Registration Requirements

Background

In 2016 the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced that business text message senders would be required to comply with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). 

Since this time, the telecommunications industry has been working to define, roll out, and enforce procedures to comply with these regulations internally. The goals have been to:

1. Reduce text message spam and promote it as a trusted and viable communication channel.
2. Prevent additional federal oversight in the industry as much as possible, by regulating itself - similar to the restaurant industry.

Registration requirements for businesses using text messaging as a communications channel have increased significantly since 2016. As of 2023, these requirements are now being strongly enforced by telephone carriers such as AT&T, Verizon, TMobile, etc.

All businesses that use applications to send text messages in the United States must now register their company, texting use case, and all phone numbers to prevent message filtering and blocking. This is being enforced regardless of the text messaging application utilized.

Registration Requirements 

To send text messages through an application you must register your brand and one or more campaigns. 

A brand represents who you are as an organization. A campaign represents a use case. You may need to declare multiple Campaigns if you have multiple types of messages (such as sending authentication codes, as well as marketing messages).

Brand & campaign registrations are vetted by 3rd party organizations and can be denied if acceptance criteria are not met. Your phone numbers must be associated with an appropriate approved campaign to prevent messages from being filtered or blocked.