The SMS Sender ID Register, explained for small businesses.

If your booking reminders or job updates started arriving as “Unverified”, here is what changed on 1 July 2026, how to register your sender ID and which rules apply when a text is selling something.

Plenty of small businesses never chose a sender ID themselves. Their booking system, job management app or SMS tool set one up, and appointment reminders and job updates have been arriving under the business name for years. If yours started showing “Unverified” after 1 July, this guide explains why and how to fix it. It also covers the separate spam rules that apply when a text is selling something.

What a sender ID is, and who needs to register

The ACMA describes a sender ID as the name at the top of some text messages, such as “ATO”, “AusPost” or “myGov”. A sender ID can be up to 11 characters. The register started on 1 July 2026 to make it harder for scammers to send texts that pretend to come from a trusted business. The ACMA says Australians lost more than $13.8 million to text message scams in the first nine months of 2025.

According to the ACMA’s fact sheet for businesses, you must register if you want to send text messages using a sender ID, and that includes sole traders, charities, schools, community groups and clubs. When you register, the ACMA says you must be able to show a clear and legitimate reason to use the sender ID, such as it matching your business name or trade mark. business.gov.au puts it more firmly: if you have an ABN, your sender ID must match your registered business name, company name, trade mark or domain name. Without an ABN, you can still register, but only through a certified telco.

One step catches people out. If you have an ABN, the ACMA says your authorised contact or service of notice email address on the Australian Business Register must be up to date before you can register.

If your texts now say “Unverified”

When the register went live, the ACMA said unregistered sender IDs “must be labelled by the telco carrier as ‘Unverified’” and grouped in a single message thread. ACMA Chair Nerida O’Loughlin said they are “being labelled rather than blocked” while the register grows, and that “There is no cut-off date for registration”. The risk for your business is that customers ignore them. In the same announcement, she said a message marked “Unverified” “should be treated with extra caution”.

One case is stricter. The ACMA’s rules for the industry say messages sent by telcos and message providers that are not taking part in the register “will be blocked”. If your texts have stopped arriving altogether, ask your provider whether it participates. The ACMA publishes a list of participating providers.

To fix it, work through these steps:

1. Send a test text to your own phone from each system that texts customers: bookings, reminders, job updates, invoices and marketing. Write down which ones show your name, which show a number, and which show “Unverified”.
2. For each one that uses a name, find out who actually sends the text. It is often the software company, or an SMS company it works with, rather than your phone company. The software’s help pages or support team can tell you.
3. Check the name you use. It should match your registered business name, company name, trade mark or domain name. A shortened or playful name may need changing. Check your contact email on the Australian Business Register while you are at it.
4. Ask each provider to register your sender ID. The email below covers what to ask.
5. Send another test once they confirm, and keep a note of what was registered, with whom and when.

If registration will take a while and the reminders matter, ask your provider whether it can send from a mobile number in the meantime. The ACMA’s fact sheet notes that you can still send messages using a mobile number without registering it.

An email you can send your SMS or software provider

Subject: Registering our SMS sender ID

Hi [provider] team,

Our account is [account name or number]. Our texts to customers show the sender name “[sender ID]” and we want to make sure it is registered on the ACMA’s SMS Sender ID Register so it does not show as “Unverified”.

Could you please tell us:
• Do you participate in the SMS Sender ID Register?
• Is “[sender ID]” registered for our account? If not, what do you need from us to register it?
• Which messages on our account use it (for example reminders, invoices or marketing)?
• Do you need proof that the name matches our registered business name, company name, trade mark or domain name?
• How long registration takes, and whether you can send from a mobile number until it is done.

Our ABN is [ABN] and our registered business name is [business name].

Thanks,
[your name]
[business name] · [phone]

The rules that still apply to marketing texts

The sender ID register is about scams. The spam rules are a separate set of rules, and they apply to commercial messages. business.gov.au describes a commercial electronic message as “any email, SMS, MMS or instant message that offers, advertises or promotes a business, good or service”, such as a sale, a coupon or a newsletter.

For those messages, the ACMA says three things are needed:

• Consent. Express consent means the person knowingly agreed, for example by ticking a box or filling in a form. The ACMA calls this best practice. Inferred consent can apply where there is an ongoing relationship and the marketing relates directly to it, but the ACMA says it “does not cover sending messages after someone has just bought something from your business” and that it “is not as reliable as getting someone’s express consent”. It is up to you to prove you had consent, so keep a record of who agreed, when and how. You also cannot send a text asking for consent, because the ACMA treats that as a marketing message itself.
• Who it is from. The message must identify your business and include your contact details.
• An easy way to unsubscribe. The instructions must be clear, the request must be honoured within 5 working days, it must not cost a fee, it must keep working for at least 30 days after you send the message, and the person must not have to log in or give extra personal details. Be careful with “reply STOP”. The ACMA notes that texts sent under a sender ID (a name rather than a number) “are generally not capable of receiving return messages”. If yours use a name, give a phone number or a link to unsubscribe instead. The ACMA’s own example is “Unsub: (1800-number)”.

These rules still apply when software sends the texts for you. The ACMA says: “Even if someone else is sending out your marketing messages for you, you must still have consent from each person who will receive your messages.”

A checklist for each kind of automated text

Most automated texts from a small business fall into a few types. A message that only tells the customer about their own appointment or job is not trying to sell anything. As soon as a text adds an offer or promotes your services, treat it as a commercial message and follow the rules above. When you are unsure, follow them anyway. Naming your business and offering an opt-out costs you nothing.

Example: an appointment reminder

Hi [first name], a reminder that your appointment with [business name] is on [day] at [time]. Need to change it? Call [phone].

Example: a quote follow-up

Hi [first name], it’s [your name] from [business name]. Just checking you got the quote for [job] we sent on [date]. Happy to answer any questions on [phone]. To stop these messages, call or text [phone] and we’ll take you off the list.

The opt-out points to a phone number because a text sent under your business name usually cannot receive a reply. If your texts come from a mobile number, “Reply STOP” works too, as long as someone acts on it within 5 working days.

If you automate follow-ups like the second one, set the system to stop as soon as the customer replies, books or opts out. Our guide to quote follow-up in ServiceM8 shows one way to set that up, and AppliedAgents builds quote follow-up workflows that follow these rules.

Sources

• ACMA, SMS Sender ID Register goes live to help protect Australians from scams (1 July 2026)
• ACMA, About the SMS Sender ID Register
• ACMA, SMS Sender ID Register fact sheet for businesses and organisations (PDF)
• ACMA, Avoid sending spam
• business.gov.au, New rules for businesses sending text messages (8 May 2026)
• business.gov.au, Promoting your business by email or text messages

This article is general information, not legal advice. The guidance above was read on 30 October 2026. If you are unsure whether a particular message is commercial, the ACMA’s guidance is the place to check.