Guidelines

Philippines (PH)

We've compiled regulatory and compliance information to help ensure you're communicating effectively and compliantly around the world.

Back to Guidelines

Locale Summary
Locale name	Philippines
ISO code The International Organization for Standardization two character representation for the given locale.	PH
Region	Asia
Mobile country code A three digit code associated with the given locale and used in conjunction with a Mobile Network Code to uniquely identify mobile networks.	515
Dialing code The dialing prefix used to establish a call or send an SMS from one locale to the given locale.	+63

Guidelines
Two-way SMS supported Whether Twilio supports two-way SMS in the given locale.	Yes
Number portability available Whether number portability is available in the given locale.	Yes
Twilio concatenated message support Concatenation refers to the capability of splitting a message that is too long to be sent in one SMS into smaller pieces and then joining the pieces at the receiving end so that the receiver sees the message as one.	Yes* For certain sender ID types this may not be supported. Where messages are split and rejoined may vary based on character encoding.
Message length How many characters can be sent given a particular message encoding before the message will be split into concatenated segments.	160 characters
Twilio MMS support Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) provides a standards-based means to send pictures and video to mobile phones.	Converted to SMS with embedded URL
Sending SMS to landline numbers How Twilio handles an SMS message destined for landline telephone number.	You cannot send SMS to a landline destination number: the Twilio REST API will throw a 400 response with error code 21614, the message will not appear in the logs, and the account will not be charged.
Compliance considerations Twilio strongly encourages customers to review proposed use cases with qualified legal counsel to make sure that they comply with all applicable laws. This table lists some general best practices.	Mobile operators do not allow messages with international long codes. These will be overwritten with a generic Alphanumeric Sender ID outside of Twilio’s platform and delivery is on best-effort basis only. The enforcement of blocking unregistered Sender IDs in the Philippines has been postponed from November 26, 2024, to a date before the end of Q1 2025. Further updates will be provided as soon as a more definitive date is available. Twilio highly recommends sending from a registered Alphanumeric Sender ID. Sender IDs containing the words “TEST”, “MESSAGE”, “SMS”, and/or permuations based on those words are not allowed. Sender IDs that portray other networks as “SMART” and/or “SUN” and/or permuations based on those words — for example, “SMARTMONEY”, “SUNCELL”, “SMARTLIVE”, “SMARTLOAD”, etc.) are not allowed. You may send commercial and promotional advertisements, surveys, and other broadcast/push messages only to subscribers who have specifically opted-in to receive such messages. PTEs and content providers shall also provide methods for subscribers who have opted-in to opt-out in the future. Regular opt-out instructions must be sent once per week for daily subscriptions or once per month for weekly subscriptions. Spam messages are those which promote or offer financial loans, real estate, products and services, and sometimes relate to elections and other political messages. Sending firearms, adult content, money/loan, political, religious, controlled substance, cannabis, tobacco, and alcohol related content is strictly prohibited. Content related to gaming and gambling is prohibited for all offshore gaming operators. It is permitted for registered Philippine Inland Gaming Operators (PIGO) and only when it is registered. Shortened URLs in message content are strictly not allowed, and customers sending banking related content with a URL must ensure that message templates are allow-listed. Sending a URL that is not allow-listed will result in message failure. Phone numbers in message content is also not allowed. Message delivery to M2M numbers is on best effort basis only. Twilio strongly encourages customers to review proposed use cases with qualified legal counsel to make sure that they comply with all applicable laws. The following are some general best practices: Get opt-in consent from each end-user before sending any communication to them, particularly for marketing or other non-essential communications. Only communicate during an end-user’s daytime hours unless it is urgent. SMS campaigns should support HELP/STOP messages, and similar messages, in the end-user’s local language. Do not contact end-users on do-not-call or do-not-disturb registries.

