Feature Updates 11/09/2022

Important Update on Twilio's New Business Registration Requirements (A2P 10DLC)

IMPORTANT - As of Nov 2022, Twilio now requires all numbers, including 10-digit and 10-digit-toll-free, to complete the A2P registration process. The toll-free requirement is new for 2022 and previously, only 10-digit non-troll-free numbers required A2P registration. OnlineGiving.org first started reporting on the new registration process in early 2021. Additionally, Twilio has been notifying administrators via email for the last year of updates to A2P requirements. This is a friendly reminder for all churches to please log in to your Twilio control panel and start your registration process. For convenience, we've included our notes and recommendations from 2021 on A2P registration below. 

Update on Twilio's New Business Registration Requirements (A2P 10DLC)

This is an update on Twilio's new business registration requirement called A2P 10DLC which is aimed to help cell phone carriers reduce spam by allowing companies to register a profile. In exchange for registering your business (non-profit) Twilio has worked with the upstream carriers to allow high throughput for 10-digit phone numbers from businesses (or non-profits) that have completed a profile in the Twilio.com control panel. We view this update as positive as over the last few years we've seen a large increase in message filtering by cell phone carriers in an effort to reduce spam on their networks. Unfortunately, carrier message filtering is often powered by automated self-learning algorithms that can incorrectly block legit traffic due to the sophistication of spammers in making their messages look legit.

In the last few years, the internet is widely adopted both two-factor authentication and the ability to sign in with a text message code. For these reasons, Twilio has been working with cell phone carriers to allow a method for legit businesses (non-profits) to have a method of proving they are not spammers and to ideally avoid strong message filtering and have higher message throughput. The new "A2P 10DLC" business registration is the end result of Twilio working with cell phone carriers.

Twilio has been sending out updates very frequently about A2P 10DLC and the requirements have changed along with the deadline being pushed out. We first brought you an update earlier this year to help summarize the business registration requirements. We've included a copy of that first article below which offers recommendations for the business registration process. It's important to note Twilio has since developed a few new FAQ pages that define the new requirements in greater detail which can be viewed at https://support.twilio.com/hc/en-us/articles/1260800720410-What-is-A2P-10DLC-

Original Help Article by OnlineGiving.org on A2P 10DLC:

In this article, we'll overview Twilio's upcoming changes for 10-digit phone numbers. If you are a church using a 10-digit long code, you may have recently received an email from Twilio.com with the subject "[Twilio Messaging - Advisory Alert] Improved AT&T Long Code Connectivity, Registration Requirements, and Price Changes." For your convenience, we have a screenshot of the email body below (if needed).

The notification appears to bring positive news of possible higher delivery speeds for 10-digit phone numbers. According to Twilio, "... the most important thing to you is getting your messages delivered to your end-users quickly and reliably. We’ve been working with the U.S. carrier ecosystem to improve long-code messaging. Once you register your campaign, you will benefit from lower filtering and higher reliability. In the near future, you will also be eligible to send messages greater than 1 message per second (MPS). We’re excited to bring this to you and will provide additional updates in the coming weeks."

Twilio's Improved AT&T Long Code COnnectivity, Registration Requirements, and Price Changes Notification:

Directions: Click on the image below to view a large readable version of the Twilio notification.

What Does This Mean for the Church?

Twilio appears to now require completing a business profile from the Twilio.com Console, which will allow upstream Cell Phone Carriers. The process is free and straightforward. We can only speculate, but it appears the cell phone industry is now recognizing the great need (purpose) for 10-digit phone numbers for application to end-user purposes. A business profile will allow Twilio and the upstream carriers to better understand the type of entity sending messages. We're hopeful this is good news for churches as it will allow a way for carriers to know a business is legit and not using Twilio for fraudulent purposes. As you may already be aware, a long-term battle with carriers and spam on text messages and phone calls has been a major issue. We suspect this is a method that Twilio has worked out with upstream carriers to allow legit traffic to obtain a higher level of service for a nominal cost increase.

What Action is Required?

Currently, the action is only required if you are a church that is using a 10-digit phone number known as a long code. From what we see, toll-free phone numbers do not currently apply to the registration requirement. However, that may be subject to change in the future, and it may still be a good idea to try to register your business profile with Twilio even if you have a toll-free number. Thankfully, Twilio has made the business profile registration process very simple and easy.

Ideally, before March 1st, 2021, churches will want to login to https://www.twilio.com/console/trust-hub to complete their business profile. You may click here to access the Twilio.com > Trust Hub > Customer Profile. For your convenience, we've included a recommendation of how to complete the business profile form below: 

What else do we have to do?

After registering your business, you may register a new campaign under the Twilio Trust Hub. From what we see, this aspect is optional but can lead to a discount in the upcoming AT&T surcharge and may also grant access to faster delivery speeds for 10-digit phone numbers. Currently, there is a one-time nominal campaign fee to create a new campaign within Twilio. However, currently from what we understand, churches may only need to create a single campaign to take advantage of the discount pricing and better delivery speeds.

For your convenience, we've included the specifics on the campaign registrations as provided by Twilio below. We strongly suggest when registering a Twilio.com campaign that the church put the purpose is for application to end-user communications such as sending out one-time login or registration codes, sending church updates/notifications, or similar. It may be possible to be discriminated against as a church if giving is mentioned as Twilio has been known not fully to understand text giving in the church realm. Should the church have any questions, please reach out to Twilio.com support by clicking here. You may also reach out to support@onlinegiving.org, and we can assist you directly.