The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has changed how businesses and organisations send branded text messages – also known as alphanumeric senders, e.g. “AusPost” or “JoesPizza” rather than a mobile number. From 1st July, 2026, all businesses that send SMS need to verify their SMS Sender ID. If they don’t, their messages will be stamped as ‘Unverified’.
To register a new SMS Sender ID in TalkBox, you will need to submit the new sender for approval with your business details, and complete confirmation via the ACMA Assist Portal.
You need to register your sender ID with each telco or SMS provider you use.
Submit your SMS Sender in TalkBox
Navigation: Settings > Communication Settings
You can submit an SMS sender for your TalkBox account on the communication settings page following the steps below:
- On the SMS Sender Details tab, click the “Register SMS Sender” button
- Enter the desired Sender ID, along with your business details, contact details and the sender ID use case
Sender ID Restrictions
- Must be 2-11 characters long.
- May contain letters, numbers and punctuation.
- Must not contain only numbers.
- Must not start or end with a space or underscore.
- Does not consist entirely of the terms:
- account, alert, anti-fraud, assist, assistance, bank, banking, bill, billing, delivery, help, important, info, information, message, notice, notify, package, password, sale, secure, security, service, support, tax, urgent, verify, verified
Business name to appear on the ACMA register
This is the name that will appear publicly on the ACMA SMS Sender ID register. This name can be a:
- business name (matching a name on the Business Names Register), or
- entity name (matching the name on the Australian Business Register).
Business address
- If the entity is a company — the full address of the entity’s registered office; or
- if the entity is not a company — the entity’s principal place of business, operation or administration.
Contact person
These are the contact details for the person at your business who is responsible for this registration process. This person does not need to be an authorised representative of the business on the Australian Business Register.
The email address provided here will receive an email directly from the ACMA for each registration application.
Your Sender IDs
To be registered, a sender ID must be clearly linked to your organisation. This helps consumers recognise who the message is from and reduces the risk of confusion or impersonation.
As an organisation with an ABN, your sender ID must match your organisation’s:
- registered business name in the Business Names Register (status must be “registered”)
- company name in the Australian Business Register (ABN status must be “active”)
- trademark in the Register of Trade Marks or equivalent international register (status must be “registered”), or
- domain name for which your organisation is the “registrant” in whois.auda.org.au, and either the domain is used for a legitimate accessible website, or an active email account.
You can register a sender ID that:
- is the same as your organisation’s name, or a shortened version (e.g., ‘Australian Taxation Office’ → ‘ATO’)
- is an acronym, contraction, abbreviation or initialism of your name (e.g., ‘ACMA’)
- includes extra words relating to your organisation’s function, location, or message purpose (e.g., ‘ACMA Alerts’).
If it doesn’t meet these criteria, the ACMA will not accept the application. There is an exception if:
- you are a government agency,
- the sender ID relates to an emergency, or a matter of public health, safety or security, and
- you have provided satisfactory evidence to the telco of the reason why you want to use the non-matching sender ID.
Read more about valid use case rules on the ACMA website.
Next Steps
Once you’ve submitted your SMS Sender ID, our staff will review it, and if appropriate will confirm and forward the submission to the ACMA.
The ACMA will email your contact person directly, in the interim, follow the steps outlined in this article: Accessing Your ACMA Assist Portal
Once approved, your sender will display as “Approved” in TalkBox and be available when composing SMS messages.