If your business sends SMS reminders, don’t miss the window to register your SMS Sender ID to help avoid your messages being blocked in 2026.
If you run a service based business, you might rely on SMS appointment reminders to help your schedule run smoothly. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is introducing sender ID registration for SMS messages to help protect consumers against SMS scams – and if you have a sender ID, this could have an impact on your business.
Here’s three things you need to know about what these changes mean and the actions you need to take to prepare.
1. You’ll need to register your SMS Sender ID
In line with the upcoming ACMA changes, if you have a SMS Sender ID your business will need to work with your message provider to register it.
SMS Sender ID is the name which appears as the sender each message. For example, you might be familiar with receiving texts from ‘ATO’ or the name of your bank or accounting software such as ‘Xero’ or ‘MYOB’.
Under the ACMA changes, these SMS Sender IDs will need be registered and verified to acknowledge the messages are genuinely sent from those organisations.
If you send messages directly from a phone number and do not use a SMS Sender ID, then you don’t need to take any action – but keep reading in case you get a sender ID in the future.
Security tip: While SMS messages can have verified SMS Sender IDs, this kind of verification unfortunately doesn’t currently exist with emails. Always be vigilant if you receive an email which appears to be from your bank, a government department or other organisation, as email scams are increasingly common.
2. If you miss the chance to register, your messages could be blocked
Under the ACMA changes, you’ll need to register your SMS Sender ID so you can send verified SMS reminders to your customers.
From 30 November 2025, there is a short window of time for you to register your SMS Sender ID to avoid disruptions to your SMS communications with your customers.
From 1 July 2026, only businesses which use registered sender IDs will be allowed to send SMS messages through their telco or message provider. After this date, if your SMS Sender ID isn’t registered, messages will appear automatically as being sent from ‘Unverified’ which could categorise the message as spam and cause customers to block, delete or ignore your message.
3. Your SMS Sender ID needs to meet registration requirements
To register your SMS Sender ID, it needs to have a clear link with your business, such as your registered business name, company name, trademark or website domain name.
You can use an acronym of your business name, for example in same way the ‘Australian Taxation Office’ uses ‘ATO’. You can add other words such as ‘reminder’ or ‘alert’ to help your customers make sense of the messages they receive.
Other guidelines and requirements are available through the ACMA website.
Find out more
- Visit the ACMA website for the most up to date information about the SMS Sender ID Register including key dates, how to register and answers to frequently asked questions.
- Sign up to the SBDC small business news to receive more updates like this straight to your inbox.
