Hoping this will reduce the ever growing number of undesired promotional messages we receive each day. Kudos Safaricom for the move! Africa's Talking via <https://support.google.com/mail/answer/1311182?hl=en> sendgrid.net 5:38 PM (1 hour ago) to me Dear Client, Here is what Safaricom deems to be a Transactional Sender ID vs a Promotional Sender ID: What is a promotional Sender ID? A Promotional Sender ID is used to promote any product or a service to a specified audience, which would normally be used for SMS Advertising. What is a Transactional Sender ID? These are sender names which are used during engagement with a product or service e.g. OTP (one-time password) messages, bank transaction notification etc.The messages can also be billing reminders of loans, utility services etc. System downtime notifications, Internet connection outages, Service unavailability by an organisation will also be considered as Transactional messages. What if a Sender ID is used for both types of message? It would be convenient to apply for a different Sender ID to use for transactional purposes to avoid the mix up. If that is not a viable option, then one can classify as promotional to avoid being flagged as sending messages that are Promotional on the Transactional account. How are the two types of Sender IDs going to be treated differently by Safaricom? Transactional messages do not have time limitation i.e. between 8am and 6pm daily, neither is it mandatory for them to carry the opt out instructions. Promotional messages must carry out the opt out instructions and can only be sent between 8am and 6pm. When does the new treatment of promotional messages kick in? Categorisation is currently on going, full implementation of the new rules is expected to start in 1 week. Will this change how we apply for Sender IDs in the future? Yes, moving forward in the Authorisation Letter, clients will have to specify what the Sender ID will be used for as well as the category i.e either Transactional or Promotional. Have a lovely evening! Kind Regards, Africa's Talking Team -- Best Regards, Kelvin Kariuki Tutorial Fellow Multimedia University of Kenya Faculty of Computing and Information Technology Twitter Handle: @teacherkaris Alt email: kkariuki@mmu.ac.ke Mobile: +2547 29 385 557 The Lord is my Shepherd