What is the difference between A2P and P2P traffic? What is the difference between A2P and P2P traffic?

What is the difference between A2P and P2P traffic?

Nexmo Support

Question

What is the difference between Application-to-Person (A2P) and Person-to-Person (P2P) traffic?

Applies To

  • A2P
  • P2P
  • SMS

Answer

A2P refers to application-to-person messages (an app, alert, 2FA, etc.) and are generally related to a transaction. The assumption is that an A2P SMS was generated by a software application.

P2P refers to person-to-person messages, where a person sends a message to another person. The nature of this traffic would resemble a conversation or dialogue, rather than being related to a transaction.

You can find more information related to A2P and P2P usage in the United States and Canada here.