What is A2P 10DLC?
What the registration is, who reviews it, and why business texting in the US now requires it.
The short version
A2P stands for application-to-person: messages sent by a business's software to a person's phone, like appointment reminders, order updates or verification codes. 10DLC means a standard 10-digit long code, the same kind of number you'd give a friend.
US carriers require businesses texting from 10DLC numbers to register who they are and what they send. Unregistered traffic can be filtered or blocked, so registration is effectively required before you start texting customers.
Texting from a toll-free number follows a separate process called toll-free verification. Short codes have their own program too.
Who's involved
You never deal with carriers directly. Your messaging provider submits your details, and the registry passes them along for review.
- 01Your business
- 02Messaging provider
- 03The Campaign Registry
- 04Carriers
The two parts: brand and campaign
Registration happens in two steps, and both need to tell the same story.
- Brand — the legal entity sending messages: legal name, tax ID, entity type, address, website. These are checked against public records, so they need to match exactly.
- Campaign — what you send and why: a use case, a description, how people opt in, sample messages, and your HELP and STOP replies. Your phone numbers are then linked to the approved campaign.
What reviewers look for
Reviewers compare what you wrote with what they can see. In practice that means:
- A public page showing how people opt in, with consent language that names your business.
- Sample messages that include your brand name and match the use case you picked.
- Opt-out instructions, like
Reply STOP to opt out. - A privacy policy stating mobile numbers and opt-in data aren't shared with third parties for marketing.
- Business details that match your website and tax records.
A description that says "we send promotions" when your use case is "customer care" is a mismatch. Pick the use case that covers everything you'll actually send.
How long it takes
Review times vary by provider, use case and how much traffic reviewers are handling. A clean first submission is the biggest thing you control: every rejection restarts the wait.
Next steps
Read up on brand vs. campaign registration for a field-by-field walkthrough (coming soon), or skip ahead and get your answers written for you.
General information, not legal advice. A2P 10DLC Support is not affiliated with The Campaign Registry, any carrier or messaging platform.