Twilio recently announced that local 10-digit phone numbers (commonly referred to as 10-digit long codes by Twilio) now require registration, due to A2P 10DLC . For more detailed information, please see Twilio’s What is A2P 10DLC support article.

Twilio informed us that AT&T in particular recently began more strictly filtering text messages in an effort to reduce spam and unwanted text messages. We have received reports from churches that some people are no longer receiving text messages sent from TouchPoint, and we have experienced that internally as well. In each of these cases, the intended recipients have been identified as using AT&T for their mobile carrier. Once AT&T flags the number you are using to send text messages, any future text messages sent to AT&T phone numbers will not go through. You can contact Twilio Support and they can request to have the number unblocked on your behalf. However, it is probable that it will be blocked again if your church continues to send the same types of messages. 

Instead of going through the A2P 10DLC registration process, our recommendation is to switch from using a local 10-digit phone number to a Toll-free number. The reason for this is that Toll-free numbers are not affected by A2P 10DLC and do not require registration (plus additional fees). Twilio charges $2 per month for a Toll-free number, compared to $1 per month for a local 10-digit number. However, Toll-free numbers will send text messages at a rate of 3 messages per second, whereas local numbers only send 1 text message per second. You can log into your Twilio account and purchase a Toll-free number there. After you have purchased a new number(s), follow the steps to Configure Your Twilio Account for Two-Way SMS . Then, you will need to update your Twilio group(s) in TouchPoint to use the new number(s) and remove the previous local 10-digit number(s). 

Once you switch to using Toll-free numbers for sending text messages from TouchPoint, we recommend reading Twilio’s Information and best practices for using Toll-Free SMS and MMS in the US and Canada support article. This will help to ensure that your messages are not flagged as spam and increase deliverability to your congregation.

If you have any questions regarding this, please contact TouchPoint Support, and we will be happy to assist you.