Where this stands today
Celeva collects and files SMS registrations now, and sending on SMS is still being built — so a completed registration will not start texting the day it is approved. If you need to send this month, WhatsApp works end to end today, and email always has. Registration takes weeks anyway, so starting now is not wasted.
Texting people at scale in the US is registered work. Carriers require every business sending to be identified and every message programme to be described in advance — this is called A2P 10DLC. Celeva files the registration for you, but only you have the answers.
How long this takes
An hour to gather, then typically one to three weeks with the carriers. This is the slowest part of Celeva Reach and none of it is under our control.
Before you start
- Your EIN confirmation letter — the CP 575 the IRS issued, or a 147c letter if you have mislaid it. Outside the US, your equivalent company registration number.
- The exact legal business name as it appears on that letter. Not the name on your W-2 or W-9, which is often subtly different.
- A working public website, on a domain related to the business name.
- A public privacy policy URL and a public terms and conditions URL.
- One named person who can act as the authorised representative, with their job title, direct email and phone.
Step by step
Get the legal name exactly right
Copy the business name from your CP 575 or 147c letter, character for character. If the name runs across several lines on the letter, use every line above the address.
Gives you: Registered legal name
A mismatch here is the most common rejection, and it is not a near-miss check — “Acme Inc” against “ACME, Inc.” fails. If your EIN is newly issued, wait a few weeks before registering: it takes 30 to 90 days to propagate to the validation databases the carriers use.
Have the tax ID to hand
Give the EIN in 00-0000000 form, exactly as the IRS issued it.
Gives you: Tax or company registration number
A sole proprietorship that has an EIN must not register as a sole proprietor — the registry requires it to register as a standard brand, and getting this wrong costs fees and sending ability.
Collect the rest of the business profile
The legal structure (corporation, LLC, non-profit, partnership, co-operative), the industry that best matches what you do, the country of registration and the registered address. Government bodies register as non-profit corporations; charities use the not-for-profit industry.
Gives you: Business type / Industry / Country / Registered address
Check your website will pass an automated look
The registry takes a screenshot of your site and checks it automatically. It must load without a login, be clearly related to the business name, and not be a parked domain or one listed for sale.
Gives you: Website
A site that redirects to a different brand fails. So does one behind a holding page, which is easy to miss if your marketing site is still being built.
Publish a privacy policy and terms, and get their URLs
Both must be public pages anyone can open. The privacy policy has to say what you do with the phone numbers you hold; the terms have to describe the message programme — what you send, roughly how often, and how somebody stops it.
Gives you: Privacy policy URL / Terms and conditions URL
Required on every campaign registration since 30 June 2026. A submission without both is rejected outright rather than reviewed, so this is not a nice-to-have.
Name an authorised representative
One real person, with their exact job title, a business email on your own domain and a direct phone number in full international form. They may be contacted to confirm they authorised the registration.
Gives you: Full name / Job title / Email / Phone
Not a shared inbox, and not a disposable address. The same email may be used across at most ten brand registrations, so a busy shared address can quietly hit the ceiling.
Describe how these people agreed to be texted
This is the part registrations actually fail on. Write a few sentences a stranger can picture: where the number is given, what the person is told they will receive, and how often. Then give a public URL showing that form, and copy the exact consent sentence word for word as it appears beside the checkbox.
Gives you: How consent is collected / Describe it / Link to the form or page / The exact consent wording
“Members gave us their numbers” is not an answer a reviewer can act on. “Collected on our membership form since 2019, where members tick a box reading ‘Text me event updates from Hope Foundation. Msg & data rates may apply.’” is.
Write two real sample messages
Two messages of the kind you will genuinely send. Each should name your organisation and carry an opt-out line, because that is what the carriers check for.
Gives you: Two sample messages
Placeholders like “Test message” or “Hello” are a standard rejection. Write the real thing.
Estimate your monthly volume honestly
How many messages you expect to send in a month, across all your Moments.
Gives you: Estimated messages per month
Register for 200 and send 20,000 and the number gets suspended. Over-estimating slightly is cheap; under-estimating is not.
Fill it into Celeva and submit
Open your Moment, go to Celeva Reach, then Registration & channels. The checklist on that page tracks every item above. When it is complete, press Submit for review and Celeva files it with the carriers on your behalf.
Until the registration comes back live, invitations keep going out by email. Celeva will not send on an unregistered number, because that is what gets a number suspended rather than a message rejected.
Screens and wording checked against Twilio’s own documentation in September 2026. Both change their consoles without notice — if something has moved, the thing to look for is named in each step.
Also worth knowing
- Your EIN and contact details are encrypted. They are readable only by the Celeva staff who file your registration, and never rendered back to your own setup page once saved.
- Celeva will not send before you are live. A registration that is submitted or in review is not permission to text anyone. Until the carriers approve it, invitations go out by email.
- STOP and HELP are handled for you. Anyone who replies STOP is suppressed across every Celeva Moment, not just the one that wrote to them.
- Outside the US? A2P 10DLC is a US and Canada regime. Give your country’s company registration number in place of an EIN and Celeva will tell you what else your carriers need.