Sender names

An SMS has 2 main parts – the Body and the Sender name.

• The body is the message itself
• The sender name (or FROM address) identifies who sent the message and the first thing the recipients see when a message pops up in their inbox.

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Note:

Your Sender name must be your "brand or company name" and failure to comply with this will result in your message being blocked by the networks and you will still be charged.

Types of Sender names

Words/Alphanumeric senders

Sender names can consist of up to 11 characters (A-Z/ a-z) and/ or numbers (0-9). Special characters can also be used (Space, Full stop, &, Underscore or Dash only). Your chosen sender should be limited to your brand or company rather than a reference to the message content or individual sender.

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Using an alpha-numeric sender name allows you to send messages, but it does not support receiving replies.

Alpha-numeric sender names can contain upper and lower-case characters (A-Z) and numbers (0-9), and limited special characters as supported. The supported special characters include:

• space( )
• full stop (.)
• hyphen(-)
• underscore(_)
• ampersand (&)

Numbers/Numeric senders

A numeric sender name can contain a shortcode or long code numbers.

• Shortcode (5 characters string starting with 6/7/8), or
• Long code (11 characters starting with 07), or
• Long code (12 characters starting with 44)

This means people can reply to the mobile number or phone. Clearly adding a mobile number is preferable so you don’t lose any SMS text replies. The number can be a mobile handset number, one of our SMS long numbers such as our Dedicated Reply Numbers with a reply path to your message.

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Virtual numbers

If you do not want to receive responses on your own number, you can also purchase a phone number from us that can receive the responses. The responses will be available under Inbox

For more information on how to purchase a phone number, see Buy Number.

Best practices for choosing sender names

Here are some tips while choosing an effective sender name:

• Sender name that represents your brand or organization.
• Clear and recognizable sender name.
• Short name between 3-11 characters for quick recognition by customers.
• Avoid special characters and symbols.
• Maintain consistent sender names to help customers remember your brand name.

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Sender names vary by country/region and are typically the first point of contact when using a service. All countries and regions may have different regulations and restrictions regarding messages.

Sender name verification

Webex Interact verifies sender names before being made available for use. Only verified names can be used to send campaigns. The system checks names for spam words and criteria. If matched, it flags as Pending/Rejected. In such cases, you need to modify or choose a compliant name.

Sender name statuses are as follows:

• Verified - The sender name is verified and can be used to send campaigns.
• Pending - The sender name is pending and is not available to use yet. It is under review for potential spam elements.
• Rejected - The sender is not approved for sending campaigns. It requires modification to remove spam words.