If your clinic texts clients on US numbers, the carriers require your business texting to be registered. This article explains what A2P 10DLC is and what it means for you.
What A2P 10DLC Is
A2P stands for application-to-person messaging — texts sent by software (like Engage) rather than person-to-person from a handset. 10DLC means 10-digit long code: a standard US local number used for business messaging. US carriers require A2P traffic on 10-digit numbers to be registered to a verified business, so they can tell legitimate clinic messages from spam.
What It Means for Your Clinic
- Registration is part of buying a US texting number — you provide business details once, and they are submitted to the carriers’ registry.
- Registered traffic gets better deliverability; unregistered traffic is increasingly filtered or blocked by US carriers.
- Registration covers the business and the use case (appointment reminders, patient replies) — not each individual message.
Where This Happens in Engage
Open Settings → SMS and start Buy a number. When the number’s country is the United States, the flow collects the registration details as part of the purchase. Non-US numbers are not affected by 10DLC.
NOTE: UK numbers have their own verification process — see our Buying a UK Number: Business Verification in Engage article.
Related Articles
We suggest reading our How to Set Up Two-Way SMS in Engage article for the full setup flow.
For more guides, refer to related articles below, select additional guides, or use the search bar at the top of the page. These guides will help you get the most out of your Pabau account.
Additionally, to help you fully utilize and understand your Pabau account, we recommend exploring additional guides and resources offered at the Pabau Academy.