If your business sends a text message when someone signs in, books, pays or orders, you have a date to put in the calendar: 31 December 2026. On that day the corrective period ends for the UAE’s A2P SMS Direct Model, and the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA) has asked every company and government entity that sends application-to-person SMS to have moved by then.
This post explains what the change is, who it reaches, the questions to ask your providers this month, and which of your messages are better sent on WhatsApp in the first place. It is a guide to plan with, not legal advice.
What TDRA asked for
Khaleej Times reported TDRA’s advice on 22 July 2026. In short:
- What the Direct Model is. “The Direct Model sends messages directly from an SMS aggregator to the end user, without intermediaries.” Messages should no longer pass through a chain of resellers before they reach a UAE mobile number.
- Who it covers. Government entities, companies, banks and financial institutions, e-commerce businesses, healthcare providers, logistics companies and “any entity using SMS to communicate with customers”.
- Which messages. One-time passwords, notifications, alerts, marketing and promotional messages, order updates and any other customer-facing A2P SMS.
- The deadline. The corrective period ends on 31 December 2026. TDRA advises moving within it to avoid interruptions to the service.
- The steps. Contact your licensed telecom provider, such as e& or du; complete the transition process; review your third-party contracts and your service submission process; finish within the period.
The report gives no penalty figures and no technical detail beyond this. That is a reason to start early rather than a reason to wait: when a login code fails to arrive, the customer does not care which part of the chain was at fault.
The SMS rules that already apply
The Direct Model comes on top of rules UAE senders already live with. Twilio’s UAE guidelines, opened on 30 October 2026, list them clearly:
| Rule | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| Registered Sender ID only | Carriers accept SMS only from a registered Sender ID; alphanumeric IDs need pre-registration, which takes about two weeks |
| AD- prefix on promotions | A promotional Sender ID starts with “AD-”, and the prefix counts toward the 11 characters |
| No promotions at night | Promotional messages are not sent between 9:00 PM and 7:00 AM local time; they wait in a queue until the morning |
| Domestic senders only for promotions | Promotional content is supported for domestic entities only |
| No links, chat links or phone numbers | A message with a URL, a WhatsApp or LINE chat link, or a phone number in the body is not allowed |
| No replies | Two-way SMS is not supported for the UAE; long codes and short codes are not supported either |
| Health senders | A health-related Sender ID needs an approval letter from the UAE health authorities |
Two of these shape everything else. SMS in the UAE cannot carry a link, so “track your order here” or “pay here” does not work by text. And customers cannot answer, so every SMS is a one-way notice.
Five questions to ask before December
Put these to your operator and your SMS provider in writing, and keep the answers:
- Is our current route to UAE numbers a Direct Model route? If you send through a reseller or a global platform, ask which aggregator delivers your messages to e& and du, and whether there is anyone between them.
- Are our Sender IDs registered under our own trade licence? A Sender ID registered by a reseller may need to move. Allow two weeks for a new registration.
- What changes in our contracts? TDRA names third-party arrangements explicitly. Check who is responsible for delivery and for consent records.
- What is the cut-over plan? Pick a date well before the holidays, test OTPs and alerts on both networks, and keep the old route available until the new one has carried real traffic.
- Which messages do we still need to send by SMS? This is the question most teams skip, and it is where the savings are.
Which messages belong on WhatsApp
SMS reaches every phone, which is why it stays the safe choice for some messages. Many others work better in a chat, because WhatsApp can carry buttons, links, documents and replies, and the customer can answer.
| Message | Better on | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Bank and insurance OTPs | SMS or your own app | Licensed financial institutions may not send OTPs over messaging apps (CBUAE, April 2026) |
| Sign-in codes for shops, apps and clinics | WhatsApp or SMS | WhatsApp Authentication templates have a copy-code button; keep SMS as the fallback |
| Order confirmations and delivery updates | A tracking link and a “Talk to us” button are allowed; in UAE SMS they are not | |
| Appointment reminders | The customer can confirm or change the time with one tap | |
| Offers and campaigns | WhatsApp, to customers who opted in | Images, a catalogue and replies, and no AD- Sender ID to register |
| Service outage or emergency alerts | SMS | Reaches phones without data or without WhatsApp |
What it costs on WhatsApp: Meta charges per delivered template message, and MonoChat adds no markup. Meta’s AED rate card for UAE numbers, as listed on our pricing page (checked 29 October 2026), showed AED 0.0576 for an authentication message, AED 0.1872 for an authentication message to a number outside the UAE, AED 0.0576 for a utility message (AED 0.0432 at the highest volumes) and AED 0.2115 for a marketing message. Replies inside the customer’s 24-hour window are free.