Phone Numbers & Sender ID

Alphanumeric

	International Pre-registration	Domestic Pre-registration	Dynamic
Operator network capability Whether mobile operators in the given country support the feature.	Required	Required	Not Supported
Twilio supported Whether Twilio supports the feature for the given country.	Supported Learn more and register via the Console	Supported Learn more and register via the Console	Supported
Sender ID preserved In some countries sender IDs for certain sender types are not preserved and are changed for compliance and/or deliverability reasons. In these countries mobile subscribers will see a different ‘from sender ID’ than the one sent by you.	Yes	Yes	No
Provisioning time Provisioning is the process of getting the sender ID approved and registered with mobile networks (depending on country requirements). Provisioning time is how long this process takes in the given country.	2 weeks	2 weeks	N/A
UCS-2 support	Supported	Supported	Supported
Use case restrictions	Messages that appear to be person-to-person (P2P) based on their content will be filtered. Sender IDs containing the words “TEST”, “MESSAGE”, “SMS”, and/or permuations based on those words are not allowed. Sender IDs that portray other networks as “SMART” and/or “SUN” and/or permuations based on those words are not allowed. See above for examples. Commercial and promotional advertisements, surveys, and other broadcast/push messages may be sent only to subscribers who have specifically opted-in to receive such messages. Messages sent must provide methods for subscribers who have opted-in to opt-out in the future. Regular opt-out instructions must be sent once a week for daily subscriptions and once a month for weekly subscriptions. Financial loans, real estate offers, product and service promotions, and political messages will be blocked. Adult content and any mention of alcohol, drugs, politics, and tobacco is prohibited. Content related to gaming and gambling is prohibited for all offshore gaming operators. It is permitted for registered Philippine Inland Gaming Operators (PIGO) and only when it is registered.	Messages that appear to be person-to-person (P2P) based on their content will be filtered. Sender IDs containing the words “TEST”, “MESSAGE”, “SMS”, and/or permuations based on those words are not allowed. Sender IDs that portray other networks as “SMART” and/or “SUN” and/or permuations based on those words are not allowed. See above for examples. Commercial and promotional advertisements, surveys, and other broadcast/push messages may be sent only to subscribers who have specifically opted-in to receive such messages. Messages sent must provide methods for subscribers who have opted-in to opt-out in the future. Regular opt-out instructions must be sent once a week for daily subscriptions and once a month for weekly subscriptions. Financial loans, real estate offers, product and service promotions, and political messages will be blocked. Adult content and any mention of alcohol, drugs, politics, and tobacco is prohibited. Content related to gaming and gambling is prohibited for all offshore gaming operators. It is permitted for registered Philippine Inland Gaming Operators (PIGO) and only when it is registered.	Sender ID Registration is Required in Philippines. Unregistered Alpha Sender IDs will be overwritten with a generic Alphanumeric Sender ID outside of the Twilio platform and delivery will be attempted on a best-effort basis. The enforcement of blocking unregistered Sender IDs in the Philippines has been postponed from November 26, 2024, to a date before the end of Q1 2025. Further updates will be provided as soon as a more definitive date is available. Please Register an Alpha Sender ID in Philippines to avoid having your messages blocked.
Best practices	N/A	N/A	Twilio highly recommends using a pre-registered Alphanumeric Sender ID in Philippines.

Long codes and short codes

	Long code domestic	Long code international	Short code
Operator network capability Whether mobile operators in the given country support the feature.	Supported	Not Supported	Supported
Twilio supported Whether Twilio supports the feature for the given country.	Supported	Supported	Not Supported
Sender ID preserved In some countries sender IDs for certain sender types are not preserved and are changed for compliance and/or deliverability reasons. In these countries mobile subscribers will see a different ‘from sender ID’ than the one sent by you.	Yes	No	---
Provisioning time Provisioning is the process of getting the sender ID approved and registered with mobile networks (depending on country requirements). Provisioning time is how long this process takes in the given country.	N/A	N/A	N/A
UCS-2 support	Supported	Supported	N/A
Use case restrictions	You can only use local longcodes for A2P traffic (no P2P messaging).	Sender ID Registration is Required in Philippines. Numeric Sender IDs will be overwritten with a generic Alphanumeric Sender ID outside of the Twilio platform and delivery will be attempted on a best-effort basis. The enforcement of blocking unregistered Sender IDs in the Philippines has been postponed from November 26, 2024, to a date before the end of Q1 2025. Further updates will be provided as soon as a more definitive date is available. Please Register an Alpha Sender ID in Philippines to avoid having your messages blocked.	N/A
Best practices	N/A	Twilio highly recommends using a pre-registered Alphanumeric Sender ID in Philippines.	N/A

For the benefit of all our customers, these guidelines are provided to help you comply with applicable requirements and to help ensure Twilio's platform remains compliant with global telecommunications ecosystem requirements. These guidelines represent our current understanding of common compliance requirements generally applicable to Twilio and its customers, and do not constitute legal advice. By posting these guidelines, Twilio makes no assurances regarding the legal compliance of your application built using our APIs. You are expected to understand and abide by all compliance obligations applicable to your specific application. You should check these pages regularly for updates as telecommunications ecosystem requirements continue to evolve and change, and the information below may be updated or changed without notice.