P2P (Person-to-Person) Messaging

What is Person-to-Person Messaging?

P2P SMS is the act of sending text messages from one user to another which means that an SMS message travels between two mobile subscribers. Person-to-Person (P2P) generally refers to the messaging traffic exchange that is typical of human-to-human communications as opposed to application-based communications services.

P2P messaging is generally defined as two-way messaging between two humans. This could be messages between friends on mobile phones, or messages connecting two people using BSG’s RESTful API as a conduit.

P2P messages are generally:

• Two-way
• Used by individuals, not for commercial use
• Conversational only

In some countries, P2P messaging may cover some application-mediated communications, such as texting between customer and support agent conversations and between two users via a proxy number, or messages to and from a delivery or ride-hailing driver.

BSG covers this in more depth in How Does the SMS API Work and What Are the Benefits?.

What’s the difference between P2P and A2P SMS messaging?

P2P (person-to-person) messaging is individuals sending texts to each other from one mobile device to another.

A2P (application to person) messages are sent from software or a system and this is usually from a business to an individual.

P2P messaging isn’t restricted to just SMS, it also includes all the other Over-the-top messaging apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, iMessage, etc.

SMS is often referred to as P2P when compared with A2P (Application-to-person) messaging . Mobile networks treat P2P and A2P traffic differently in terms of the type and volume of traffic permitted.