> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.poly.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # SMS & RCS Registration Before your PolyAI agent can send outbound SMS or RCS messages to customers in the United States, the messaging campaign must be registered and approved. This page explains what registration involves, what carriers require from your business, and how to prepare so approval happens once, quickly, and before your go-live date. These are industry rules, not vendor preferences. Registration requirements are set by The Campaign Registry (TCR), the [CTIA Messaging Principles and Best Practices](https://api.ctia.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/230523-CTIA-Messaging-Principles-and-Best-Practices-FINAL.pdf) and the TCPA, and are enforced by every US mobile carrier. You will meet the same ruleset with any legitimate SMS provider, and non-compliance carries real exposure: TCPA statutory damages run \$500 to \$1,500 per message, with no aggregate cap. The detailed registration process on this page applies to the United States. Messaging rules differ by country: sender ID types, pre-registration requirements, consent rules and permitted sending hours all vary. If you are launching outside the US, see the country table at the end of this page and speak to your PolyAI representative before planning your go-live. ## Register Early Campaign vetting is a manual review process. SMS campaign approval typically takes days to weeks; RCS carrier approval takes four to six weeks, longer if you are launching in multiple regions. Each rejection costs a full review cycle, so registration should begin at project kickoff, not during integration testing. Your PolyAI deployment team will drive the registration process, but the items below need input from your web, marketing and legal teams, and they are the most common cause of delay. ## SMS: What Carriers Check (A2P 10DLC) Every SMS campaign registration is reviewed against your brand, your website, your published policies, your opt-in flow and your sample messages ([Twilio's A2P 10DLC registration guide](https://www.twilio.com/docs/messaging/compliance/a2p-10dlc/quickstart) covers the full process). Reviewers look for consistency across all of them, and a mismatched or unrelated website is a [documented reason for rejection](https://www.twilio.com/en-us/blog/insights/best-practices/improving-your-chances-of-a2p10dlc-registration-approval). Since 30 June 2026, all new A2P 10DLC campaign registrations [must include two publicly accessible URLs](https://www.twilio.com/en-us/changelog/a2p-10dlc-campaign-registration-will-require-privacy-policy-and-): a Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions. Both must be relevant to the business registering the campaign, and Twilio's guidance is that they should be hosted on the same domain as your business website. This is why PolyAI cannot host these pages on your behalf: the registered brand is your business, and reviewers, carriers and regulators expect the policies to live with you. ### Your Privacy Policy Must State Your privacy policy needs one specific commitment, worded to cover SMS consent data: > Text messaging opt-in data and consent will not be shared with, sold to, or bought by third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. Two scoping points your legal team will want to know. First, the requirement covers SMS opt-in data and consent only, not "mobile information" in the broad sense, so it does not restrict how your website or app collects data generally. Second, the prohibition is on sharing for marketing or promotional purposes. Sharing with service providers to deliver messages and operate the programme is permitted and can be stated explicitly. ### Your Terms Must Include * The programme name and a description of what it sends * "Message and data rates may apply" * Message frequency (for example, "1 to 3 messages per interaction") * A customer support contact (email or phone) * Complete HELP and STOP opt-out instructions, in bold * A link to your privacy policy * The statement "carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages" ### Publish a Standalone Page, Not a Policy Amendment The fastest route through review, and the one Twilio's own compliance team recommends in writing, is a single new page on your website (for example, yourcompany.com/sms-terms) scoped only to the SMS programme, rather than an amendment to your corporate privacy policy. A standalone page needs far lighter legal review, leaves your corporate policies untouched, and insulates them from future carrier requirement changes. Your PolyAI deployment team can provide a pre-vetted template covering every required element; your legal team reviews one page and fills in the brackets. ### Consistency Between Opt-In and Registration The opt-in flow described in your campaign submission must match what your customers actually experience. If your registration says callers verbally consent during a call with the assistant, that is what the assistant must do, and your sample messages must reflect the real messages the programme sends. Consent must be sender-specific and informed, and proof of consent must be retained. ## RCS: Agent Registration and Verification RCS is branded messaging, so registration has a few more requirements than SMS and runs through both Google and the US carriers ([Twilio's RCS onboarding guide](https://www.twilio.com/docs/rcs/onboarding) covers the full process). Plan for four to six weeks. RCS senders cannot be onboarded programmatically at scale; each one goes through the same review. Creating the sender requires your brand assets and public details: a unique display name, a logo (PNG or JPEG, 224 x 224 pixels, under 50kB), a banner image (1140 x 448 pixels, under 200kB), an accent colour meeting minimum contrast, a description of the sender and how users interact with it, at least one labelled phone number, email address or website, and your privacy policy and terms of service URLs. The same policy pages you publish for SMS can serve here, provided they cover the