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New rules for businesses sending text messages
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From 1 July 2026, businesses that send branded text messages must register with the new SMS Sender ID Register.
A sender ID is the name at the top of text messages from businesses or organisations. It tells you who the message is from, like ‘ATO’ or ‘myGov’.
If you don’t register your sender ID, your branded text messages to customers will be labelled as coming from ‘unverified’ after 1 July 2026.
Why is this happening?
Australians lost almost $18 million to text message scams in 2025.
Many text scams pretend to be from a trusted business or organisation. They impersonate a business using a sender ID so the message appears to be legitimate. The SMS Sender ID Register aims to protect customers from scams like this.
What do businesses need to do?
Apply to register your sender ID as soon as possible.
To register, you will need to contact the telco or message provider you use to send text messages to your customers. If you have more than one sender ID, you will need to do this for each of them.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has more information on how to register.
If you have an ABN, your sender ID must match your registered business name, company name, trademark or domain name. If you don’t have an ABN, you can still register sender IDs but you must do so through a certified telco.
If you don’t use a sender ID, or your business simply sends messages from a phone number, you don’t need to do anything.
Failure to act now may mean that from 1 July 2026 consumers miss important messages from your business or do not trust them as legitimate.