Properly registered SMS, delivered, not blocked.

A2P 10DLC stands for Application-to-Person messaging over 10-Digit Long Codes. Since 2023, all US carriers (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile) require businesses to register their messaging program with The Campaign Registry (TCR) before sending SMS at scale. Unregistered messages get filtered or blocked entirely. For your practice, this means: send a single reactivation campaign to 200 dormant patients from an unregistered number, and most of them will never see the message. Proper A2P registration is what makes 'we send SMS for you' actually work.

Yes. The free 30-day trial includes the full intelligence layer (Drift Radar, Book Value, Voice Training), unlimited dormant-client scoring, and unlimited email campaigns through our HIPAA-eligible email infrastructure. SMS messaging is not included in the trial because it requires a one-time paid setup that covers Brand registration with The Campaign Registry, Campaign approval, and (for healthcare-covered customers) HIPAA-eligible toll-free verification. Once SMS is set up, you can send unlimited SMS in production.

$499 one-time setup covers: (1) The phone number itself — yours to keep forever, even if you ever leave the platform, useful for future messaging initiatives outside Retention IQ, (2) Brand registration with The Campaign Registry (TCR Brand Score, vetting fees pass-through), (3) Campaign registration with use-case approval (healthcare, retail, real estate, etc.), (4) Carrier verification (typically 5-7 business days), (5) SMS opt-in workflow setup, terms page, help/STOP keyword handling, (6) Per-practice voice training calibrated to your messaging tone, and (7) Our setup time and filing labor. After setup, ongoing SMS is included in your monthly plan.

Email infrastructure is mostly self-service: we send through our HIPAA-eligible email provider, your practice's sender domain is verified via DNS records that take 15 minutes. SMS, by contrast, requires regulatory approval through The Campaign Registry plus per-carrier compliance review at AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. The labor on our side is real: brand vetting, campaign filing, opt-in workflow setup, and a 5-7 business day carrier verification window. Practices that don't do this work properly get their messages blocked. We do it once, properly, and then SMS just works.

10DLC (10-Digit Long Code) is a regular US area-code number, e.g. (310) 555-0123 — high throughput, lower per-message cost, requires TCR Brand + Campaign registration. Toll-free (855, 800, 877, etc.) is a verified business number — lower throughput, higher per-message cost, requires Twilio toll-free verification directly with carriers. For HIPAA-covered healthcare practices, we typically recommend toll-free verification because the carriers' enhanced vetting process is well-aligned with healthcare compliance review. For non-medical (trades, salons, fitness), 10DLC is standard.

Timeline from paid setup to first SMS sent: typically 7-14 business days. Day 1-3: We file your TCR Brand registration and Campaign use-case. Day 4-7: Carrier review (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile vet your business). Day 8-10: Phone number provisioning + opt-in workflow build. Day 11-14: Verification fully clears + production SMS unlocked. We email status updates at each milestone. During this window, you can continue running unlimited email campaigns through the trial / paid platform.

Yes. Every SMS we send includes STOP / HELP keyword handling per CTIA requirements. Opt-outs are honored immediately and permanently — opted-out numbers cannot receive any future messages without explicit re-opt-in. We maintain audit logs of every opt-in event (the explicit consent moment) and every opt-out, with 7-year retention. Per-practice SMS opt-in / opt-out workflows are built during setup so your patients/clients see the same compliant flow whether they joined through your booking page, your front desk, or a paper form.