Everything You Need To Know About A2P Messaging

Introduction

Text messaging has become a vital part of business communication. On one hand, businesses need to keep their customer engaged and informed, and on the other hand, clients also expect quick responses, and here’s when A2P texting steps in. Whether you are a business or running a clinic, A2P messaging can transform the way you connect with your customers. Today, in this guide, we will explore everything you need to know about A2P texting. So let’s dive right in. 

What is A2P messaging?

A2P messaging stands for application-to-person messaging i.e. a person receives a message through an application. This application can be both web-based OR mobile-based. 

What does this mean? Picture this, your phone buzzes and you see a notification, It’s a text from your friend. Your friend typed it out, hit send and it landed in your inbox. Since this was initiated by your friend, who is a ‘person’, this type of messaging is called person-to-person messaging or P2P messaging.

On the other hand, when you receive a message from a business, There is a good chance that it has been automated and sent from an application. Thus, it is called Application to person messaging or A2P messaging.

A2P service is also called Business SMS or enterprise SMS.

Various forms of texting like Group Texting, Broadcast messaging, MMS Group messaging, Automated texting etc. can be easily executed through A2P service messaging with 10DLC messaging service.

Key Benefits of A2P Messaging

Send high-volume messages

As discussed in the section above A2P messaging solution allows businesses to send mass texts. This means you can send around 200K texts in a single campaign if A2P messaging is enabled. Sending such a huge volume of texts without the messages getting marked as spam is only possible through A2P messaging.

Improves customer engagement

Texting has an open rate of 98% and a response rate of 45% hence it is the most engaging business communication channel. Other than that A2P messaging solution allows for 2-way texting, This means that both the business and the customer can send each other texts and engage in conversational messaging. 

When customers have a channel to easily connect with businesses the engagement rates also increase significantly. A2P messaging also allows businesses to retain their existing business phone number for messaging, Since customers are usually familiar with the business phone number, they will feel more comfortable engaging with the business.

Allows you to select the implementation of your choice

Application-to-person messaging can be implemented in multiple ways, 10DLC numbers, Shortcodes, or Toll-Free Numbers can be used to text customers. Depending on the budget and the number of messages you intend to send to your customers, you can choose your implementation method.

Ensures a better delivery rate as messages are not likely to get marked as spam

A pre-requisite with A2P messaging is brand registration and campaign vetting. These are done by the business’s chosen mobile carriers. This process ensures that the business isn’t planning on sending spam or unwanted messages to its customers. Once the mobile carriers clear the brand for message delivery, none of the messages sent by the business would be blocked or filtered.

If for example, you continue to use P2P texting for your marketing communications, without campaign vetting they will get blocked. Therefore, in order to ensure the seamless delivery of messages A2P messaging will be advantageous!  

Advanced texting features

Since A2P messaging is facilitated through texting software, it has advanced texting features. Some of these features include assigning conversations to team members, viewing the number of unread and read messages, assigning dispositions to each conversation, adding notes to conversations, metrics, automated texting,  schedule-based texting etc. Essentially you can choose to automate customer communication and engagement as a whole using A2P messaging.

Integrations

Business texting software allows integrations with other applications that you use for your customer management. You can integrate with your CRM and manage contacts easily. You can also manage all customer conversations on a single platform so that your business is constantly on top of all customer queries and can drive continuous customer engagement.

Support

Support features are always available with business texting software either in the form of knowledge bases, chat:  live and automated, or calling. Any issue you may face during the setting up of the campaign or delivery will be handled by the support team. 

Available on a device of your choice

Business texting software can be used on desktops, Tablets and mobile phones so that you can share messages with your database 24X7.

Cost effective

A2P messaging is relatively inexpensive compared to traditional communication channels like phone calls making it a great communication channel for businesses of all sizes.

Personalization

A2P messaging allows for the personalization of each text that goes out making your business communications relatable, engaging and more likely to drive responses.

Which Industries Can Use A2P Texting?

Healthcare Industry

In healthcare organizations, timely patient communication is crucial, and A2P texting makes quick communication very easy. With A2P texting, healthcare practices can easily automate appointment reminders, share pre-visit instructions, send follow-up texts, and even request reviews after a visit, which helps in reducing no-shows and also improves efficiency without even burdening the front desk staff.  

Medspas & Wellness Centers

When it comes to medspas and wellness centers, they especially rely on robust client retention and repeated visits, and A2P messaging helps in doing both. With A2P text messaging, businesses cannot only promote new offers but also help in keeping the clients engaged as well as informed. 

Automotive Dealers & Repair Shops

For car dealerships and service centers, timely updates are key to this business. A2P messaging allows automotive businesses to send timely reminders, quote approvals, and alert customers when their vehicle is ready for pickup. This helps in faster communication and smoother workflow. 

Law Firms & Insurance Agencies

Legal and insurance services require frequent client touchpoints and clear communication. With A2P SMS, firms can streamline scheduling, share case updates, remind clients about document submissions, and follow up on pending information. It helps in creating a professional communication channel, increases responsiveness, which in turn improves the client’s confidence in the service provider. 

