A custom sender is the name shown as the SMS sender, such as your company's name. Before you can use it, each mobile operator has to approve it. You request it from the dashboard, under Messages → Senders, and it is available to companies only.
Before you start
Have ready:
- the sender name — up to 11 characters, letters, digits and hyphens only, no spaces or diacritics. Ideally your company or brand name, easy to recognise;
- a sample SMS — a real message, the way you will send it to your customers;
- the company type — whether the sender name is a registered trademark or not. The documents asked for depend on it;
- a company representative who can sign the documents.
To choose the name, see also the Sender ID best practices.
Step 1: fill in the request
Under Messages → Senders start a new request and fill in the name, the sample SMS and the company type. The draft is saved any time: you can come back later to finish it.
Step 2: the documents for each operator
For each mobile operator (Orange, Vodafone, Telekom, Digi):
- download the matching template, right from the request;
- fill it in and sign it as the company's representative;
- upload it back to the request (PDF, DOC, DOCX or ODT, up to 10 MB).
Each operator approves separately, which is why each has its own document.
Step 3: submit the request
Once the details and documents are complete, click Submit the request. A proforma is issued for the approval, which you pay by card or bank transfer. The request goes to the operators once paid.
Step 4: the processing
The mobile operators review the request, usually within 1–2 weeks. You can follow its status any time under Messages → Senders.
If an operator asks for more information, you get a message right in the request. Reply there, with attachments if needed, and the request moves on.
Step 5: the result
Each operator approves or rejects separately, and you get a notification for each decision. The sender can be used as soon as at least one operator approved it. For subscribers of the operators that rejected it, the SMS arrives from a short number of that operator. When an operator rejects it, the reason shows in the request.
Use the approved sender
- from the dashboard — pick it as the sender when you send an SMS;
- from the API — send it in the
senderfield, written exactly as approved (the match is case-sensitive).
Until it is approved, leave sender out of your API calls: an unapproved sender is refused with 422 ("The sender is invalid or is not approved.") and the message is not sent. Leave the field out and the message goes out from the default sender.
