What is it?

An originator is the name or number from which the message is sent. 

When you receive a text message, your phone always tells you something about where the SMS comes from, either it says:

• The name of a company or product you’re using
• A number from who has sent it
• If you saved the number in your phone contacts, your phone replaces the number with the name under which you saved it.

Number of characters

The number of characters that you can use as the originator depends on whether it’s a name or a number. This limit its inherent to SMS format—so, unfortunately, we can’t change this.

• If you use a company or brand name as the originator, the amount of characters needs to be between 3 and 11.
• If you use a MessageBird number as the originator, it can be up to 17 digits long.

Change the name or number where you SMS comes from

To change the name or number where you SMS comes from you need to change your originator, there are three ways to do it:

• Dashboard: If you are sending directly from within the Dashboard interface, when you are sending your message you will have the option to fill in a Sender ID in the originator box; you can fill in a number, a name, or use a shared or dedicated virtual number (if you have a subscription in your account). You can also define a Default Originator which will be entered as a default name whenever you send from within your Dashboard.
• API: If you are sending via API, you just need to change the originator parameter.
• Email: If you are sending via Email to SMS, it depends on your configuration whether you need to change the subject line in your emails or the saved originator as described here.