Verification of toll-free numbers in the United States and Canada is required by the wireless carriers. Any organization that wants to send and receive text messages over a toll-free number must have that number verified first. It is a lightweight onboarding process: you privately submit your organization information and your messaging use case, and the carriers approve the number to route messages over the nationwide wireless networks.

If you have not enabled text messaging yet, start with How do I enable text messaging?

The carriers — AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and the rest — require every organization sending text messages to register the number first. They want to know who you are, what you will be sending, and how people agreed to hear from you. It is how they keep spam off their networks.

A Verified toll-free number means the carriers have confirmed your traffic does not fall under their disallowed content policy and is in line with their best practices, and that the number is associated with your organization specifically. Verifying also gives you:

An Unverified number has not been through that process. Because the carriers cannot identify who is behind it, unverified numbers are blocked entirely from sending and receiving text messages.

Numbers are verified for United States and Canada nationwide coverage at the same time.

Expect 5 or more business days, and treat that as a lower bound rather than a deadline. The review happens entirely on the carriers' side, so nobody at One Church Software can see the queue, expedite a request, or give you a date.

When the carriers decide, your Verification Status updates on its own. There is nothing to check or chase, and resubmitting while a review is open is blocked by design.

These are the standing rules once your number is verified. Breaking them can put your approval at risk.

You must have explicit opt-in consent from a recipient before their first message. The disclosure has to sit near where the person enters their number, and it cannot be buried in a terms of service or privacy policy. Your One Church-hosted opt-in page handles all of this for you.

For the full picture of how consent is recorded and what does not count, see What is text messaging consent?

Anyone can revoke consent at any time by texting STOP, and that request must be honored. One Church Software handles this automatically, and an opt-out someone made themselves cannot be overridden by your staff or by the support team.

Continuing to send to someone who opted out, working around opt-outs, or having multiple unrelated content providers send from a single number can trigger a review of your organization and your number. A review can result in your sending rights being suspended.

All toll-free traffic must follow the CTIA guidelines. Content filtering includes, but is not limited to, gambling, vaping, illegal drugs, and SHAFT — sex, hate speech, alcohol, firearms and tobacco.

The following campaign types are not supported on the verified toll-free network. These categories can change, and traffic in other categories may also be blocked without notice.

How do I verify my text messaging phone number?

How do I enable text messaging?

What is text messaging consent?