Alphanumeric sender

An alphanumeric sender, or Sender ID, displays a brand name in place of a number as the originator of an SMS, within a limit of 11 characters.

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In brief

An alphanumeric sender, or Sender ID, displays a brand name in place of a number as the originator of an SMS, within a limit of 11 characters.

Going deeper

Instead of a number, the displayed originator can come down to a string of characters that identifies the sender — the name of a brand, a store or a service. Its length does not exceed eleven characters.

This display comes with a major trade-off: since an alphanumeric sender is not a number, the recipient can't reply anything to it. Messages that use it must therefore offer another unsubscribe channel, usually a short code.

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Related concepts

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Short codeA short code fits in a few digits, reserved for services, and is used notably for unsubscriptions and reports.A2P SMSAn A2P SMS (Application-to-Person) is a message sent automatically by a computer system to a mobile, as opposed to a text written by a human.

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