Telecommunications networks are highly regulated and vary greatly from country to country. Some countries allow the use of standard 10-digit phone numbers for peer-to-peer messages only , while others require tedious administrative tasks that may impact how your messages are received.
Long and short sender identifiers
When sending an SMS, the end user typically sees two types philippines mobile number example of phone numbers or sender IDs: long codes and short codes. Since a long code is a standard 10-digit phone number for communication, it is not scalable because carriers often filter out repeated messages to block spam.
You can also send the message using a short code . This is a unique 5-6 digit phone number designed to send high volumes of A2P (application-to-person) messages. Unlike long codes, short codes are pre-approved by carriers, so they are less likely to be flagged as spam and blocked. They offer a higher SMS delivery rate, making them ideal for phone verification and two-factor authentication. However, when building your own solution, these short codes can take 6-8 weeks to get approved, and they cost upwards of €900 per month. You also have to set them up and purchase them per region, and they are only available in some of them. So ultimately, you will need to purchase and manage a mix of long and short codes.
There is a third type of sender ID: Alphanumeric Sender, which we are launching soon and which we introduce below. Needless to say, Twilio’s Account Security APIs optimize the delivery of your messages by selecting the best delivery option (long codes, short codes, or alphanumeric) to maximize conversion based on regional or carrier-specific regulations.