SMS sent with Peptalkr are delivered using an Alphanumeric Sender ID. This means that when a patient/client receives an SMS from our system they do not see a mobile number as the sender of the message - instead they see a maximum 11 digit alphanumeric string where it would normally have a mobile number.

If you have ever used services such as Uber or have your mobile number registered with your bank, you may have noticed when you receive a text message from such services they appear as coming from 'Uber' or the name of your bank, rather than from a mobile number - even if they are not saved as a contact in your phone.

This enables businesses to deliver important SMS to recipients and clearly indicate who is sending the message before they open it.

Alphanumeric Sender IDs cannot be replied to. As there is no actual phone number attached to the SMS, replies are not possible. They behave more like a notification service, than as a two-way channel of communication.

The benefit of this is that they can send both transactional (non-marketing) and marketing SMS, and reduce confusion if the recipient already receives SMS from your Cliniko account. Cliniko sends SMS from an actual phone number, and it would be confusing if a user was receiving SMS from two different phone numbers for your business - and may lead to users attempting to call the numbers.

To minimise confusion, we made the choice to utilise SMS that cannot be replied to. As such as recommend including your contact information in the body of the SMS that you send, to clearly indicate to patients how to contact you if needed.

On April 25th 2023 the Australian Communications and Authority (ACMA) made critical changes to how SMS sent from businesses via an Alphanumeric Sender ID are delivered to Australian recipients that impact Peptalkr users.

Previously, users could enter a custom 11-digital alphanumeric sender ID (such as your business name, or an abbreviation of your business name).

However, due to an increase in scam SMS in Australia - ACMA requires that all Alphanumeric Sender IDs are registered with the authority. This ensures your business name cannot be used to send SMS to Australian-recipients by scammers.

However, an impact of this change is that Peptalkr also cannot use your business name to deliver SMS any longer without appropriate authorisation to do.

As of now, any SMS sent with Peptalkr will be sent from the Alphanumeric Sender ID 'Peptalkr' instead of a custom name you have entered on the settings page of your account.

So when a user receive an SMS from you - it will say 'Peptalkr' at the top of the message - followed by your custom SMS body which can (and should) of course include your actual business name.

Yes. In order to do this, you will be required to submit documentation to us to authorise Peptalkr to use your business name as a sender ID.

Please fill in this form to submit your details to us and our team will process your application with our SMS provider - Twilio. Approvals can take up to one week.

You will be required to provide us with the following:

This information is collected via our application form.

In addition to this, you will be required to prove your affiliation to the business name you are attempting to register an Alphanumeric Sender ID for by providing a business registration licence, examples of which include:

👉 *Additionally, we may request more information if the Alphanumeric Sender ID is not your organisation's name or acronym, initialism, or contraction of the name.

Once the above has been submitted to us, we will require you to sign a form which will be provided to you by our team. Digital signatures are accepted.

If you are not based in Australia, or you send SMS to patients with non-Australian mobile numbers - please note that not all countries accept Alphanumeric Sender IDs. In such cases where they are not accepted by the recipient country, a mobile number will be used to deliver the SMS.

For a comprehensive list of countries that do accept Alphanumeric Sender IDs - please click here.

*At time of writing (April 25th 2023) the following popular countries for Peptalkr users do accept Alphanumeric Sender IDs:

For more information about sending SMS with Peptalkr visit our help centre collection for sending SMS.

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