Learn about how contacts can opt out of text messages from TextUs. For information on how to manage your organization's opt-outs, see Managing opt-outs.

As a business, you must follow certain guidelines to ensure you only send text messages to customers that want to receive them to comply with SMS regulations. Opt-outs allow customers and contacts to opt out of receiving text messages from your organization. Contacts can either opt out by texting in an opt-out keyword, or they can be manually opted out by someone within your organization.

After a contact is opted out, they will no longer be able to receive SMS or MMS from any phone number in your organization. Contacts can only opt back in by texting an opt-in keyword to a number within your organization.

An opt-out keyword is a specific word sent from a contact that will automatically opt them out of receiving future text messages from your organization’s TextUs account. Any contact can opt-out at any time by texting one of the keywords below to a phone number in your organization. When a valid opt-out keyword is received, TextUs will record that opt-out and all phone numbers in your organization will be prevented from texting that number.

When a contact texts in an opt-out keyword, they will also receive the following message:

TextUs provides a way for contacts to voluntarily opt back into receiving texts from your organization after previously opting out. Contacts can do so by texting either of the words "START" or "UNSTOP" to any phone number in your organization.

When a contact texts in an opt-in keyword, they will also receive the following message:

To manually opt out a contact:

Opt-out rate is a critical metric for understanding your SMS performance. Your opt-out rate is the percentage of the contacts you have messaged who have opted out of receiving text messages from you. A small amount of opt-outs are expected in SMS messaging, but a high opt-out rate is a sign that you should examine and possibly adjust your messaging strategies.

A healthy opt-out rate is generally considered to be one that is at or below 1.50%. An opt-out rate higher than 1.50% carries a significant amount of risks for your organization, including provider restrictions.

If your opt-out rate is higher than 1.50%, you are at risk of having your messaging restricted or even shut down entirely by SMS providers. To these providers, high opt-out rates indicate possible compliance issues or other regulatory problems with your campaign. Restrictions or blocks from providers will severely disrupt your organization’s messaging workflows and will take time to rectify.

Our opt-out alert thresholds feature allows you to receive alerts and even disable messaging when your opt-out rate approaches 1.50% in order to anticipate and avoid these provider restrictions. To learn more about how to configure these thresholds, please see Managing opt-outs.

While you can view your opt-outs on the Managing opt-outs page in your Settings, your actual opt-out rate is not displayed there. To access your opt-out rate, please reach out to your Account Manager or to TextUs Support.

If your organization’s opt-out rate is approaching an unhealthy level, there are several steps you can take to bring it back down.

Sometimes contacts opt-out at higher rates because they didn’t know they were opted in in the first place. If your opt-in language is buried in the fine print of a web form or otherwise obscured, your contacts are highly likely to opt-out because they never intended to sign up for messaging to begin with.

Ensure that your opt-in language is clearly visible and that you’re fully compliant with the 10DLC requirements for opt-in consent. Opting in contacts without their consent may seem like a tempting strategy to increase your audience, but in practice it will cause serious issues for your organization and prevent your messages from reaching anyone at all.

As part of your opt-in language, you must provide a description of the kinds of messages that will be sent and how frequently they will be sent. If you do not adhere to this description, your contacts may opt-out because your messaging program is different from what they signed up for. Make sure that these descriptions are accurate, particularly the frequency, and adjust your messaging practices accordingly if not.

Even if your message frequency is as was described in your opt-in method, it is possible that your contacts are bothered by your message frequency. To combat this, consider sending messages less frequently to the extent that it is possible within your use case.

Less frequent messaging is also a good way to prevent a high opt-out rate simply by reducing the amount of opportunities for your contacts to opt-out. Since contacts frequently opt-out in direct response to a message, even temporarily reducing your message output can prevent further opt-outs while you rethink your messaging strategy more broadly.