The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) requires all customers sending to Australia to submit their alpha tags to the government owned Sender ID Register. Your alpha tag and business will be vetted before you can send business messages. This is to combat impersonation scams and keep the Australian public safe.
If you want to learn more about the government’s initiative please visit the help article: Upcoming Changes to alphanumeric SenderIDs (Alpha Tags) registration & usage.
The information in this article is specific to the self-service, to guide you through the alpha tag registration journey.
Impact on your messages in Australia
ClickSend requires all alpha tags to go through registration starting 15 Dec.
Up until 01 July 2026 you can continue to send with unregistered alpha tags, however we recommend you register all of your alpha tags as soon as possible to prevent disruptions.
From July 01 all unregistered alpha tags will be overstamped with Unverified.
Self-service via the dashboard
We made the registration journey easy for you. In order to get your alpha tag registered with the ACMA, you need to pass 3x checkpoints:
Approval at ClickSend
Approval from your company
Approval at ACMA
Checkpoints
1. Approval at ClickSend
Register an existing alpha tag
To register an existing alpha tag, simply log into your dashboard. You will see a yellow banner alerting you about the upcoming regulatory changes:
The button ‘Register Alpha Tags’ will redirect you to your alpha tags page. All alpha tags which require you to complete registration with the ACMA will have a red tag ‘Complete registration request’:
Click on the red tag to begin the registration journey for your existing alpha tag. Fill in all required fields and hit ‘Submit’.
This will send your application to the ClickSend approvals team, who will review and vet your application.
ClickSend will be in touch if we have any concerns about the information you provided, otherwise we will approve your application.
Once the application is approved at ClickSend, we will send you and the person you nominated as the Entity Representative an email to inform you about the approval.
In addition, the ACMA will send an email to the person you nominated as the Entity Representative with instructions to approve the application on behalf of your company.
Register a new alpha tag
Go to Sender IDs > Manage Senders > Alpha Tags and click the ‘+ Add’ button. In the field ‘Sending to’ choose Australia.
Pick an alpha tag name which is compliant with our formatting and naming rules. Any non-compliant formatting will be flagged to you automatically via an error message:
We will also not allow you to use any generic names as per the banned alpha tags list.
Important: Your alpha tag must have a clear relation to your business. Otherwise, it will not be approved by the ACMA. For example, if your company name is TS Pty Ltd and the registered business name on the ABR is Teleservice, you could use the following alpha tag names:
• Telservice
• TelServs
• Telser
• TS
• TS_Track
• TelServSale
Next, choose your use case and click ‘Register Alpha Tag’ to begin the registration journey. Fill in all required fields and hit ‘Submit’.
This will send your application to the ClickSend approvals team, who will review and vet your application.
ClickSend will be in touch if we have any concerns about the information you provided, otherwise we will approve your application.
Once the application is approved at ClickSend, we will send you and the person you nominated as the Entity Representative an email to inform you about the approval.
In addition, the ACMA will send an email to the person nominated as the Entity Representative with instructions to approve the application on behalf of your company.
2. Approval from your company
The person you nominated as the Entity Representative will receive an email from the ACMA with instructions to log into their portal, ACMA Assist, to confirm the application.
Important: The Entity Representative is the person whose contact details are associated with your company on the Australian Business Register (ABR). This contact information isn’t publicly available, but it is accessed by the ACMA in the background to verify that the person logging into ACMA Assist on behalf of your company is the person registered on the ABR.
Once the Entity Representative is in ACMA Assist they will see the Sender ID Register tile. Click on this tile to see the alpha tag application.
Select the alpha tag you want to approve from the list and hit ‘Confirm registration of Sender ID application’.
This will change the status against this alpha tag to “Registered by [date] at [time]”. This is the date and time you can expect the ACMA to approve your alpha tag. This is usually within 24h.
3. Approval at ACMA
Once your Entity Representative confirms the application in ACMA Assist, the ACMA will aim to review and approve it within 24h.
Once approved, the ACMA will send an email to the Entity Representative and to ClickSend.
ClickSend will then confirm your approved alpha tag in your ClickSend account. Once this is done, your alpha tag will be ready to use in the ClickSend dashboard. ClickSend will send a confirmation email to you when this is done.
Self-service via the API
If you use ClickSend’s API to register alpha tags you will have access to the ACMA required fields from Dec 15. We will keep these fields optional until 01 July ‘26 to help you with the transition period.
The fields will become mandatory on July 01. If you expose these fields in your own frontend please adapt your solution until then to capture the required information.
The remainder of the application and approval journey is as per dashboard solution (see above). Once you send the required information to ClickSend via API, the ClickSend approvals team will review and vet your application as step 1.
FAQs
Who can use the self-service?
Who can use the self-service?
Direct Customers only. As a Direct Customer you need an active entry in the Australian Business Register (ABR), including an active Australian Business Number (ABR). We will support Resellers, Entity Associates, and International Customers without an ABN in early 2026.
What is a Direct Customer vs an Entity Associate?
What is a Direct Customer vs an Entity Associate?
You are a Direct Customer if you use ClickSend to message your customers directly. E.g. you are a medical practice and send appointment reminders to your patients.
You are an Entity Associate if you use ClickSend to message customers on behalf of another business. E.g. you are a marketing agency who sends messages on behalf of a car dealership. You send messages to the dealership’s customers from an alpha tag specific to the dealership’s brand.
I am a Reseller, does this make me an Entity Associate?
I am a Reseller, does this make me an Entity Associate?
No. A reseller sells ClickSend’s messaging products to a third party. For example, you are a reseller if you use ClickSend’s APIs in your company’s product to sell ClickSend services under your company’s brand and identity.
What is an Entity Representative?
What is an Entity Representative?
The Entity Representative is the person whose contact details are associated with your company on the Australian Business Register (ABR). This is likely a Managing Director or CEO.
How can I identify the Entity Representative in my company?
How can I identify the Entity Representative in my company?
There’s a few avenues you can explore:
Check your company’s org chart
Talk to your company’s legal department
Get in touch with your senior leadership team (or their support team)
As your company’s Entity Representative details aren’t available in any public resources due to data protection laws, you will need to find the correct person within your organisation.
I provided the wrong Entity Representative details, what do I do?
I provided the wrong Entity Representative details, what do I do?
If you indicated the wrong person as Entity Representative please find the Entity Representative in your organisation as a first step. This is likely the Managing Director or CEO.
Once you know who the Entity Representative is you have two options:
Follow ACMA Assist’s self-service prompts to generate a new email template which you can then send to the Entity Representative (see ACMA Assist’s User Guide for details)
If you have access to ACMA’s email with login instructions you can forward this email directly to the Entity Representative. They will be able to use the link in this email to onboard into ACMA Assist.
Can someone who is not the Entity Representative approve the application in ACMA Assist?
Can someone who is not the Entity Representative approve the application in ACMA Assist?
Only if the Entity Representative nominates this other person as a Business Administrator via ACMA Assist first. This means that the Entity Representative still needs to onboard into ACMA Assist. Once they are logged in against the company they will the tile ‘Authorised users’:
In this menu, the Entity Representative can add users as Business Administrators. Business Administrators can then manage alpha tag approvals via ACMA Assist on behalf of the company.