Guide for Sending SMS Messages to the United States

The information provided doesn’t, and isn’t intended to, constitute legal advice. Instead, all information is for general informational purposes only. Consult your own independent legal counsel for guidance on its use cases and applicable legal and industry requirements. SMS messaging in the US is highly regulated by carriers and applicable laws. Salesforce supports the use of carrier-approved short codes and 10-digit long codes (10DLCs) for SMS messaging in the US.

General Guidelines and Deliverability

Note The US doesn't support international messages, except for those coming from Canada. For example, you cannot send a message to a US phone number using a UK long code or a French short code. All telecom operators block messages from foreign numbers.

SMS Code Provisioning Guidelines

Short codes are registered and applied for and approved by carriers for each campaign. Make sure you vet your brand before a code is allocated. Short code registration is completed with a Mobile Approved Partner. Check out the list of approved partners for US private short code acquisition services.

• Accenture
• Capgemini
• Cloud for Good
• Coastal Cloud
• Cognizant
• Deloitte
• Dentsu (formerly Merkle and DEG)
• IBM
• ListEngage
• Magna Technology Group
• Monks (formerly Maverick Digital and Media.Monks)
• Vibable
• Offprem Technology
• OSF Digital
• VML (formerly Wunderman Thompson and Pierry Inc.)
• Publicis Sapient (a subsidiary of Publicis Groupe)
• PwC
• Silverline
• Slalom

For 10DLCs, you must request three elements:

• Brand request—Share your company’s details and how you plan to represent your brand in your messages.
• Campaign request—Provide sample messages and details about your specific messaging activities.
• Code request—Specify the nationality and type of number that you want to use for sending messages.

Just like short codes, you must vet your brand before a 10DLC is allocated.

MMS Code Provisioning Guidelines

Make sure that your US short code supports MMS. A short code that supports MMS automatically includes SMS services. To add MMS capability to an existing SMS short code program, you must have a services agreement. All SMS codes procured through Salesforce support MMS by default. However, you should always verify the code capabilities before you launch a campaign.

Messaging Requirements

Use a call to action to engage your users. For example, send a prompt to a user to opt in to receive offers or enter a contest.

A call to action must include:

• Program name
• Message frequency
• Link to customer terms and conditions with privacy policy and help information

Terms and conditions must include:

• “Text STOP to stop,” including bold STOP
• “Text HELP for help,” including bold HELP
• A description of how the user opts in
• How the call to action is delivered. For example: web, in-store signage
  

  Note If you send a web form, text boxes can’t be pre-checked.
• An opt-in keyword that, if not a web form, must be in bold
• Screenshots of the call to action and message flow

Limitations in Unicode Support

Unicode encoding is supported for SMS messages in the US, but there are some limitations.

• Reduced character count—Unicode (UCS-2) encoding allows you send only 70 characters per message.
• Concatenation impact—Multi-part Unicode messages use more segments. For example, a 160-character message is split into three parts.
• Carrier filtering—Some US carriers may filter, truncate, or fail to deliver messages if Unicode isn't used properly. Unicode-heavy content might also trigger spam filters.
• Unreliable delivery receipts—Delivery receipts may be unreliable with Unicode characters, especially when using 10DLC or shared short codes.

Use Unicode only when necessary, such as for names or text in non-Latin scripts. Keep messages short to avoid excessive segmentation. Avoid using emojis in critical alerts or regulatory messages. Use Unicode carefully because of the reduced message length and potential delivery issues. For critical communications, opt for GSM-7 encoding whenever possible.

Restricted Content

Carriers can restrict messaging with the listed content:

• Content related to sex, hate, alcohol, firearms, and tobacco (SHAFT)
• Content relating to illegal substances, including cannabis and cannabis-related products, such as cannabidiol (CBD), vaping products or devices, marijuana or cannabis, or dispensaries
• SPAM, fraud, phishing
• Lead-generation programs
• Deceptive programs
• High-risk financial services, such as payday loans, short-term loans, third-party home and auto loans, student loans, and debt collection
• Debt forgiveness, debt consolidation, debt reduction, and credit repair programs
• Illegal prescriptions or drug endorsements
• Work and investment opportunities, such as work-from-home programs, job alerts from third-party recruiting firms, and risk investment opportunities
• Carrier competitive promotions
• Fraudulent or misleading messages
• Gambling
• Profanity
• Depictions or endorsement of violence
• Lead generation indicating the sharing of collected information with third parties
• Short code programs that solicit charitable or political donations that don’t comply with Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA) best practices.
• Abandoned shopping cart notifications without applicable consent
• Campaign types not in compliance with the Messaging Principles and Best Practices, CTIA Short Code Monitoring Handbook, and any other legal regulatory body governing telecommunication systems in this country

Short Code Audits

The CTIA conducts weekly short code audits to identify violations, which include any deviations from best practice and code of conduct guidelines, such as:

• Missing links to Terms and Conditions or Privacy Policy webpages
• Mandatory keywords (for example, STOP and HELP) aren’t displayed or nonfunctional
• Failure to disclose that standard message and date rates may apply
• Discrepancies between the short code's current use case and its originally approved program

The timely resolution of these audits is crucial, as ‌failure to do so can result in short code suspension. Make sure that you maintain compliance and promptly address any audit notices.

Best Practice and Compliance References

• WMC Global Resources for the United States, including the CTIA Short Code Monitoring Handbook
• Mobile Marketing Association U.S. Consumer Best Practices for Messaging