Registering to send SMS

Text messaging is not something you switch on. The mobile networks require every business that sends text messages to be registered under its own name, and they check. Until your registration is approved, TribeNest will refuse every message you try to send, and there is no shared number to fall back on.

This page is the honest version of what that involves.

The banner at the top

Open Phone & SMS then SMS registration and the first thing you see is a banner that answers one question: can this account send a text message right now?

Green means yes. Messages go out from your own registered number, and you should keep the content in line with the use case you registered, because the networks audit against it.

Red means no, and it tells you which of these is in the way:

• You have no registration yet. Nothing can be sent until one is approved.
• Your registration is still being reviewed. Sending only becomes possible once it is approved.
• Approved, but not yet accepted onto our account. Your registration went through, but the final handshake with the network has not completed. Your numbers cannot attach to it yet.
• You have no phone number. A registration covers a sender, and a sender is a number you own. Buy one and it attaches automatically.
• Your number is not attached yet. The number exists but has not been bound to your sender. Clicking Check status usually finishes this. If it does not, contact us.

There is no dismiss button on this banner, and no "skip for now". Those would be buttons for something that does not exist.

Choose how you register

There are three paths, and they are listed in the order most people should consider them. You can only have one registration at a time.

Toll-free

Recommended. One registration covering your toll-free number. No setup fee, the least paperwork, and the quickest route to being able to text.

Best for: almost everyone. Start here unless you have a specific reason not to.

Review time: around five business days.

Sole proprietor

For individuals with no company registration number. Instead of verifying a company, the regulator verifies you personally, using the last four digits of your SSN or SIN plus a code texted to your mobile.

Best for: solo artists trading under their own name.

Watch out: the networks cap this path at one campaign and one number, with low sending throughput. That limit is exactly why toll-free is the default rather than this.

Review time: five to ten business days, starting after you confirm the code that gets texted to you.

10DLC

The third tab is labelled 10DLC. It registers a real legal entity, with a brand and a campaign, and it is the only path that lets you text from local numbers. More paperwork, higher throughput, and a fee per campaign.

Best for: an established label or company sending thousands of messages a month.

Watch out: you need a company registration number. Without one, use the sole proprietor path instead. Leaving it blank is not an option the regulator accepts.

Review time: five to ten business days, plus another one to seven if your brand is pulled for extra vetting.

Filling in the form

All three forms open with the same block of business details, then ask about what you intend to send.

Who is sending

This is what recipients and networks see as the sender. Use the name you actually trade under.

1. Business or artist name.
2. Website. A full address including https://.
3. Contact email and Contact phone. The phone number has to be in full international format, starting with a plus sign and the country code.
4. Contact first name and Contact last name.
5. Street address, City, State / region, Postcode and a two-letter Country code.

What you will send, and how people opted in

This is the part a human actually reads, and vague answers here are the single most common reason a registration is rejected.

1. Pick a Use case. The options cover marketing (promotions, releases, tour news), customer care, notifications, polling and voting, and a mixed option.
2. What these messages are for. Describe it in real sentences. Something like "tour announcements, presale codes and release news for people who asked to hear from us by text" is the right level of detail.
3. Sample message 1. Paste a real message, word for word, exactly as you would send it. A paraphrase gets the campaign rejected.
4. Sample message 2 is optional but worth adding.
5. How people opt in. The most important box on the page. Say where the sign-up form lives, what the consent wording next to it says, and what happens straight after someone submits it. Short answers get rejected here.
6. Opt-in reply, HELP reply and STOP reply are optional. They are the automatic responses people get when they join, ask for help, or ask to stop.

The toll-free path's extra field

The toll-free form asks for one thing the others do not: links to screenshots of your sign-up form, one per line.

Submissions without screenshots of the opt-in surface are routinely rejected. Include the page where the consent wording is actually visible, not just the top of your homepage. There is also an Anything else box for context you think helps.

The sole proprietor path's identity check

Below the business details there is an Identity check section asking for Your mobile number and the Last 4 of your SSN / SIN. Those four digits go straight to the regulator for the identity check and are not stored by TribeNest.

The 10DLC path's entity details

The 10DLC form asks for your EIN or company number, the Issuing country, and an Entity type: private company, publicly traded company, non-profit, or government. There is an optional Industry field too.

Submitting and waiting

Click the submit button at the bottom of whichever form you filled in. You get a confirmation message with the expected review time.

The page then shows a card with your registration on it, carrying:

• A status chip: Not submitted, Submitted, In review, Approved, Rejected, Suspended or Revoked.
• On the two non-toll-free paths, a second chip for the final network handshake: Sharing pending, Sharing accepted or Sharing declined. This is a separate thing from status. A registration can read Approved and still not be able to send while sharing is pending, which is exactly why both chips are shown.
• The dates it was Submitted and Approved, and the Registered use case.
• The numbers covered by the registration, and how many you are allowed.

There is nothing more to do while it sits with the networks. TribeNest updates the page automatically when they tell us something. If you think an update has been missed, click Check status to ask again.

If it gets rejected

A rejection is not the end of it. The card shows exactly what the reviewer said, in their words, under a heading telling you it came from the network.

Read it, fix the points raised, and fill in the form again below. It goes back on the same registration rather than starting a new one. The tabs are locked to the path you originally chose while you are resubmitting. To switch to a different path, withdraw the current one first.

In practice, most rejections are about the opt-in description or the sample messages. If yours is, write more, not less.

Withdrawing a registration

Click Withdraw on the registration card to pull it.

Once you are approved

The banner turns green and the pill on the Phone numbers page reads SMS can send.

Now go to Emails then Messaging to send an SMS campaign. It goes to people who have consented to hear from you by text, and it is paid for from your message credits.

Keep what you send in line with what you registered. The networks audit against your registered use case, and a marketing blast under a customer-care registration is how an approved sender gets suspended.