Permission and opt-outs

You need a customer’s permission before you text them. That’s not a Callify policy — it’s carrier rules and, in the US, the law (the TCPA). Penalties for getting it wrong are per message, and they’re not small.

The good news is that the everyday case is simple.

When you can text someone

They texted you first. Replying is always fine. Someone who texts your store has plainly consented to hear back, and Callify records that automatically. You never tick a box to reply to an existing thread.

They gave you permission some other way. A checkbox at checkout, a form on your site, a paper form in the shop, verbally on the phone, a QR code they scanned. When you start a new conversation, Callify asks you to confirm this — that’s the checkbox on the New message screen.

When you can’t

They’ve replied STOP. Absolute. No exceptions.

You just have their number. Having someone’s mobile from an order isn’t permission to text it. They gave it for delivery, not marketing.

They left a voicemail. Calling you is consent to be called back, not texted. If you want to reply by text, that’s a judgement call — a direct reply to a specific question is a different thing from a promotional message, but the safe path is to call back, or to ask permission first.

Permission was for something else. Consent to order updates isn’t consent to promotions. Keep the scope you asked for.

The permission checkbox

Starting a new conversation, you’ll see:

This person agreed to receive text messages from us

Carriers and US law require permission before texting. Someone who texted you first has already given it.

Ticking it is a statement that you hold consent. Callify records that you said so and lets the message through.

It’s not a formality to click past. If you can’t point to when and how the person agreed, don’t tick it.

STOP and START

Carriers require every business number to honour opt-out keywords, and Callify does it automatically.

A customer texts any of these — STOP, STOPALL, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, QUIT, OPTOUT, OPT-OUT — and they’re immediately opted out. You can’t text them again, and Callify blocks the attempt with:

“This person replied STOP. They have to text START before you can message them again.”

Only if the whole message is the keyword. “Please stop by tomorrow” isn’t an opt-out — Callify checks the message is just the word, ignoring case and trailing punctuation.

They can come back by texting START, UNSTOP, YES, OPTIN or OPT-IN. Only the customer can do that. You can’t undo an opt-out from your side, and you shouldn’t try to — asking someone to text START back is fine, but you’d need another channel to ask on.

An opt-out only covers texting. They can still call you, and you can still call them.

Getting consent that holds up

Add a checkbox at checkout or on your contact form. Unticked by default, with wording next to it like:

Yes, text me about my order. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out.

Publish your number and invite people to text it. Someone who texts you first has given the cleanest consent there is, and it’s the easiest evidence to show the carriers.

Ask on the phone and note it. “Is it alright if I text you the tracking link?” — perfectly valid consent.

The three ingredients that make consent defensible: it was specific (they knew who and what for), voluntary (not a condition of buying), and recorded (you can show when and how).

That same evidence is what your carrier registration asks for, so setting it up properly solves both problems at once.

Good practice

• Identify yourself in the first message. People delete texts from unknown numbers.
• Text during business hours. A 2am message about a shipping update is a complaint waiting to happen.
• Don’t use link shorteners. Carriers treat bit.ly links as a spam signal and may block the message outright. Use your own domain.
• Avoid ALL CAPS and excessive punctuation — same reason.
• Keep it relevant to what they agreed to.

If a carrier decides your messages look like spam, you’ll see “The carrier blocked this message as suspected spam” — see troubleshooting.