Digital Engagement SMS Messaging Reference: Messaging Regulations by Country (Canada)

Canada

Messaging considerations will differ by geography and carrier, and need to be considered for where you are to utilize business messaging.  Following are some highlights specific to this country.

Carriers have considerable discretion over the SMS traffic that they decide to carry on their networks, and have implemented significant filtering proprietary in nature.  Filtering will vary significantly from one carrier to the next.  

Salesforce suggests you review our carrier filtering section for a more thorough overview and understanding of triggers related to filtering as many of the highlighted scenarios are relevant with Canadian carriers.  

Considerations and Best Practices:  

• Consent – Outbound messaging should only occur with prior opt-in consent from each message recipient (account owner) 
  • The consumer’s express consent to receive messages;
  • The ability for the consumer to revoke consent.
  • Direct messaging to consumer cannot be utilized as tool for gaining consent; consent must be given prior
• Keywords – Messaging for keywords HELP (support) and STOP (opt-out/unsubscribe) at low or no cost, and in recipients’ local language
• Hours – Commercial SMS messages sent during a recipients’ daytime hours unless urgent
• Registries – Should not be contacted if they are on the do-not-call or do-not-disturb registries
• Content - Strictly prohibited adult-related, violence depictions/endorsements, illegal drug endorsements, profanity, hate endorsement/promotion, carrier competitive promotions

Ordering / Pre-Registration and Other Information

• Sender ID – Numeric only supported
• Campaign/A2P – Currently not yet supported by Salesforce.  Canada only supports A2P on short codes.
• P2P Messaging - P2P messaging can be sent from an application or service, as long as initiation of the message is triggered due to human interaction
  • Throughput or Messages/Day: Recommend 250 (not to exceed 500) messages/day; maximum of 1 SMS per second
  • Message Ratio: Close to 1:1 (outbound to inbound)
  • Unique recipients:  An individual will have a limited number of contacts that they message often; less than 200.
  • Avoid URLs:  If you intend to include a link, relevancy is important as well as frequency.  Particularly problematic are shortened URLs, and have a high potential for getting marked as SPAM.
  • Content should be personalized:  A sure way to get flagged and blocked by filtering algorithms is from identical messaging from the same number.  Identical message does not indicate typical P2P behavior.

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