID preserved In some countries sender IDs for certain sender types are not preserved and are changed for compliance and/or deliverability reasons. In these countries mobile subscribers will see a different ‘from sender ID’ than the one sent by you.	Yes
Provisioning time Provisioning is the process of getting the sender ID approved and registered with mobile networks (depending on country requirements). Provisioning time is how long this process takes in the given country.	Requires Verification
UCS-2 support	---
Use case restrictions	High-Risk Financial Services Payday Loans Short Term- High Interest Loans Auto Loans Mortgage Loans Student Loans Debt Collection Gambling/Sweepstakes Stock Alerts Cryptocurrency Get Rich Quick Schemes Deceptive Work from Home Programs Risk Investment Opportunities Multi-Level Marketing 3rd Party Debt Collection or Consolidation Debt Reduction Credit Repair Programs Lead Generation Controlled Substances Tobacco Vape Federally Illegal Drugs Cannabis CBD Alcohol Pornography Profanity Hate Speech Phishing Fraud Scams Deceptive Marketing Snowshoeing Filter Evasion Firearms Adult Content Fireworks For additional insight into these uses cases, including limitations, and exceptions, visit: Forbidden message categories for SMS and MMS in the US and Canada
Best practices	---

For the benefit of all our customers, these guidelines are provided to help you comply with applicable requirements and to help ensure Twilio's platform remains compliant with global telecommunications ecosystem requirements. These guidelines represent our current understanding of common compliance requirements generally applicable to Twilio and its customers, and do not constitute legal advice. By posting these guidelines, Twilio makes no assurances regarding the legal compliance of your application built using our APIs. You are expected to understand and abide by all compliance obligations applicable to your specific application. You should check these pages regularly for updates as telecommunications ecosystem requirements continue to evolve and change, and the information below may be updated or changed without notice.