The A2P quickstart is the fastest way to get approved for business texting in the US. It collects your business details in a single form, then registers your brand and your first campaign with the carriers for you. You won't need to learn what a brand or a campaign is, and you won't deal with the carriers directly.
This guide covers the eligibility questions, what the form asks for, and what happens after you submit.
This is the only path to a brand
Every workspace registers its business this way. There's no separate brand wizard, and no advanced mode to switch into: resuming a saved draft and fixing a carrier rejection reopen this same form with your answers already in it. The one thing you can still do by hand is write your own campaign, covered in A2P registration.
Starting the quickstart#
You'll need a plan that includes texting
A2P registration isn't available on Solo, so a Solo workspace can't text from a US local number. You can register during a free trial or on the Team plan and above.
Go to Settings → A2P Compliance and click Get started on the Set up business texting card. You'll also see prompts in a few other places:
- Right after you buy a US phone number
- In the message composer, when texting is blocked on a number
- From the A2P registration required badge on a US local number's card, which takes you to Settings → A2P Compliance
Checking your eligibility first#
Before any form opens, dialnote asks up to two questions to work out which registration you qualify for. Each answer reveals the next step, so this takes seconds.
Question 1: Do you have a business tax ID? In the US that's an EIN. In Canada it's a BN-9, in India a CIN, and other countries vary.
If you answer no, you'll get Question 2: Do you have a US or Canadian address and mobile number? Your mobile has to be from a traditional carrier. VoIP numbers, including dialnote numbers, won't work because you'll get a one-time verification text.
What you'll qualify for#
| Registered business | Sole proprietor | |
|---|---|---|
| Shown in the form as | Low Volume Business | Sole Proprietor |
| Requires | A tax ID issued 30+ days ago | US or Canadian address plus a carrier mobile number |
| Numbers that can text US customers | No app limit | 1 |
| Campaigns | 3 | 1 |
| Carrier daily limit | Around 2,000 messages | Around 1,000 messages |
| Messages per second | 15 | 1 |
Registered businesses register at the carriers' Low-Volume Standard tier, which is where the "Low Volume Business" label comes from. Higher volume needs extra carrier vetting and goes through support.
Both paths cost the same, so if you have a tax ID, register as a business. You'll get more numbers and more volume for the same fee.
If you answer no to both questions, US carriers can't approve you through self-serve registration. The triage screen offers Contact support, and our team can walk you through the options for your business.
Daily limits are per brand, not per campaign
The carrier limit applies to your whole registration. A registered business gets around 2,000 messages a day total, whether it runs one campaign or three. Normal message rates apply on top of the registration fees.
Filling in the form#
The quickstart is one form split into a few short steps. What you see depends on which path you qualified for.
| Step | What it asks for |
|---|---|
| 1. Your Business | Legal business name exactly as it appears on your IRS EIN letter, legal structure, business country and tax ID (registered businesses only), a business contact email, and your registered business address. The business type picker only shows if you reopen the form without going through the eligibility questions |
| 2. Contact | Business industry, regions of operation, company type (private, public, non-profit or government), and an authorized representative: a real person who can vouch for the registration, with name, email, phone in E.164 format, job position, and business title |
| 3. Texting | How customers start texting you: they text us first (you only reply to people who message you) or they sign up on your website form (give the address of the page with your consent checkbox). Then what you'll text about: appointment reminders, service updates, order or delivery updates, event reminders, replies to questions, or your own. Healthcare and financial businesses use the website form, because carriers need an explicit sign-up for them |
| 4. Website & Policies | Your website URL, publicly reachable rather than behind a login (optional for sole proprietors). By default dialnote hosts your SMS terms and privacy pages for you (see Your texting pages); choose Use my website's pages instead to give your own privacy policy and terms URLs |
| 5. Review | Everything carriers will receive, written from your answers: the campaign description, how customers opt in, sample messages, and the replies to HELP and STOP. You can edit any of it, then pay and submit |
Sole proprietors get 4 steps instead of 5: the mobile number you verify by text doubles as your contact, so step 2 is skipped.
dialnote pre-fills what it already knows from your account, so a lot of this is confirming rather than typing, and most fields have a Why this? link explaining what carriers do with it.
Your progress is saved from the Texting step
Nothing is submitted to the carriers until the last step. From the Texting step onwards, dialnote saves your answers as you move through the form, so if you close it you pick up where you left off. Answers on the first steps aren't saved until you reach Texting.