RCS programme. Compliance registration then requires, for Google: an authorised representative (name, business email, title, website), your opt-in and opt-out policies with publicly accessible image URLs evidencing them, a use case description with a video demonstration, agent access instructions so reviewers can test the sender, and a notification contact. For US carriers, additionally: your legal business name as it appears on IRS documentation, company type and EIN, business address, industry classification, a brand contact number, current and projected message volumes, campaign description and message flow, sample HELP and STOP responses, and confirmation of CTIA handbook compliance. ## Pre-Flight Before You Submit Twilio provides a pre-submission compliance checker at [a2pcheck.com](http://a2pcheck.com). It assesses your privacy policy, terms and campaign details against the carrier vetting criteria before anything is formally submitted, and it is the same tool Twilio's own team uses. Your deployment team will run your campaign through it before submission, and after any rejection the next step is a pre-review with Twilio's compliance team rather than a blind resubmission. If a campaign is rejected, the rejection code maps to Twilio's error documentation ([30908](https://www.twilio.com/docs/api/errors/30908), [30932](https://www.twilio.com/docs/api/errors/30932), [30933](https://www.twilio.com/docs/api/errors/30933) are the common privacy-policy and terms failures). ## What You Provide and What PolyAI Handles Your business provides: the published policy and terms pages on your domain, brand details (legal name, EIN, address), brand assets for RCS, and sign-off on the opt-in flow and sample messages. PolyAI handles: campaign drafting and submission, pre-flight checks, liaison with Twilio's compliance and partner teams, and tracking of registration status through to approval. ## Country-Specific Requirements Outside the US Every country in the table below shares the same baseline: opt-in consent before any non-essential message, HELP and STOP support in the recipient's local language, sending during daytime hours unless urgent, and respect for do-not-call registries. On top of that baseline, sender ID rules, registration requirements and sending windows vary by country. The table summarises the headline differences; each country name links to Twilio's full guideline page, which is the authoritative and current source. If your deployment covers a country not listed here, or you are unsure which rules apply, contact your PolyAI representative. | Country | Sender ID and registration | Key differences to note | | :--------------------------------------------------------------- | :-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | :---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [United States](https://www.twilio.com/en-us/guidelines/us/sms) | No alphanumeric sender IDs. 10DLC long codes require A2P campaign registration; toll-free numbers require verification; short codes take 6-10 weeks | Privacy Policy and Terms URLs required for all new campaigns since 30 June 2026 (this page) | | [Canada](https://www.twilio.com/en-us/guidelines/ca/sms) | No alphanumeric sender IDs. Long codes need no pre-registration; toll-free requires verification; short codes take 12-16 weeks | Strict carrier A2P filtering; short codes limited to 160 ASCII characters | | [United Kingdom](https://www.twilio.com/en-us/guidelines/gb/sms) | Alphanumeric supported without pre-registration, except brand-related "Protected Sender IDs" (MEF/BT) which must be pre-registered; short codes take 8-12 weeks | Generic sender IDs (SMS, TEXT, INFO, VERIFY) are blocked by operators; short codes require express consent | | [Ireland](https://www.twilio.com/en-us/guidelines/ie/sms) | Alphanumeric sender IDs must be pre-registered (about 2 weeks); domestic long codes and short codes not supported | Since 3 July 2025, unregistered alphanumeric senders are delivered labelled "Likely Scam"; MEF-protected IDs need a Letter of Authorisation | | [Germany](https://www.twilio.com/en-us/guidelines/de/sms) | Alphanumeric and long codes supported with no registration; short codes take 6-8 weeks | Sender IDs preserved as sent | | [France](https://www.twilio.com/en-us/guidelines/fr/sms) | Alphanumeric supported without pre-registration; sensitive sender IDs may need a Letter of Authorisation; short codes take 8-10 weeks | Marketing SMS only 08:00-21:30 Monday to Saturday (transactional exempt); using a mobile number as the opt-out mechanism is forbidden and can draw operator fines | | [Netherlands](https://www.twilio.com/en-us/guidelines/nl/sms) | Alphanumeric and long codes supported with no registration; short codes not supported | Lightest-touch market in this table | | [Croatia](https://www.twilio.com/en-us/guidelines/hr/sms) | Alphanumeric supported but the A1 network may overwrite sender IDs; domestic long codes not supported | Two-way SMS not supported, so replies to the agent are not possible | | [Czech Republic](https://www.twilio.com/en-us/guidelines/cz/sms) | Sender ID pre-registration required for T-Mobile and O2 networks (about 3 weeks); dynamic alphanumeric not supported on those networks | Since 14 July 2025, unregistered sender IDs are blocked on T-Mobile and O2 | | [Slovakia](https://www.twilio.com/en-us/guidelines/sk/sms) | Alphanumeric supported with no registration; international long code sender IDs are replaced by operators; short codes not supported | Two-way SMS not supported, so replies to the agent are not possible | | [Italy](https://www.twilio.com/en-us/guidelines/it/sms) | Alphanumeric supported without pre-registration; short codes take 7-9 weeks | Marketing SMS prohibited 22:00-08:00 and all day Sunday; sender IDs must comply with the AGCOM code of conduct | ## Related pages Two-way SMS messaging on the same agent brain as voice and chat. Rich, branded messaging over the RCS channel with SMS fallback. Send outbound SMS messages through the PolyAI outbound webhook API. CCaaS handoff integrations to transfer SMS threads to live agents.