Written by
Tim Collins
Published on
1 July 2026
If you send text messages with your business name at the top — a "branded" or alphanumeric sender ID like NthDental or CityCouncil — the rules changed on 1 July 2026. Those sender IDs now have to be registered in the ACMA's SMS Sender ID Register. If they're not, your messages get labelled Unverified and grouped in with scam texts on people's phones.
Here's what you need to know.
What the register is
The SMS Sender ID Register is an Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) scheme designed to cut down SMS scams. For years, scammers have been able to spoof trusted brand names in the sender field of a text — banks, government agencies, delivery companies — because nothing checked that the sender ID actually belonged to who it claimed.
The register closes that gap. From 1 July 2026, a branded sender ID has to be registered and tied to a real business before it can be used. Anything unregistered is stamped Unverified.
Who needs to register
Any business or organisation that sends branded text messages — including small businesses, not-for-profits and agencies sending on behalf of clients. If your texts show your name rather than a plain number, this applies to you.
What happens if you don't
Nothing gets blocked outright, but the cost is trust:
- Your sender ID is replaced with the word Unverified.
- Those messages are grouped together with other unverified and scam messages on the recipient's phone.
- Your carefully branded reminder or alert lands looking exactly like something a customer has been trained to ignore.
For appointment reminders, recalls and alerts — where the whole point is that people read and act on the message — that's a real problem.
The requirements
To register a sender ID it needs to:
- Be 2 to 11 characters long.
- Use standard ASCII characters only (codes 32–126).
- Have a valid business link — clearly tied to your business, such as a registered company name, trademark or domain.
If you register against an ABN, your authorised contact or service-of-notice email in the Australian Business Register needs to be up to date, because that's how ACMA verifies the link. Registration goes through your telco or messaging provider, and verification typically takes up to two weeks — so it's not something to leave to the last minute.
A registered sender ID isn't just a compliance box. It's the difference between a message that reads as "from your clinic" and one that reads as "Unverified".
How FlipSend handles it
FlipSend is an ACMA-approved telco, so sender ID registration is something we manage for you rather than a hoop you jump through alone. When you set up a branded sender ID with us, we handle the registration and the carrier-grade compliance behind it — so your appointment reminders, alerts and notices arrive verified, under your name, the way they should.
If you're sending branded SMS in Australia and you haven't registered your sender IDs yet, now is the time. If you'd like a hand, that's exactly what we're here for.