A local number your customers will actually recognize
10 DLC gives your business a dedicated and verified 10-digit local number for SMS — the same format as a regular phone number, trusted by carriers and familiar to the people receiving your messages. Swift simplifies registration to help you start sending quickly.
What is A2P 10 DLC?
A2P — Application-to-Person — is the term carriers use for messages sent from a business platform to an individual's phone. The 10 DLC part refers to the standard 10-digit local number those messages are sent from, with an area code your customer can recognize.
Carriers require businesses to register before sending A2P messages at scale. It's an industry-wide effort to reduce spam and ensure messages come from verified, legitimate senders — which means better deliverability for your business and more trust from the people receiving your texts.
Why use A2P 10DLC numbers?
Local presence, national reach
A 10-digit local number builds familiarity and trust with your audience. Customers are more likely to open and respond to a message from a number that looks like a real phone number — because it is.
Verification builds trust
Behind every registered 10 DLC number is an industry-wide effort to keep the SMS ecosystem trusted. Swift walks you through registration to ensure your messages are recognized as coming from a verified business — not filtered, not flagged, not ignored.
Seamlessly integrated
Add a dedicated 10 DLC number directly to your existing Swift services seamlessly, including all our API plans and GREXT, our no-code, group-texting solution.
How businesses are using A2P 10DLC
Appointment & booking confirmations
Send confirmation and reminder messages directly from your platform through a consistent local number — keeping your brand front and centre at every customer touchpoint.
System alerts & notifications
Connect your application directly to SMS for automated system traps, status alerts, and operational notifications that reach the right people the moment something needs attention.
Customer support
Give customers a direct, familiar channel to reach your team over SMS. A dedicated 10-digit number means every conversation comes from and returns to the same recognizable number — building the kind of consistency that makes customers comfortable reaching out.
Frequently asked questions
A2P 10DLC stands for Application-to-Person 10-Digit Long Code. It's a system that allows businesses to send text messages from standard local phone numbers over dedicated, carrier-approved routes. Unlike person-to-person texting, A2P 10DLC is designed for business messaging and requires registration with carriers to ensure messages are delivered reliably.
US carriers require all businesses sending A2P messages from local numbers to register their brand and campaigns through The Campaign Registry (TCR). Unregistered traffic is subject to heavy filtering, throttling, and potential blocking. Registration confirms your identity as a legitimate business and unlocks higher throughput and better deliverability.
Registration involves three steps: first, register your brand by providing your business information (name, EIN, address). Second, register your campaign by describing your messaging use case and consent practices. Third, associate your 10DLC phone numbers with the approved campaign. Swift SMS Gateway guides you through each step.
Brand registration is typically approved within minutes to a few days. Campaign approval generally takes under one week, though timing depends on carrier and TCR review queues. Having accurate business information and a clear use case description helps avoid delays.
10DLC numbers use local area codes, giving recipients a familiar local presence. Toll-free numbers use standard prefixes like 800 or 888. 10DLC requires external campaign registration through TCR, while toll-free verification is handled in-house. Toll-free numbers generally offer faster verification and handset-level delivery receipts, while 10DLC provides the benefit of a local caller ID.
Throughput for 10DLC depends on your brand's trust score, which is assigned during registration based on your business size and reputation. Higher trust scores unlock higher message-per-second rates. Most registered campaigns support enough throughput for standard business messaging, but high-volume senders may want to consider toll-free or short codes.
Sole-proprietor registration is for individuals or small businesses that don't have a US EIN or Canadian Business Number. It follows a simplified registration process with lower throughput limits compared to standard business registration. It's ideal for small-scale senders like independent professionals or local businesses just getting started with A2P messaging.