In the US and Canada, a short code is a 5 or 6 digit number, like 894546, provisioned for high-volume texting. Formats and availability vary by country. People can reply to it, so STOP handling and keywords work normally.
The trade-off #
- Cost: short codes have lease and messaging charges; check the current fees for your country.
- Lead time: carriers review the use case before the code goes live, which takes weeks, not hours.
- Reach: a code is provisioned per country; a US short code does nothing abroad.
For most senders a registered 10DLC number or a verified toll-free number is the sensible start; the short code is what you graduate to when volume demands it. See A2P and 10DLC and Toll-free numbers.
Using one in TextBay #
Once Twilio has provisioned a short code on your account, open TextBay’s Twilio page, tick Enter a number or sender name manually and type the code. The app recognizes it as a short code and says so; replies to it land in the inbox like any other conversation. What short codes are and how leasing works: Twilio’s short code page.