Insight
What is A2P Messaging and How Does it Work?
A2P messaging stands for application-to-person messaging, and it refers to text messages that are sent by businesses to their customers using an SMS application. Below we’ll cover how A2P messaging works, plus which messaging providers your business should consider using to send A2P messages.
What is A2P messaging?
Application-to-person messaging, or A2P for short, involves sending SMS or MMS messages from a software to a person.
A2P previously only applied to automated text messages from businesses, but business texting now looks very similar to person-to-person, or P2P, conversations.
What is P2P messaging?
Peer to peer texting, or P2P texting, refers to any message exchange between two people. For example, any text you send using your personal phone is an example of a P2P message.
With that said—why can’t you use P2P messaging to send business texts from your personal cell phone instead of using an SMS application?
For starters, texting customers without a centralized SMS platform quickly becomes disorganized. Your team can’t see each other’s messages, track resolved conversations, or automatically process opt-out requests, all of which are essential for smooth communication and compliance.
Mobile carriers now require businesses to register the phone number they use for texting, a process known as 10DLC registration. 10DLC registration can be tedious without an SMS provider to register with the Campaign Registry on your behalf.
How do you register your A2P 10DLC messaging?
The Campaign Registry (TCR) is a central hub for registering your business’s A2P 10DLC messaging campaigns. A quality SMS platform, like Text Request, will work closely with the TCR on your behalf to ensure your A2P 10DLC registration is successfully completed and that your messages are delivered.
10DLC registration process is necessary to prove that your business is legitimate, and that you’re texting consumers for approved, compliant reasons, so your messages are delivered reliably and at scale by mobile carriers.
Text Request handles the registration process on your behalf by collecting the following information when you sign up:
Your company’s legal name
Your company’s country of registration
Organization type (private, publicly traded, nonprofit)
Your company’s tax number/ID/EIN
Your business website
Your opt-in flow, or how you collect opt-ins for all contacts
Descriptions of each use case you text for
Sample messages for each use case
Check out our complete 10DLC Registration & Regulations guide for an in-depth walkthrough on A2P 10DLC registration.
How does A2P messaging work?
When you send an A2P message using a SMS application, the message is delivered to an SMS gateway. SMS gateways are what allow SMS applications to communicate with mobile devices through the cellular network, like a bridge.
The SMS gateway then connects the SMS application to the mobile network operators, or MNOs, so the message can reach the correct recipient’s mobile phone. The recipient's phone then displays the message and the message is considered delivered.
How do you use A2P messaging?
A2P messaging offers several powerful solutions for your business, the biggest including:
Two-way customer service and support conversations
Collecting payments
Lead generation
Scheduling
SMS marketing
Below we’ll give a brief highlight of each use case, as well as provide additional SMS resources to help you get started.
A2P Messaging for Two-way Conversations
90% of texts are read within 30 minutes of being sent, and 84% of people want texts from your business because it’s faster and more convenient for them. Using an SMS application for two-way customer conversations:
Cuts out phone calls
Provides customers with faster support and smoother experiences
Helps you finalize more deals faster
Drastically speeds up onboarding when you can text PDFs and resource links
And more
You have tons of customer communications that pop up throughout the day, and A2P messaging is your ticket to managing them faster.
A2P Messaging for Collecting Payments
Texting for collections significantly reduces overdue payments, especially when you:
Schedule payment reminder messages in advance
Share direct, secure links to pay
Instantly gather information required to finalize bills
Share past due policies
No more calling everyone and endlessly mailing invoices. A2P text messaging speeds up cash flow, minimizes bad debt, and allows you to spend fewer resources while doing it. Check out our full list of payment reminder text message templates for more examples of how your business can text for collections.
A2P Messaging for Lead Generation
These A2P SMS application tools can help you capture and convert significantly more leads.
SMS Chat: A website widget that lets leads text you instantly, so you can save their number and follow up with them later.
Web Form Text Triggers: Automations that send text messages to leads as soon as they complete certain actions on your website, so they continue moving down your sales funnel.
Keywords: A word or phrase that leads can text you to opt in for information or incentives they find relevant to them.
Text messaging has one of the highest conversion rates of any channel for following up with leads for sales and promotions. Check out our full list of sales and warm lead text message templates for more examples of how your business can text leads.
A2P Messaging for Appointment Scheduling
No-shows can cost your business hundreds to thousands of lost revenue each year, but A2P messaging for appointment scheduling will cut your number of no-shows in half. Business texting gives you an effective way to stay in touch with clients before, after, and in between their scheduled appointments, especially when you use it to:
Create text reminders
Text calendar links for clients to book
Break down what the client should expect during the appointment
Stress the pain points of missing an appointment
Fill last-minute slots as they open up
Schedule follow-up appointments in advance after services
View our full list of appointment scheduling text message templates for more examples of how to streamline line scheduling for A2P messaging.
A2P Messaging for SMS Marketing
SMS marketing can help your business get immediate responses and boost sales fast, especially when you have an SMS application that gives you tools like:
Mass Texting: Send one text to multiple contacts at once, like BCC group messaging, to instantly drive sales and engagement.
MMS and Link Sharing: Text images, PDFs, and resources to make your messages more engaging.
Keywords: Advertise words that leads and customers can text to opt into your SMS campaigns.
Integrations: Connect the tools you already use to your SMS application, so you can cross-pollinate your marketing lists.
Custom Merge Messaging: Upload custom contact fields to personalize your text marketing messages at scale and capture more attention.
Get even more SMS marketing ideas from our full list of promotion text message templates.
A2P Messaging Provider Essentials
You need an A2P messaging platform to accomplish any of the use cases described above. So what essentials should you keep in mind as you enter the application-to-person SMS market?
A quality text messaging platform will:
Help your business with 10DLC registration
Include additional features, like mass texting, text templates, unlimited users, and unlimited contacts, as part of your plan
Provide free support and success training
Offer 30-day money-back guarantees and no contracts
Text Request includes all this and more on our Basic and Starter plans. Our team is also readily available to talk through your business’s individual A2P messaging needs to find the best solution for you.
