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Glossary

Terms used in Surge documentation, the API, and the broader A2P messaging industry.

A2P messaging Application-to-person messaging. Text messages sent programmatically from software to a person's mobile phone — as opposed to P2P (person-to-person) messages between individuals. Surge is an A2P platform.

Audience A named, reusable list of contacts. Audiences are used to send repeated messages to the same group — weekly newsletters, customer cohorts, geographic segments. Created via POST /accounts/:account_id/audiences and populated by adding contacts. Blast an audience by passing its ID in the to array when creating a blast.

See also: Blast, Contact

Blast A one-time send to a list of recipients. A blast is created with a from number, a body, and a to array of phone numbers, contact IDs, or audience IDs. Unlike regular messages, blasts are not threaded into conversations. Use a blast for ad-hoc sends; use an audience when the same list receives messages repeatedly.

See also: Audience

Account A resource in Surge that represents one messaging brand. An account owns phone numbers, campaigns, contacts, conversations, and messages. In carrier terminology, an account corresponds to a brand.

See also: Platform, User (End User)

Brand The carrier industry term for the legal business entity behind a messaging campaign. In Surge, an Account is your brand.

Campaign A registered use case for sending messages. Campaigns describe what you're sending, to whom, and how recipients opted in. Every phone number that sends production traffic must be attached to an approved campaign.

In carrier terminology, a campaign and its phone numbers form a 10DLC campaign.

Campaign Service Provider (CSP) An intermediary registered with The Campaign Registry that submits brand and campaign registrations on behalf of its customers. Surge is a CSP. Most Surge customers don't need to become CSPs themselves — see The Campaign Registry and Becoming a CSP.

Contact A phone number record within an account. When you message someone or they message you, Surge creates a contact to represent that number. Contacts track opt-out state and can carry metadata.

Conversation A thread of messages between your phone number and a specific contact. All inbound and outbound messages with the same contact on the same number belong to one conversation.

CSP See Campaign Service Provider.

Dashboard User A person who logs in to hq.surge.app to manage Surge: API keys, billing, webhooks, phone numbers, and account configuration. Distinct from an End User. A Dashboard User can belong to multiple platforms.

E.164 The international phone number format used throughout the Surge API. E.164 numbers start with + followed by the country code and subscriber number, with no spaces or punctuation. Example: +18015551234.

End User A person provisioned via the Surge API (via POST /accounts/:account_id/users) who interacts with embedded UI components. End Users do not log in to the Surge dashboard. They are the customers of SaaS platforms built on Surge.

See also: Dashboard User

GSM-7 The character encoding used for standard SMS. Covers the basic Latin alphabet, digits, and common punctuation. Messages using only GSM-7 characters fit 160 characters per segment (153 in multi-part). See SMS Segments & Encoding.

10DLC Ten-digit long code. The US carrier framework for A2P messaging using standard 10-digit phone numbers. Requires brand and campaign registration via The Campaign Registry.

Opt-in Explicit permission from a recipient to receive text messages. Carriers require documented opt-in before you send marketing or promotional messages.

Opt-out A recipient's request to stop receiving messages, typically by replying STOP. Once opted out, sending to a contact returns an opted_out error.

MMS Multimedia Messaging Service. An extension of SMS that supports sending images, GIFs, PDFs, and other media in addition to text. MMS segments can carry more data than SMS segments, but delivery depends on the recipient's carrier and handset supporting MMS.

See also: SMS, Segment

Platform The top-level Surge tenant. Your company or product is a platform. A platform contains one or more accounts, holds your API keys and billing, and configures webhooks. You get one platform when you sign up for Surge.

Segment The carrier's billing unit for SMS. One segment is 140 bytes. A GSM-7 message fits 160 characters in one segment; a message using UCS-2 (e.g., with emoji) fits only 70 characters. See SMS Segments & Encoding.

Short code A 5- or 6-digit phone number (e.g., 12345) used for high-volume A2P messaging. Short codes support very high throughput and are often used for large-scale marketing programs. Purchasing a short code requires a support request — they are not available via the API. Subject to their own carrier registration process separate from 10DLC.

SMS Short Message Service. The standard protocol for sending text-only messages up to 160 GSM-7 characters (or 70 UCS-2 characters) per segment. The default protocol for Surge messages. When a message has attachments or exceeds 10 segments, Surge automatically upgrades to MMS.

TCR See The Campaign Registry.

Toll-free number A phone number with an 8xx area code (800, 822, 833, 844, 855, 866, 877, 880–889) where the call or message cost is borne by the called party, not the caller. Toll-free numbers on Surge go through a separate verification process from 10DLC local numbers. Available via the API (type: "toll_free"); verification currently requires the dashboard.

The Campaign Registry (TCR) The industry body that registers A2P 10DLC brands and campaigns. US mobile carriers use TCR to verify who is behind phone numbers sending text messages. Surge submits registrations to TCR as your CSP.

TypeID The format used for all Surge resource IDs. A TypeID is a type prefix followed by a 26-character alphanumeric ID. Examples: acct_01jrzhe8d9enptypyx360pcmxj (account), msg_01jrzhe8d9enptypyx360pcmxk (message), cpn_01jrzhe8d9enptypyx360pcmxl (campaign).

UCS-2 The character encoding used when a message contains characters outside the GSM-7 set (emoji, accented characters, curly quotes, etc.). UCS-2 messages fit only 70 characters per segment. See SMS Segments & Encoding.

User (End User) See End User.

Webhook An HTTP callback Surge sends to your server when something happens — a message arrives, a campaign is approved, a contact opts out. You configure a webhook endpoint URL in the dashboard, and Surge POSTs events to it in real time.