> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://seedly-crm.gitbook.io/seedly-crm-docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://seedly-crm.gitbook.io/seedly-crm-docs/common-gohighlevel-problems-and-how-to-fix-them/ghl-a2p-10dlc-registration.md). # A2P 10DLC Registration Problems ![A text message held back at a carrier compliance checkpoint](/files/wTjdXDIvm5MlhMnFzGHO) You went to send a text from GoHighLevel and... nothing. Or worse, the messages looked like they sent, your contacts never got them, and you found out a week later when a lead said "I never heard back from you." Welcome to A2P 10DLC. It is the single most confusing step in the whole onboarding, and until it clears, your SMS is basically a brick. And here is the part that trips everybody up: this is not GoHighLevel being broken. I want to be honest about that up front, because it is easy to blame the platform. A2P 10DLC is a carrier rule. The carriers, AT\&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, decided every business sending automated texts has to register first. GHL just makes you do it inside their flow, and their flow is where people get stuck. Let me walk through what it actually is, why registrations get rejected, and how to get yours approved without losing a week to it. ## What A2P 10DLC actually is A2P 10DLC stands for application-to-person, 10-digit long code. Translation: you (an application, your CRM) texting a person from a normal 10-digit local number. Not a short code, not a toll-free number, your regular business line. Carriers require every business sending automated SMS over those numbers to register two things. First your **brand**, which is your company identity, your legal name, your EIN, your address. Then your **campaign**, which is what you are actually going to text people about and how they agreed to it. Both get reviewed. Some go through carrier vetting on top of that, where a third party scores how legit your brand looks. All of it routes through The Campaign Registry, the central database the carriers read from. Until your brand and campaign are approved, your messages get filtered or fail outright. No approval, no delivery. That is the whole game. ![The A2P 10DLC registration flow: brand, campaign, carrier vetting, then approved sending](/files/z34NB61aBf5ppUB3HdSg) ## Why registrations get rejected or stuck Most rejections are not mysterious. They are the same handful of mistakes over and over. 1. **Brand details do not match public records.** Your legal business name, EIN, and address have to match what is on file with the IRS, exactly. One transposed digit, "LLC" where your filing says "L.L.C.", an old address... the brand vetting fails and you do not always get told why. 2. **No EIN.** Sole proprietors registering without an EIN hit lower throughput limits and a lot more friction. Registering as a real entity with an EIN is just smoother. (If you are serious about texting, get the EIN. It is free and it takes ten minutes.) 3. **Weak campaign description and sample messages.** Vague use cases get rejected. "Marketing" is not a use case. The reviewer wants to know exactly what you send and exactly what it looks like. 4. **Missing opt-in proof.** Carriers want to see HOW your contacts agreed to be texted. No documented opt-in, no approval. This is the one people skip and then wonder why they are stuck. 5. **Broken or missing compliance links.** Your sample messages and your website need a privacy policy and clear terms covering message frequency and how to opt out. If the link 404s, you are done. ## How to get approved Do these in order and you clear most of the friction before it starts. 1. **Use your exact legal entity details.** Pull your EIN, legal name, and address straight off your IRS letter or your formation docs and type them in character for character. Do not go from memory. Memory is how the mismatches happen. 2. **Write a specific campaign use case.** Spell out what you send. "Appointment reminders and lead follow-up for our home services business." Name the thing. Name who gets it. 3. **Provide clean sample messages.** Include your business name in the text and clear STOP-to-opt-out language. Make them read like real messages a real human would send, because that is what the reviewer is checking for. 4. **Document opt-in.** Show the form, the checkbox, the keyword, wherever your contacts actually said yes. Host a privacy policy that mentions SMS. This is the step that turns a "pending" into an "approved." 5. **Expect a wait, and submit early.** Brand and campaign vetting takes time, sometimes days, sometimes longer when a carrier kicks it back. Register before you need to send, not the morning of your launch. ## The ownership angle Here is the part worth sitting with for a second. The registration itself is a carrier requirement, and you would complete it no matter what software you run. That does not change. What changes is WHERE the registration lives and who controls it. Inside GoHighLevel, you are registering through their bundled telephony layer. Your A2P approval is tied to that setup. Your numbers, your throughput, your campaign, all of it lives inside a stack you are renting alongside thousands of other agencies. When you own and self-host your CRM instead, you connect your own Twilio account (or another carrier) directly. You still do A2P registration, because the carriers still require it, but you do it in your own provider account. The brand and campaign you registered are yours. The numbers are yours. If you ever switch software, that registration moves with you instead of evaporating the day you cancel. That is the difference between filling out a form for a landlord and filling it out for yourself. Same form. Very different ownership. A2P is not the enemy here, and GHL is not the enemy for making you do it. The thing to be honest about is how much of your messaging infrastructure you actually hold the keys to. If carrier and telephony control matters to you, and for anyone who lives off SMS it really does, take a look at [GoHighLevel alternatives where you own the code](https://seedlycrm.com/blog/gohighlevel-alternatives-where-you-own-the-code) and decide whose name you want on the registration... --- # Agent Instructions This documentation is published with GitBook. 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