Home Services

A home service business very often juggles its schedule and the communication of technicians. Here’s when A2P texting helps by seamlessly sending appointment reminders, service alters, service updates, etc, which makes it easy for businesses to connect with technicians as well as clients.

Retail & eCommerce

In retail and e-commerce, the speed of communication is crucial and directly impacts sales. With A2P messaging, businesses can instantly notify customers about order status, shipping details,limited-time offers, and more!! 

Real Estate Industry

Real estate agents need quick communication to close deals and manage tenants effectively. A2P texting allows them to share showing schedules, announce open houses, send rent reminders, and provide maintenance updates, which ensures both tenants and prospects always stay informed.

Education & Training Institutes

Educational institutions benefit from messaging by keeping parents, students, and staff aligned. Schools and training centers can send class reminders, exam schedules, fee alerts, and urgent announcements directly to mobile phones, which promotes better attendance, stronger communication, and hassle-free administration.

Top Use Cases of A2P Messaging

A2P messaging has various use cases for a business, here are our top picks:

Marketing campaigns

Marketing campaigns are targeted at a business’s entire customer list. To send text messages to such a vast number of customers, you will need to have A2P messaging enabled so you can ensure your messages are not marked as spam and delivered to your entire database. A2P messaging platforms allow you to track important metrics so that you can constantly improve your campaigns. 

Two-factor authentication

Two-factor authentication (2FA) sends a one-time password to a person’s mobile phone when they try logging into one of their accounts. This helps prevent hackers from breaking into your customers’ accounts. A2P messaging is often used for 2-factor authentication.

Order notifications

A2P messaging is also used to send updates to customers about their purchase orders. Customers can get confirmations about their order purchase, the status of the order if it has been shipped, etc. Other useful information such as the order number is also included in these messages.

Appointment reminders

Various service-based businesses like healthcare practices, HVAC companies etc. need to send reminders to their customers about their upcoming appointments. This helps ensure that they can constantly keep there calendars full and don’t lose out on revenues. Appointment reminders are also facilitated through A2P messaging.

Review requests

A business needs a decent number of reviews from its customers to establish credibility on platforms like google, Healthgrades etc. Collecting these reviews from the customers often requires a nudge from the business. The best way to ask customers for reviews is to send them a text message requesting a review. You can add the link to the review site in this message. Various studies have shown that texting helps businesses generate the most reviews as compared to any other communication channel. Businesses can also automate this process, For eg- a customer will receive a text requesting for a review 30 mins after they leave your office.

Surveys

Surveys are a great way to collect customer feedback. Unless you know how your business is being perceived by your customers, you won’t be able to identify gaps in your operations or improve your services. Hence it’s vital that you gather customer feedback. Text messaging is a great way to engage customers and get their feedback. Again, you need to send a survey to all your customers and therefore A2P messaging is required, businesses can automate this process as well.

Unusual activity/Emergency alerts

A2P messaging can be a great way to alert customers about any fraudulent activity on their accounts. Businesses can also easily share emergency alerts with A2P messaging.

Reservations

Just like the healthcare industry, the hospitality industry has also started sending out text messages for reservation confirmations as well as reservation reminders. This is also facilitated through A2P messaging.

Compliance & Legal Considerations of A2P Texting

Key Regulations

While A2P texting is a boon for businesses to do mass customer communication, it should be done carefully, all legal regulations must be followed. The A2P messaging regulations include TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act) and associated FCC(Federal Communications Commission) regulations regarding customer consent for communications. Broadly speaking the laws state that businesses should:

• Obtain a customer’s consent to receive messages generally
• Obtain a customer’s express written consent to specifically receive marketing messages
• Ensure that customers have the ability to revoke consent at any time.
  

Consent may vary on the type of message content exchanged with a customer. To better understand the kind of consent you need from your customer, first, you need to know the three types of messaging and their associated consent principles.

• FCC Guidelines: The FCC enforces rules to keep mobile communication fair and spam-free. It ensures businesses follow ethical messaging practices and respect consumer rights.
• 10DLC Rules: Companies and businesses must register their texting campaigns under 10DLC to prove legitimacy. This improves deliverability and prevents spam-like behavior. Businesses can use 10DLC numbers to send messages to their customers. Businesses need to register with their carriers to use 10DLC for A2P messaging.
• Opt-in & Opt-out Requirements: Users must willingly subscribe to texts and have an easy way to stop messages anytime. This keeps communication transparent and customer-controlled.

Compliance Requirements

• Always obtain explicit consent: Never text someone without verified permission — it builds trust and keeps you legally safe.
• Clearly state message intent: Tell subscribers what type of messages they’ll receive so there are no surprises or misunderstandings.
• Provide opt-out instructions: Every campaign should include a simple way for recipients to unsubscribe instantly.
• Avoid spammy, misleading language: While texting your customers, you need to be honest, clear, and relevant. Sending deceptive or aggressive messaging increases opt-outs and legal risk.

