What do I need to do before I can send text messages, from a regular or a toll-free number?
To send business text messages you first need to be approved by the phone carriers. Texting from a regular (non toll-free) number requires A2P 10DLC registration. Texting from a toll-free number requires toll-free verification (TFV) instead. In both cases you fill out the registration form in the platform, submit it, and receive an approval to send text messages. Until you are approved, SMS is not available, but email reminders and confirmations still work.
To register for 10DLC:
- Go to Settings, then Phone, then the 10DLC tab.
- Register your brand with your company information.
- Register your use case (your SMS plan): what you will send, sample messages, and how people opt in to receive your texts.
- Submit the application. It goes to The Campaign Registry for the carriers to approve.
Before your application is submitted, an AI agent reviews it. It crawls your website and checks the common things carriers look for, so you can fix anything that is missing first.
A clean application is usually approved within a few days. An application that is sent to a secondary review can take weeks. You can follow the status on the 10DLC tab.
A toll-free number can be used for both calling and texting once it is verified. Toll-free verification is a similar form with the same kind of questions, but it goes to a different company than A2P (which goes to The Campaign Registry), and approval can be a little faster. An A2P approval you already have does not carry over to toll-free numbers, so you apply separately for the toll-free number. Until the verification is complete, the phone number's features show TFV required. Before you apply, add a privacy policy and terms and conditions to your website, because both URLs are required. You can ask the AI assistant to add a privacy policy and an opt-in form to your site. There is a fee for each toll-free submission attempt. It is a pass-through price, and we make no money on it.
If you already completed 10DLC registration on your FlowTrack account, we can move it over and you do not need to reapply. An approval at another provider, such as Twilio or GoHighLevel, does not carry over to Votel, so you register again, which is usually quick once you have been through it before.
10DLC registration applies to numbers in North America (the United States and Canada). To our knowledge there is no equivalent registration for India.