Notes

Why the phone company has to approve your business texts

Nathan Householder4 min read

Here’s a conversation I have a lot. Someone sets up appointment reminders by text, tests them on their own phone, and everything works. A week later, their customers say they never got a thing.

Usually nothing is broken. The phone companies are blocking the messages, because the business never registered to send them.

What changed

For years, a business could text from a regular 10-digit phone number the same way you text your sister. That turned out to be a gift to spammers, so the big US carriers built a separate system for business texting. It has an unfortunate name: A2P 10DLC. A2P means application-to-person, a business texting a person. 10DLC means a regular 10-digit number, as opposed to a short code like 72345.

Since February 2025, the major carriers block texts from business numbers that aren’t registered. Not “might filter.” Block.

It covers more than most people expect. If your business texts customers from a business number, the carriers generally treat it as business texting, even when a person types every message by hand.

What registration involves

There are two parts.

  • The brand: who you are. Your legal business name, tax ID, address and website, which have to match public records.
  • The campaign: what you’ll be texting about. A plain description (appointment reminders, replies to people who asked about you, and so on), a few sample messages, and how people agree to get texts from you.

The second part is where most rejections happen.

Why registrations get rejected

The reviewers want proof that people asked to hear from you. The usual reasons for a rejection:

  • The website doesn’t clearly match the business on the registration.
  • There’s no privacy policy, or it doesn’t say mobile numbers won’t be shared for marketing.
  • The sign-up form doesn’t ask permission to text, or the wording is vague.
  • The sample messages don’t match what you said the texts would be about.
  • The messages use a public link shortener, which spammers love.

Each rejection usually means another round of waiting, so it pays to get it right the first time.

What I do about it

I handle the registration. Before I submit it, I make sure the website, the privacy policy, the sign-up form and the sample messages all tell the same story. Once you’re approved, the texting is set up the way the carriers expect: people opt in on purpose, they can reply STOP at any time, and it’s honored automatically.

It’s paperwork. It’s also the difference between reminders that arrive and reminders that quietly disappear.

If your texts have been going missing, or you’re about to start texting customers, tell me what you’ve got and I’ll tell you where you stand.