Best Practices For A2P Texting

Personalize Messages

Sending the same texts to everyone sounds robotic; hence, it becomes important to personalize your texts to make it sound meaningful and personal. While texting to your clients, you need to make sure you use customer names, appointment dates, service type, or order details to show you’re speaking directly to them, not broadcasting to a list. 

Use Clear, Concise Language

Texting is considered to be the best medium of communication because it is simple as well as fast. You should use clear sentences to ensure that your messages are clearly understood. You should also avoid using jargon or overly promotional language while sending SMS text messages to your clients.

Send Texts At Appropriate Times

Sending texts at the right time is crucial; hence, while sending text messages to your clients, you need to stick to working hours and schedule reminders based on context, like sending appointment alerts a day in advance. 

Keep A Professional Tone

The tone of the SMS is everything; hence, while sending messages to your customers, you need to use polite language, avoid slang, and sign off with your business name when needed.

Track Performance

Measuring the success of your SMS campaign is important. Track performance, which messages get replies, which links people click, and where unsubscribes spike, as it will help align content and strategies to get the maximum results.

Avoid Message Overload

Sending messages is an ideal option for communicating with clients, but more is not always better. Sending too many messages may feel spammy and also lead to fatigue, frustration, and opt-outs. Hence, you need to create a fine balance between keeping customers informed and being spammy. 

Future Trends For A2P Texting

A2P texting is constantly evolving, and in the future, there will be significant changes and developments. Here’s a quick look at some of the major trends of A2P texting: 

• AI-driven personalization: One of the key trends in A2P texting is AI going beyond just using names. It will help in creating customized messages as well as responses based on behavior and past interactions.
• Predictive messaging: One of the major advancements in A2P texting is that texting systems will be capable of anticipating customer needs instead of waiting for actions or triggers. Messages will be sent at the perfect time based on patterns.
• Omnichannel Automation: Businesses will also manage all communication from text, WhatsApp, voice, to email, everything from one smart platform.
• AI Assistants Managing Full Conversations: Gradually, AI will not be limited to just sending replies; it will also be in a capacity where it can schedule, reschedule, answer questions, send payment links, and follow up automatically.

How To Use Emitrr For A2P Texting

A business texting software such as Emitrr provides all communication-related features under one roof and also integrates with CRMs so that you can manage all your customer communications from a single platform and also enjoy advanced texting features like —

• Schedule-based texting
• Automated texting
• Easy conversation management 
• Assigning conversations to team members
• Group messaging and Broadcast messaging
• Personalization of messages
• AI texting

Emitrr provides a very specific service. All you need to do is subscribe to this robust business texting software, and you can start using the A2P messaging service almost instantly.

There are various advantages of using this business texting platform, so if you opt for this A2P messaging platform, it provides you with all your communication capabilities in one place, along with support if anything goes wrong. 

Businesses can also enjoy advanced texting features and choose to automate various texts that go out to customers at a certain time, based on the criteria that the business defines

It also provides seamless integrations with any other business applications that you might be currently using.

• No need for technical training: This texting platform comes with predefined capabilities that are ready to use, so you do not need comprehensive technical expertise to get it going. Even if you face any issue then it will be quickly solved by the robust customer support team of Emitrr, which is why it has also gotten a 5-star rating on some of the reputable platforms on Capterra.
  
• It is pocket-friendly: Emitrr is an extensive and feature-rich platform, but does not break your bank, which means you get robust capabilities in an affordable. This means even small and start-up companies can get advanced features in an affordable way
  
• You get the latest and the best capabilities: By opting for Emitrr, you get enriched communication features, which are constantly updated with advances in technology. Features such as viewing unread and read messages, assigning conversations, adding notes, etc.
  
• Send bulk messages & drip campaigns: With this robust system, you can also reach large audiences instantly or schedule sequences that keep your customers engaged.
  
• Build AI-powered customer flows: Emitrr goes beyond just basic texting; it also offers an AI SMS agent, an AI call agent, automated workflows, an automated texting service, and more!! You can also automate chat and text workflows that answer questions, book appointments, and collect information.

Watch this short video to see how one of the best SaaS platforms, Emitrr, can help you with messaging and with its AI SMS integration feature:

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

If businesses wish to communicate with their customers effectively and legally, they have no option but to ensure that A2P messaging is enabled. A2P messaging can be implemented through business texting software that makes customer engagement super easy!

Not adhering to A2P messaging guidelines while communicating with customers, can lead to serious fines and offences. Consent is to be obtained from your customers when you use A2P messaging to send promotional and informational messages. 

There are three ways in which you can implement A2P messaging. It can be done through, 10DLC, Shortcodes, or Toll-Free Numbers. 

You can connect with Emitrr today, to learn how you can start A2P messaging for your business! Schedule a demo today.