{"id":3042,"date":"2026-09-25T13:16:43","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T07:46:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.smsgatewaycenter.com\/blog\/?p=3042"},"modified":"2026-09-25T13:19:49","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T07:49:49","slug":"sender-identity-sms-whatsapp-rcs-telegram","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smsgatewaycenter.com\/blog\/sender-identity-sms-whatsapp-rcs-telegram\/","title":{"rendered":"Sender Identity Across SMS, WhatsApp, RCS and Telegram: Sender IDs, WABA Numbers, Bots and Long Codes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A message on SMSGatewayCenter<\/strong> can come from five different kinds of sender: a DLT sender ID, a WhatsApp Business number, an RCS bot<\/a>, the account’s single Telegram bot<\/a>, or a long code plus keyword on the way in. Each has its own API, its own spelling in responses, its own JSON type and its own approval model. This is the field-level map and the registry design that ties them together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Five<\/a>
Five kinds of sender, one registry: the key you store decides whether a delivery report can be traced back to the brand that sent it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Table of Contents<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  1. The Short Answer<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. TL;DR<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Five Sender Units at a Glance<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Who Issues, Who Approves, Who Can Change It<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. SMS Sender IDs: A Mirror of the DLT Header<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Reading the Sender ID List<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. Sender ID and Template Pairing<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  8. WhatsApp: The WABA Number Is Sender and Scope<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  9. RCS: The Bot Is the Sender<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  10. Telegram: One Bot per Account<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  11. Inbound SMS: Long Code Plus Keyword<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  12. One Sender, Many Spellings<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  13. Which Calls Each Sender Unit Scopes<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  14. A Sender Registry Schema<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  15. Resolving the Sender on Every Report and Inbox Row<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  16. Four Code Samples, Four Traps<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  17. Renaming, Retiring and Replacing a Sender<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  18. Ten Mistakes That Break Sender Attribution<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  19. Decision Matrix<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  20. Pre-Launch Checklist<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  21. Unspecified Behaviour and How to Code Around It<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  22. FAQs<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    The Short Answer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Every channel on SMSGatewayCenter<\/strong> answers “who sent this?” with a different object. SMS<\/a> uses a sender ID (the DLT header), managed through SMSApi\/senderid\/create<\/code>, read<\/code>, update<\/code> and delete<\/code>, sent as senderid<\/code> and reported back as senderName<\/code>. WhatsApp uses the WhatsApp Business number, wabaNumber<\/code>, which is both the sender and the scope for templates, media, reports and inbox reads. RCS uses a bot, addressed by an integer botId<\/code> on send but reported by botName<\/code> on delivery rows. Telegram uses the single bot attached to the account, so the send call carries no sender parameter at all. Inbound SMS adds a fifth unit: the long code plus keyword pair that arrives as phonecode<\/code> and keyword<\/code> on the push.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The same sender appears under different names and JSON types across endpoints: the WhatsApp number<\/a> is an unquoted number on report rows, a quoted string on inbox rows, and waNumber<\/code> on analytics rows. The robust design is a sender registry in your own database with a surrogate key per sender, the channel identity stored as text, and a resolver that maps every report and inbox row back to that key.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    TL;DR<\/h2>\n\n\n\n