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Choosing the Right senders

MessageBird offers you the option to send messages via different types of senders the most common worldwide being alphanumeric. However, due to local restrictions in certain countries, different types of originators may work best for different use cases, Below you can find additional information on a country-per-country basis.

if you only send 1-way traffic (either transactional or promotional) you can, in most cases, obtain world cover by just using 2 senders:

• one Toll Free Number for both USA and Canada

• one Alphanumeric for the rest of the world

if you intend to send 2 ways traffic you may need up to one sender per country

Alphanumeric senders

Alphanumeric senders are words your user receives in the form field of SMS. They only work 1 way but are a great option for both branding (you can use your company name) and coverage (the same Alphanumeric can be used to send traffic to multiple countries).

OPT-OUT and Subscriptions

In most countries of the world you can fulfill your OPT OUT obligation by including an OPT link in your messages, this allows to utilize Alphanumeric.

In few other countries (notably in both USA and Canada) you are mandated to accept user OPT OUT requests by SMS (for example recognize and act on your user texting you STOP) Because of this you must use 2 ways numbers even when sending 1 way or promotional traffic.

Sending messages containing URL

In certain countries, local operators will block URLs if they are not registered and ore are not clearly recognizable as belonging to a brand. Below you can find additional information on a country-by-country basis; if a country supports generic URL you can use any domain including shared shorteners (for example brd.to/xxxx if a country does not support Generic URL shortener you can only use branded shorteners.

In most country a branded subdomain is considered enough to identify an url exampel {brand}.brd.to/xxxx

Blocked message and error code

Whenever possible MessageBird provides a dedicated error code and status reason to indicate the SMS failed to deliver due to lack of registration and/or forbidden content. You can find more information on Failed SMS Troubleshooting in this article, or you can directly check our detailed Status List on our Developer Page.

Sender ID Registration Information

In most countries, a quick check performed by bird will be enough to enable you to send traffic however in other countries in pre-registration of the sender ID is conducted externally by a carrier or regulatory-controlled entity. In such cases, registration may take longer and require to provide additional information You can recognize those countries are marked with the icon "✓".

If a country is not explicitly listed below, please refer to the rest of the World entry

Quiet Hours

in many countries, you are requested or mandated not to send promotional messages on certain days or during certain hours. You can however send transactional messages at any time needed.

Countries & restrictions

Rest of the World

Use case	Preffered Type of Service - Type of Sender
For Transactional Traffic	SMS - Alphanumeric
For Promotional Traffic	SMS - Alphanumeric
For Conversational Traffic	Whatsapp - bring your own number

You can check what other types of sender are available and their cost in the Number section of our pricing page

Restriction	Details
3rd Party Registration required	❌
URL shortening allowed	✅
Quiet Hours / Do not Disturb	20:00 -> 09:00

Service	Note
SMS	Numeric senders (as numbers or shortcodes) are NOT supported
SMS	When delivering to one or more networks in the country, your sender name may be overwritten to a local shared short or long code or a generic alphanumeric (ex infoSMS)