Message examples
SMS one-time password (from a registered Sender ID, no link, no phone number)
482913 is your YourBrand sign-in code. It expires in 5 minutes. Never share it with anyone.
WhatsApp authentication template (Meta writes the text)
482913 is your verification code. For your security, do not share this code. [Copy code]
WhatsApp utility template for an order update
Hi {{1}}, your order {{2}} left our Dubai warehouse and should reach you on {{3}}. [Track order] [Talk to us]
WhatsApp appointment reminder
Hi {{1}}, a reminder of your appointment tomorrow, {{2}}, at {{3}}. [Confirm] [Change time]
Set it up in MonoChat, step by step
1. Keep an SMS channel for what must stay on SMS. Go to Settings › Chat › Channels, select SMS, choose Twilio SMS and click Connect. In Sender type choose Alphanumeric Sender ID to send from your registered name (1 to 11 letters and digits, at least one letter), or Messaging Service to use a Twilio Messaging Service. Enter the Account SID and Auth Token and save. Since MonoChat 3.8.36 this is how a Twilio channel sends from a Sender ID, and since 3.8.37 the inbox shows a notice on a channel that cannot receive replies, so your team knows answers will not come back there. Before 31 December, ask Twilio how its route to UAE numbers meets the Direct Model, as you would ask any provider.
2. Connect WhatsApp through the Cloud API. MonoChat is an official Meta Business Partner, and the WhatsApp number you connect becomes a WhatsApp Business (Cloud) channel under Settings › Chat › Channels.
3. Create your templates in MonoChat. Open the ⋮ menu of the WhatsApp channel and choose Template Messages, then Create. Pick the category:
- Authentication for codes. Choose One-time password and the Code delivery: Copy code, One-tap autofill or Zero-tap (the last two for Android apps, with your package name and app signature hash). Set how long the code stays valid, from 1 to 90 minutes.
- Utility for order, booking, account and payment updates.
- Marketing for offers, and only for customers who opted in.
Meta reviews each template. A wrong category is the most common reason for rejection.
4. Send codes and alerts from your own system. Install WhatsApp Template API from Settings › MonoStore › Apps and create an API token under Profile › API Tokens. One request names the WhatsApp number to send from, the customer’s phone number, the template and its variables. When the customer replies, the conversation lands in your MonoChat inbox.
5. Or let your store start the flow. In Flows, a Webhook Received node starts a flow when your store or booking system calls its URL, and finds or creates the customer by phone. A Send Template Message node then sends the order update, and a Question Answer node can wait for a reply.
6. Ask for opt-in in the chat. Add an Opt-in node to your welcome flow. It asks the question you write and stores the customer’s Yes or No in the Opt-in profile field. Filter your marketing sends on Opt-in = Yes, and change a customer’s Opt-in to No when they ask you to stop.
7. Keep promotions in daytime. A Within Working Hours condition in a flow checks your working hours before a message goes out. TDRA’s night rule is written for SMS, but a WhatsApp offer at 11 PM is rarely welcome either.
A checklist for November
- List every automated SMS you send, with its purpose and monthly volume.
- Ask your operator and SMS provider the five questions above, in writing.
- Check that every Sender ID is registered under your own licence.
- Move order updates and reminders to WhatsApp utility templates.
- Keep SMS for bank OTPs, emergency alerts and customers without WhatsApp.
- Test the new SMS route on e& and du numbers before mid-December.
The short version
The Direct Model is about how your SMS reaches the networks, and the deadline is close. Use the work as a chance to send each message where it serves the customer best: codes and alerts by SMS where they must be, and conversations, links and confirmations on WhatsApp, where the customer can answer you.
MonoChat’s Basic plan is free, and Growth is AED 440.70 a month, taxes included. See pricing for the full plans and Meta’s AED rates.