SMS senders & registration

Every SMS you send shows a sender — your brand name or a number. It's the first thing your contact sees, so a project needs at least one sender before it can send anything. And in some countries that sender has to be registered and approved before it can deliver. This page walks you through the whole thing: creating a sender and getting it cleared, country by country.

Senders and registers

Two pieces get a sender to a destination: the sender itself, and its register in each country.

• A sender is the alphanumeric name or number your messages are sent with. You create it once for the project.
• A register activates that sender for one specific country. Each country is handled on its own, so the same sender can be cleared in one while still under review in another. Where a country requires no registration, the register is cleared the moment you create the sender.

A sender can only send to a country once that country's register is fully cleared.

Sender types

A sender is either alphanumeric or numeric:

• Alphanumeric — 3 to 11 characters, letters and digits (we recommend the GSM-7 set: A–Z, a–z, 0–9). This is usually your brand name. A sender made up of only numbers is not allowed as alphanumeric. Some countries replace an alphanumeric sender with a number on delivery — see SMS essentials.
• Numeric — a phone number as the sender. Where a country's rules allow numeric senders, registration is automatic.

Create the sender

1. 1

   Open the SMS channel

   Go to Settings → Project → Channels → SMS and create a sender. When the project has no senders yet, the empty state reads There are no senders yet; the creation sheet is titled Add Sender ID.

2. 2

   Enter the sender

   Type the sender your messages will be sent with. The form reminds you: 3 to 11 alphanumeric characters, GSM-7 recommended, numbers-only not allowed.

3. 3

   Save

   The sender is created. Most destinations accept it immediately; countries that require registration are handled in the next step.

Register it per country

Some countries require a sender to be registered before it can deliver. Open the sender and you'll see its countries split into two sections: Needing your attention (countries it isn't cleared for yet, or where a registration needs you to do something) and Approved countries (where it can already send).

To register the sender for a country, click Request country and fill in the request:

1. 1

   Choose country

   Pick the country you want to reach. The rest of the form adapts to that country's rules.

2. 2

   Filing

   Only appears when the country has a regulator. It sets how the request is filed: I'll file it myself comes selected and is the recommended option, for when you've already registered the alias yourself. The alternative is Instasent files for you. Above it you'll see a card naming the country's regulator and what it requires.

3. 3

   Legal profile

   Pick the Legal profile that holds the legal-entity data submitted to the regulator. The same profile is reused for SMS and RCS, and lives under organization settings.

4. 4

   Description of usage

   Choose how you'll use this sender for the country — OTP, transactional, promotional or multi-use — from the dropdown.

5. 5

   Estimated traffic

   Select your expected volume (messages per month).

6. 6

   Message sample

   Write a sample SMS you'll send with this sender. You can have it drafted for you and edit the result.

7. 7

   Submit

   Instasent verifies your data and, where the country has a regulator, forwards it on your behalf. You can't edit the request while it's being processed.

Following your register's status

Each country on the sender shows a single status that tells you where the register stands and whether the sender can send there:

Status	What it means	Clear to send?
Accepted	Approved — the sender can send in this country.	Yes
In review	The registration is being processed.	Not yet
With regulator	Submitted to the country's regulator, awaiting their response.	Not yet
Rejected	The registration was declined, with the reason shown.	No
Revoked	A previously granted authorization was withdrawn.	No

The sender can only send to a country once its register reaches Accepted. Approval times vary by country: most take a few business days, but in regulated markets like Spain they can run to several weeks.

stateDiagram-v2
    state "In review" as InReview
    state "With regulator" as WithRegulator
    [*] --> InReview: create / submit register
    InReview --> Accepted: approved (no regulator)
    InReview --> WithRegulator: sent to regulator (if any)
    WithRegulator --> Accepted: regulator authorizes
    InReview --> Rejected: declined
    WithRegulator --> Rejected: regulator declines
    Accepted --> Revoked: authorization withdrawn

    class Accepted success
    class Rejected destructive
    class Revoked destructive

You can later archive (retire) a sender from the SMS channel; archiving applies to the sender itself, not to a register's status.

Numeric (phone-number) senders

A sender backed by a phone number — a long number, a local or a toll-free number — goes through a number-verification step with the carrier instead of an alphanumeric registration. While that's in progress the status is In review, and it becomes Accepted for the country once the number is approved for sending.

If a register is rejected

Instasent emails you the reason. Open the affected sender, review and fix the details (often the legal profile), and resubmit so messages can flow again. For the rules and rejection reasons specific to Spain, see Spain.

Reaching more countries

To reach contacts in more destinations, register the sender for each one. Go to Settings → Project → Channels → SMS, click the sender, and use Request country to submit a fresh request per country — each is reviewed on its own. Per-country specifics are covered in Countries & regulation, and Spain's CNMC process in Spain.