Person-to-person (P2P) long codes - Amazon Simple Notification Service
Services or capabilities described in Amazon Web Services documentation might vary by Region. To see the differences applicable to the China Regions, see Getting Started with Amazon Web Services in China (PDF).

Person-to-person (P2P) long codes

Important

Effective August 31, 2023, a dedicated number such as a 10DLC number or a toll-free number is required to send SMS text messages to the United States and its territories (Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa Islands and the US Virgin Islands). Your long code request will be rejected if you use the United States as the location for these regions.

Important

Effective June 1, 2021, US telecom providers no longer support using person-to-person (P2P) long codes for application-to-person (A2P) communications to US destinations. Instead, you need to use another type of origination ID for these messages. For more information, see 10DLC.

P2P long codes are phone numbers that use the number format of the country or region where your recipients are located. P2P long codes are also referred to as long numbers or virtual mobile numbers. For example, in the United States and Canada, P2P long codes contain 11 digits: the number 1 (the country code), a three-digit area code, and a seven-digit phone number.

For more information about requesting P2P long codes, see Requesting 10DLC numbers, toll-free numbers, and P2P long codes for SMS messaging with Amazon SNS.

Advantages

Dedicated P2P long codes are reserved for use by your Amazon SNS account only—they aren't shared with other users. When you use dedicated P2P long codes, you can specify which P2P long code you want to use when you send each message. If you send multiple messages to the same customer, you can ensure that each message appears to be sent from the same phone number. For this reason, dedicated P2P long codes can be helpful in establishing your brand or identity.

Disadvantages

P2P long codes aren't supported for A2P communications to US destinations.

If you send several hundred messages per day from a dedicated P2P long code, mobile carriers might identify your number as one that sends unsolicited messages. If your P2P long code is flagged, your messages might not be delivered to your recipients.

P2P long codes also have limited throughput. The maximum sending rates varies by country. Contact Amazon Support for more information. If you plan to send large volumes of SMS messages, or you plan to send at a rate greater than one message per second, you should purchase a dedicated short code.

Some carriers don't allow you to use P2P long codes to send A2P SMS messages, including in the US. An A2P SMS is a message that's sent to a customer's mobile device when that customer submits his or her mobile number to an application. A2P messages are one-way conversations, such as marketing messages, one-time passwords, and appointment reminders. If you plan to send A2P messages, you should purchase a dedicated short code (if your customers are in the United States or Canada), or use a sender ID (if your recipients are in a country or region where sender IDs are supported).

A 10DLC number is used only for sending messages within the US. Using a 10DLC number requires that you register your company brand and the campaign that you want to associate the number with. Once approved you can request a 10DLC phone number on the SMS and voice page of the Amazon Pinpoint console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/pinpoint/. Once requested, the time to receive approval is 7-10 days. The number can't be used with any other campaigns.