Enable SMS in Microsoft Teams with 10DLC Registration (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Microsoft Teams calling plans support sending and receiving SMS messages within Teams chat, currently for users in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada. All SMS messaging to and from Teams is considered application-to-person or A2P messaging. To comply with industry standards and regulations, organizations must register their business and messaging services prior to sending or receiving SMS messages to U.S. phone numbers. This process also provides multiple benefits, including improved SMS messaging integrity, deliverability, and accountability. You can enable SMS messaging for users in your organization in three steps. One, create a brand used to identify and validate your company. Two, create a campaign used to indicate the purpose and context of your SMS operation. And three, activate SMS on Teams phone numbers to enable the service for your users. Let's start by creating your brand. From the Microsoft Teams Admin Center, navigate to Service Configuration under the Voice menu. From the Service Configuration page, select Create your brand to start. Note that you can save this form as a draft at any point if you need to return to add information later. Start by entering the DBA or trade name of your company. Next, enter your legally registered company name. Ensure that it matches your official corporation registration. Enter the country in which your company is located and registered. Enter your tax ID number. In the U.S., this is your company's 9-digit employer identification number or EIN number. Next, enter your fully qualified domain name. Now choose your organization's legal form. Note that the non-profit option is only valid for U.S.-registered companies. If you are a publicly traded company, enter your brand stock symbol and the stock exchange where you are registered. Next, enter the brand segment that most closely represents your business operations. Enter contact information for the point of contact for inquiries related to this application process. Enter the phone number in E164 format with no spaces, dashes, or parentheses. Enter the point of contact email address. You may choose to enter a distribution group rather than a personal email. If you designated your organization's legal form as publicly traded company, you will need to enter a personal email that can be used to complete a two-factor authentication process as part of the verification. Enter the legal address where your company is registered. You can choose an existing saved address or add a new one. Ensure it matches the legal address on your corporate registration. Finally, accept the terms and conditions and select Submit. Once you have submitted your brand information, it will undergo a third-party review and approval process. Review times may vary but typically take multiple business days. When the review is complete, the status will show as Approved and you can move on to the next step, creating a campaign. A 10-DLC, or 10-digit long code campaign, is required to send SMS messages to U.S. recipients. It ensures messages are verified, secure, and aligned with carrier regulations. When registering your campaign, you'll need to provide the following. A campaign description. A clear call to action. Links to your privacy policy and terms. Message content for keywords like Start, Stop, and Help. Sample messages. And campaign and content attributes. Start with a clear campaign description. This should explain what kind of messages you'll send, like appointment reminders or service alerts, and who your audience is. Keep it concise, but informative. Your call to action is critical. It must clearly explain how users opt-in. And you need to prove it. That means including a direct link to the opt-in method, like a web form. Make sure your call to action meets all content requirements and that the opt-in is specific to SMS, not bundled with other services or hidden in fine print. Include sample messages that reflect your actual use case. At least one must include opt-out language. And if you're using links or phone numbers, include those too. These help reviewers understand your message flow. You'll also need to provide links to your SMS-specific privacy policy and terms and conditions. These must be publicly accessible and meet all content requirements, such as how consumer data is used and shared, and a statement that mobile opt-in data won't be shared with third parties for marketing. If you don't have your own, Microsoft provides a template you can customize. Just make sure the links are live and specific to SMS messaging. Now, let's talk about the three required keywords, start, stop, and help. These are automatically recognized and trigger automated responses. When a Teams user initiates a conversation, or the recipient replies start, to opt back in, they automatically receive the opt-in message. When a recipient replies stop, to opt out from your messaging service, they automatically receive the opt-out message. When a recipient replies help, they automatically receive the support message. Each of these messages has specific content requirements, so make sure they're accurate and complete. Finally, select the right campaign and content attributes. These include whether you'll use the following, embedded links, embedded phone numbers, age-gated content, or if your brand is involved in lending. It's important to note, if your brand is involved in lending, even if this campaign isn't, you must check the direct lending or loan arrangement box. Once you submit your campaign, the status will change to submitted. At this point, no further edits can be made to the campaign details. Your application is now pending review by SMS aggregators and mobile network operators. These external parties are responsible for evaluating your campaign and making the final approval decision based on industry regulations and messaging standards. While timelines may vary, feedback is typically provided within one business week. Please note that Microsoft does not control the review process or the outcome, but we're here to help ensure your submission is complete and accurate to support a smooth review. Once your campaign receives approval, you can proceed with enabling SMS functionality on your designated phone numbers. From the Microsoft Teams Admin Center, navigate to Phone Numbers under the Voice menu. Select a voice-enabled user with an assigned phone number. Then, in the top menu, select Enable SMS and Enable Again to confirm. After you enable a user, it typically takes about 2 hours for activation to complete, but could take up to 24 hours. Once a user has been enabled for SMS, they will be able to send messages to phone numbers right from within Chat and Teams. And recipients who are enabled for SMS in Teams benefit from the same built-in security features applied to other Teams messages. Consolidate your communications by enabling SMS messaging and add a native texting experience to Microsoft Teams.