Understanding sending strategies

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Resource associations and sending strategies enable automatic, intelligent message routing in CPaaS X. This page explains how they work conceptually. For step-by-step setup, see Configure sending strategies.

How resource associations enable smart routing [#how-resource-associations-enable-smart-routing]

Resource associations link your communication resources (phone numbers, sender IDs, email domains, and chat app identities) to your applications and entities. Combined with sending strategies, which are declarative rules that define how to select the optimal resource based on message properties, they allow you to programmatically route messages through the right sender without hardcoding logic.

For a full list of resource types and how they are acquired, see Understanding resources.

Resource associations [#resource-associations]

Resource associations group resources and link them to your applications and/or entities for use in sending strategies.

Resource type	Description	Supported channels
`NUMBER`	Phone numbers (virtual long numbers, short codes, toll-free numbers)	SMS, MMS, WhatsApp
`DOMAIN`	Registered email domains	Email
`ALPHA`	Alphanumeric sender IDs (text identifiers for SMS)	SMS
`RCS_RESOURCE`	RCS identities	RCS
`APPLE_RESOURCE`	Apple Messages for Business identities	Apple Messages for Business

Learn more

Resources must be purchased or registered through Infobip before they can be associated.

Prerequisites and regional restrictions: See Configure sending strategies.
SMS and MMS resources: See SMS coverage and connectivity.
Email domain setup: See Email domain strategy.

What resource associations enable:

Group resources (senders) for usage in smart sending strategies.
Link specific resources to specific applications and/or entities.
Query all resource associations or filter on specific resources.
Create the foundation for intelligent message routing.

Defining sending strategies [#defining-sending-strategies]

A sending strategy is a configuration that determines which sender to use based on message properties, destination, and channel. In its simplest form, it sets sender manipulation rules at a country level for a specific channel (SMS/MMS) on an entity or application-entity level.

Once a sending strategy is defined, clients only need to specify the entity (and optionally application) when sending messages. Infobip automatically handles the rest:

Selecting the appropriate sender based on destination country.
Applying geolocated or sticky sender rules if enabled.
Managing sender type priority.
No need to manually specify which sender to use in your code.

Sending strategies solve the routing logic problem by dynamically selecting the right resource without hardcoding logic in your application.

NOTE

By default, Infobip allows messages to proceed when no sending strategy matches. You can enable an account-level setting to require a sending strategy match before message delivery. When this setting is enabled and no strategy resolves a sender for the country, application, or entity, Infobip rejects the message. Contact Support to enable this setting.

Sending strategy scope [#strategy-scope-defining-sending-strategies]

Sending strategies can be defined at two levels:

Application-level (default)

Distributes sending across the pool of senders automatically fetched from your resource associations. You provide the entity in your API request and Infobip selects the appropriate sender.

Capabilities: Restrict to specific countries or channels (SMS, MMS). Automatically respects resource capabilities and country registrations.

Best for: Platforms with many clients sending from resources with different capabilities registered for different countries. Define resources once, Infobip handles the rest.

Entity/Application-level

Client-specific setup with different rules, features, and limitations per entity. You explicitly define what each entity can do.

Capabilities: Define sending scope per entity, restrict countries, apply specific features (geolocated sender, sticky sender), and set per-entity rules.

Best for: Platforms that need clear control over each client's sending behavior, country restrictions, or feature-specific configurations.

Strategy features [#strategy-features-defining-sending-strategies]

Sending strategies include additional functionalities on top of sender manipulations. Geolocated sender and sticky sender can be used in combination.

Geolocated sender

Traffic is sent from a sender with the same local area code as the recipient. Customers are more likely to react positively to messages from local numbers.

Supported for North America only.

Sticky sender

When a customer receives a message from a sender, the same sender is used for all future messages to that customer. Builds brand recognition and conversation context.

Sender type priority

Define the priority of senders when you have multiple senders for a destination country. Controls which sender is selected first.

Feature combinations [#feature-combinations-defining-sending-strategies]

You can combine features at different levels to meet specific requirements:

Country-level feature configuration: If you need different setups for different countries, create an additional strategy at the country level. For example, use geolocated sender for the United States but not for Canada by creating a country-specific strategy with geolocated sender enabled only for US.

Channel-specific feature configuration: To apply different features to different channels:

Create one strategy with sticky sender for SMS channel only.
Create another strategy with both sticky and geolocated senders for MMS channel.
Both strategies operate at the application level across all entities.

This allows you to have different feature combinations per channel without creating per-entity strategies.

IMPORTANT

When the from field (sender) is defined along with application and/or entity in the sending API call, it overrides the sending strategy configuration and the system does not apply sender manipulations.

Related pages

Configure sending strategies
Step-by-step resource association and strategy setup.

Applications and entities
Core concepts and organizational hierarchy.

Webhook subscriptions
Real-time delivery notifications per entity.

Understanding resources
Resource types and allocation patterns.