Guidelines

China (CN)

We've compiled regulatory and compliance information to help ensure you're communicating effectively and compliantly around the world.

Locale Summary

Locale name

China

ISO code
The International Organization for Standardization two character representation for the given locale.

CN

Region

Asia

Mobile country code
A three digit code associated with the given locale and used in conjunction with a Mobile Network Code to uniquely identify mobile networks.

460

Dialing code
The dialing prefix used to establish a call or send an SMS from one locale to the given locale.

+86

Guidelines

Two-way SMS supported
Whether Twilio supports two-way SMS in the given locale.

No

Number portability available
Whether number portability is available in the given locale.

No

Twilio concatenated message support
Concatenation refers to the capability of splitting a message that is too long to be sent in one SMS into smaller pieces and then joining the pieces at the receiving end so that the receiver sees the message as one. 

Yes*
For certain sender ID types this may not be supported. Where messages are split and rejoined may vary based on character encoding.

Message length
How many characters can be sent given a particular message encoding before the message will be split into concatenated segments.

We recommend a maximum of 500 characters or 8 segments for UCS2 encoding for better delivery rate.

Twilio MMS support
Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) provides a standards-based means to send pictures and video to mobile phones.

Not Available

Sending SMS to landline numbers
How Twilio handles an SMS message destined for landline telephone number.

You cannot send SMS to a landline destination number: the Twilio REST API will throw a 400 response with error code 21614, the message will not appear in the logs, and the account will not be charged.

Compliance considerations
Twilio strongly encourages customers to review proposed use cases with qualified legal counsel to make sure that they comply with all applicable laws. This table lists some general best practices.

Chinese networks have very strict regulations about the type of SMS content which can be sent to subscribers on their network. The networks impose heavy fines and cut off connections if these rules are breached. Customers that send messages to, from, and within China must follow all applicable laws and regulations. Broadly speaking, China messaging restrictions do not allow URLs in the content, content that is political, illegal, pornographic, fraudulent, or finance-related, including but not limited to marketing content from banks or insurance companies, loans, credit cards, securities, stocks, crude oil, futures, gold, and cryptocurrency. Restrictions include messages that violate basic principles of the China Constitution, the Ministry of lndustry and Information Technology’s “Nine Prevention Rules”, and the Ministry of Public Security’s “Five categories”. 


Signature Requirements

  • Only signatures enclosed in brackets 【】 are accepted for registration.
  • Signature text must be in English or Chinese.
    • Chinese signature is strongly recommended


Message Content Requirements

  • Message content must be in either English or Chinese.
    • Chinese content is strongly recommended
  • URLs are not supported in transactional or OTP messages.


Promotional Message Rules

  • When sending promotional content, the template must include the opt-out phrase:

“拒收请回复R”

(This translates to “Reply R to unsubscribe” and must appear at the end of the message.)

  • For promotional messages, sending URLs is permitted but must be full URLs only
    • Shortened, masked, or incomplete URLs are not allowed.
  • Promotional messages are not allowed to be submitted from 07:00 PM to 08:00 AM local time in China


Identity and Business Documentation Requirement

  • You must provide photos of both sides of the Chinese Resident Identity Card of your local contact person.
    • Other government-recognized identity cards may be accepted subject to approval
    • Foreign passports are not permitted.
  • A valid local business license in China is required for registration.

 

M2M Number Delivery

  • Message delivery to Machine-to-Machine (M2M) numbers is on a best-effort basis only and is not guaranteed.
     

General guidance

Twilio strongly encourages customers to review proposed use cases with qualified legal counsel to make sure that they comply with all applicable laws. The following are some general best practices:

  1. Get opt-in consent from each end-user before sending any communication to them, particularly for marketing or other non-essential communications.
  2. Only communicate during an end-user’s daytime hours unless it is urgent.
  3. SMS campaigns should support HELP/STOP messages, and similar messages, in the end-user’s local language.
  4. Do not contact end-users on do-not-call or do-not-disturb registries.

Phone Numbers & Sender ID

Alphanumeric
 

International Pre-registration

Domestic Pre-registration

Dynamic

Operator network capability
Whether mobile operators in the given country support the feature.

Not Supported

Supported

Not Supported

Twilio supported
Whether Twilio supports the feature for the given country.

Not Supported

Supported

Not Supported

Sender ID preserved
In some countries sender IDs for certain sender types are not preserved and are changed for compliance and/or deliverability reasons. In these countries mobile subscribers will see a different ‘from sender ID’ than the one sent by you.

N/A

Overwritten

N/A

Provisioning time
Provisioning is the process of getting the sender ID approved and registered with mobile networks (depending on country requirements). Provisioning time is how long this process takes in the given country.

N/A

15 business days

N/A

UCS-2 support

N/A

Supported

N/A

Use case restrictions

N/A

Supported

N/A

Best practices

N/A

Only send messages using Twilio-registered signatures and templates.

Any messages that do not meet these criteria will fail to deliver.

N/A

Long codes and short codes
 

Long code domestic

Long code international

Short code

Operator network capability
Whether mobile operators in the given country support the feature.

Not Supported

Not Supported

Not Supported

Twilio supported
Whether Twilio supports the feature for the given country.

Not Supported

Supported

Not Supported

Sender ID preserved
In some countries sender IDs for certain sender types are not preserved and are changed for compliance and/or deliverability reasons. In these countries mobile subscribers will see a different ‘from sender ID’ than the one sent by you.

N/A

N/A

N/A

Provisioning time
Provisioning is the process of getting the sender ID approved and registered with mobile networks (depending on country requirements). Provisioning time is how long this process takes in the given country.

N/A

N/A

N/A

UCS-2 support

N/A

N/A

N/A

Use case restrictions

N/A

Best Effort Delivery Only

N/A

Best practices

N/A

Only send messages using Twilio-registered signatures and templates.

Any messages that do not meet these criteria will fail to deliver.

N/A


For the benefit of all our customers, these guidelines are provided to help you comply with applicable requirements and to help ensure Twilio's platform remains compliant with global telecommunications ecosystem requirements. These guidelines represent our current understanding of common compliance requirements generally applicable to Twilio and its customers, and do not constitute legal advice. By posting these guidelines, Twilio makes no assurances regarding the legal compliance of your application built using our APIs. You are expected to understand and abide by all compliance obligations applicable to your specific application. You should check these pages regularly for updates as telecommunications ecosystem requirements continue to evolve and change, and the information below may be updated or changed without notice.