Glossary
What is Long number?
A long number is an ordinary full-length phone number used to send and receive business texts; in the UK that usually means a mobile number starting 07.
The name only exists to tell it apart from a short code. Because it's a normal mobile number, people can reply to it and save it in their contacts, which makes it the natural choice for conversations. It also looks familiar on a phone in a way a five-digit code doesn't.
A plumber in Sheffield texting 'Running 20 minutes late, sorry. Reply if that's a problem' wants the answer to come straight back to the same number, and with a long number it does.
In CaptiFi Connect, one-to-one texts sent from Send SMS or the API without a sender name go from a UK mobile number, and so do replies from the inbox. Replies to those texts come back into the same thread in your inbox, and a conversation stays on one number whenever that number is available. Campaigns go through a licensed A2P route instead.