Due to a number of legal and regulatory factors, sending SMS from Iterable is subject to certain constraints. These restrictions include:
- What content you're sending
- Where you're sending content to
Ineligible content
One important limitation with SMS messaging is the types of businesses eligible to send SMS messages on carrier networks. Carriers have created a list of certain industries and use cases that are not allowed to use SMS services.
It's important to note that this is a carrier decision, and not a decision made by Iterable or third-party partners.
If you aren't sure about your use case, consult with your Iterable customer success manager.
In addition to the categories listed in Iterable's Acceptable Use Policy, content restricted from SMS messaging includes:
- High Risk Financial Services
- Payday loans
- Short term high-interest loans
- 3rd party loans
- Cryptocurrency
- Stocks and investing platforms
- Get rich quick schemes
- Third-Party Lead Generation Services
- Companies that buy, sell, or share consumer information
- Affiliate marketing or lending
- Debt Collection
- Third-party debt collection
- Debt consolidation or reduction
- Credit repair programs
- Illegal or Restricted Substances
- Cannabis
- CBD
- Kratom
- Vape/E-cigs
- Prescription drug offers
- Drug paraphernalia
- Gambling
- Casino apps
- Gambling websites
- Sports Betting
- SHAFT
- Sex
- Hate
- Alcohol (allowed with age gating)
- Firearms
- Tobacco
IMPORTANT
Carriers closely scan all financial services traffic. “Loan”, “Lender”, and “Mortgage Rates” are all keywords that carriers may block.
Restricted regions
The following regions are restricted due to legal concerns and/or government sanctions. This applies to all SMS traffic for your project, including Iterable SMS, Telnyx, and Twilio senders.
Iterable doesn’t send SMS messages to phone numbers associated with these countries:
- China
- Congo, the Democratic Republic of the
- Cuba
- Ethiopia
- Iran, Islamic Republic of
- Iraq
- Korea, Democratic People's Republic of
- Lebanon
- Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
- Mali
- Myanmar
- Nicaragua
- Russian Federation
- Somalia
- Sudan
- Syrian Arab Republic
- Venezuela
- Yemen
- Zimbabwe
When you try to send to a user whose phone number is registered in an
unsupported country, Iterable records a SMS send skip (smsSendSkip) event
with a reason of UnsupportedCountry.