SMS destination
United Kingdom
Dialing code +44 · Europe. Everything you need to send compliant SMS to United Kingdom with the Bird SMS API.
What you can send
Two-way messaging
Supported
Data residency required
Not available
Before you send
Alphanumeric sender IDs must be registered for United Kingdom before traffic can deliver. The lead time is listed with the sender types below. File once from the dashboard and track approval through the API.
Sender types
Every way you can originate a message to this country, with how each is cleared for use and how long that takes. Listed best route first.
| Sender | Activation | Setup time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Short code | Short-code provisioning | ~40 business days | Supports two-way replies. |
| Alphanumeric Sender ID | Sender ID registration | ~5 business days | One-way only. |
| Long code (phone number) | Number registration | ~5 business days | Supports two-way replies. |
Rules & regulations
What local regulators expect before you send. Bird applies opt-out handling on every message; the rest depends on the destination.
- United Kingdom enforces strict segmentation between marketing and transactional messaging: - Each Sender ID can only be registered for one segment—either marketing or transactional. If your content spans both, you must register separate Sender IDs for each. - Generic senders (e.g. Verify), sub-variations of generic senders (verify), and senders which contain part of generic senders (VerifyCode), are not allowed. - Following special characters are allowed: "." (dot), "-" (dash), "_" (underscore), " " (space), "&" (ampersand). All other special characters are not supported. - Character replacement (e.g. A to 4, or B to 8, etc.) is not allowed. - If the company name and requested sender have different names, please make sure to specify what is the connection between them. - Sender IDs belonging to Russian companies can not be registered
One API
How sending works
You send to every destination through the same endpoint and the same keys. Bird picks a compliant route for the country, applies opt-out handling on every message, and reports delivery from carrier receipts. The country-specific part is which sender you register. The API call does not change.
The rest of the SMS platform
One API, one set of keys. Explore the other capabilities.
Start sending to United Kingdom
Create a workspace, register a sender, and send your first message from the same API you will scale on.