Guidelines

United States (US)

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

Locale Summary

Locale name

United States

ISO code
The International Organization for Standardization two character representation for the given locale.

US

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.

310, 311

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

Message length
How many characters can be sent given a particular message encoding before the message will be split into concatenated segments.

1600 characters.

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’s customers, including their end users and clients, must comply with applicable laws, regulations, Twilio's policies, including, but not limited, to the Twilio Acceptable Use Policy and the Twilio Messaging Policy,  and industry standards, including, but not limited to, telecommunications providers’ policies. 

U.S. telecommunications providers may assess fees for non-compliant A2P traffic, and Twilio will pass these fees onto you. To date, T-Mobile is the first U.S. telecommunications provider to announce non-compliance fees for violations of T-Mobile’s Code of Conduct. Twilio will update these guidelines accordingly if/when additional U.S. telecommunications providers announce non-compliance fees.

T-Mobile non-compliance fees are as follows:

  • 10DLC Long Code Messaging Program Evasion: A $1,000 pass-through fee if a program/campaign is found to be using techniques such as snowshoeing, or unauthorized number replacement/recycling.
  • Content Violation: After prior warning, a $10,000 pass-through fee may be imposed for each unique instance of content violating the T-Mobile Code of Conduct involving the same sender/content provider.  This includes SHAFT (Sex, Hate, Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco) violations, spam, phishing, and messaging that meets the Severity 0 violation as defined in the CTIA Short Code Monitoring Handbook.

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.

Not Supported

Not 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.

No

No

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.

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UCS-2 support

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Use case restrictions

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Best practices

Note: The euro symbol (€) is not supported; avoid using this character in message submission toward the United States.

Note: The euro symbol (€) is not supported; avoid using this character in message submission toward the United States.

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

Not Supported

Supported

Twilio supported
Whether Twilio supports the feature for the given country.

Supported

Not 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

No

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.

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6 - 10 weeks

UCS-2 support

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Use case restrictions

Loan Advertisements - Third Party Lenders
 
“Get rich quick” schemes
  • Work from Home Programs
  • Secret Shopper
  • Third Party Job Alerts
  • Risk Investment Opportunities

Illegal substances

Lead Generation

Hate Speech

Dynamic Routing

Snowshoeing

Filter Evasion

Shared Phone Numbers

URL Cycling

URL Redirects

Number Cycling

Spam

Fraud or Deceptive Messaging

Inapproriate Content

Profanity

High Risk Financial

  • Payday Loans
  • Short Term-High Interest Loans
  • Third Party Mortgage Loan
  • Student Loans
  • Third Party Auto Loans
  • Gambling/Sweepstakes

Debt Forgiveness or Debt Collection

  • Debt Consolidation
  • Debt Reduction
  • Third Party Debt Collection
  • Credit Repair

Phishing

Gambling

Vape

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

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Loan Advertisements - Third Party Lenders

“Get rich quick” schemes

  • Work from Home Programs
  • Secret Shopper
  • Third Party Job Alerts
  • Risk Investment Opportunities

Illegal substances

Lead Generation

Hate Speech

Dynamic Routing

Snowshoeing

Filter Evasion

Shared Short Codes

URL Cycling

URL Redirects

Number Cycling

Spam

Fraud or Deceptive Messaging

Inapproriate Content

Profanity

High Risk Financial

  • Payday Loans
  • Short Term-High Interest Loans
  • Third Party Mortgage Loan
  • Student Loans
  • Third Party Auto Loans

Debt Forgiveness or Debt Collection

  • Debt Consolidation
  • Debt Reduction
  • Third Party Debt Collection
  • Credit Repair

Phishing

Gambling

Vape

Fireworks

For additional insight into short code requirements see https://www.twilio.com/guidelines/us/short-code

Best practices

Refer to our FAQ for long code best practices.

Note: The euro symbol (€) is not supported; avoid using this character in message submission toward the United States.

Note: The euro symbol (€) is not supported; avoid using this character in message submission toward the United States.

Refer to our FAQ for short code best practices.

Note: The euro symbol (€) is not supported; avoid using this character in message submission toward the United States.

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.

UCS-2 support

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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

Pornography

Profanity

Hate Speech

Phishing

Fraud

Scams

Deceptive Marketing

Snowshoeing

Filter Evasion

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

Note: The euro symbol (€) is not supported; avoid using this character in message submission toward the United States.


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.