Details you've already saved under Settings → Business Details are a different thing: those pre-fill any blank fields in the form for you. They don't show up as a Draft on the dashboard. A Draft only appears once you've submitted the form and haven't finished paying (or dialnote's review is holding it), and you pick it back up with Continue registration.
You won't write campaign descriptions or sample messages from scratch. dialnote writes them from your business details and the messages you said you'll send, so they match what you actually do, and the review step shows you every word before you submit.
Does your website invite people to text you?
Carrier reviewers look your business up online. If your website says something like "Text us at…", add this line right next to it: Msg & data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out. An invitation to text without it is a common reason campaigns get rejected, and dialnote warns you when it finds one.
Your texting pages#
Carriers want to see where customers learn they can text you, plus your SMS terms and privacy policy. Unless you choose your own pages, dialnote hosts three public pages for your business:
| Page | Address | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Texting invitation | app.dialnote.com/sms/your-business | Your legal business name, your number, what you text about, the disclosure (message frequency varies, message and data rates may apply, reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help), and links to the two pages below |
| SMS terms | app.dialnote.com/sms/your-business/terms | Your texting program's terms, including frequency, rates, how to get help and how to opt out |
| SMS privacy | app.dialnote.com/sms/your-business/privacy | How your texting program handles mobile information, including that it is never shared with third parties for marketing |
Each page names your legal business, which is what carriers check. The address is created from your business name when you reach the Texting step and doesn't change afterwards. You can preview the pages from the Website & Policies step. The pages come down if your texting registration is cancelled.
If your customers text you first, your first reply to each new customer automatically ends with the same disclosure line, because carriers expect it on that first message.
Paying#
The review step shows what's due before you commit. Submitting opens a secure hosted checkout where you pay the $19.50 registration fee by card. After that, the $2.00 monthly fee per approved campaign is debited from your dialnote wallet, so keep a balance on it.
The full breakdown, including what's free and what happens on a rejection, is on what A2P registration costs.
After you submit#
This is the part the quickstart handles for you. Once payment clears, dialnote runs the whole pipeline and advances each stage as the carriers respond:
- Brand verification. Your business identity goes to the carriers. Sole proprietors also get a one-time verification text on the mobile number they gave.
- Campaign submission. As soon as the brand is approved, dialnote submits your campaign automatically.
- Number attach. Once the campaign is approved, your eligible US local numbers are added to its sender pool so they can actually deliver messages. Registered businesses get all of them; sole proprietors get exactly one, because carriers cap them there.
Before anything goes to the carriers, dialnote reviews your application itself. If it finds a problem, it holds the registration and lists what to fix (or asks you to accept warnings) on the Business texting card. This can happen before checkout, when nothing's charged yet, or after payment.
If you registered as a business, numbers you buy later are attached automatically too, so you don't have to come back here after every purchase. A sole-proprietor campaign already holds its one number, so numbers you buy later can't text US customers.
Watch progress on the Business texting card in Settings → A2P Compliance. You don't need to come back and click anything between stages.
Approval takes time
Brand verification usually takes about an hour for a registered business. A sole proprietor's brand also waits for you to answer the verification text, so it can take a few days. Campaign vetting usually takes about a day after that, and occasionally a week or more. These are typical times, not guarantees. You can't send business texts on a US number until the campaign is approved, so start registration before you need it.
If your brand gets rejected, the card shows the carrier's reason and a Fix & resubmit button (Edit & resubmit when the fix is an identity appeal to support). If your campaign gets rejected, its status card shows the reason with tips for fixing it, and you edit and resubmit it from the Messaging Campaigns section. Resubmitting is free.
Coming back to the form#
Fix & resubmit and Continue registration reopen this same form with everything you already entered, so you're only correcting the fields the carriers flagged.
Once your details are with the carriers, they're greyed out instead of editable. Changing them at that point wouldn't reach the carriers anyway, so the form shows them read-only rather than letting you type into fields that get discarded. Business details stay editable while your registration is a Draft, Failed or Rejected, and lock from Submitting onwards. Your terms and conditions URL is the exception: it belongs to the campaign, not your business identity, so it stays editable.
Next steps#
- What A2P registration costs - fees, refunds, and monthly billing
- A2P registration - statuses, campaign limits, and how registration works underneath
- Sending SMS - start texting once your campaign is approved
- Compliance overview - how A2P fits with regulatory bundles and recording consent
For texting plans and what each one includes, see business texting.