This guide is for informational purposes only. We recommend contacting an attorney for further advice on the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and SMS marketing best practices in general. Note that the FCC considers calls and texts sent through your account to be 'Robocalls' and 'Robotexts', and we strongly advise against SMS spamming.

Our US-based users often ask us for tips on complying with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which governs the mass transmission of text messages (SMS) and phone calls in the United States. To address TCPA-related concerns and encourage FCC compliance, we've put together this short guide.

Who Is This Guide For?

This guide may be useful for anyone who sends SMS or IVR messages within the United States. When you send text messages or make phone calls that aren't bidirectional or contact-initiated (that is, started by keyword or uncaught message triggers), you're engaging in automated telephone dialing, which is what the TCPA primarily governs.

TCPA Requirements

Prior Consent

Organizations must obtain prior express written consent from their contacts before sending them messages. Under the E-SIGN Act, prior written consent may include electronic or digital forms of signature, such as agreements obtained by email, website form, text message, dial pad, or voice recording.

When asking for consent, consider the following:

1. The consumer's consent must be unambiguous. This means the consumer must receive a "clear and conspicuous disclosure" that they will receive future calls or text messages that deliver autodialed or pre-recorded telemarketing messages, and that their consent is not a condition of purchase. The consumer must also designate a phone number at which they can be reached.

2. When asking your contacts to participate in your service (through a web form, at the point of sale, by mobile opt-in, or on a paper document), you must disclose the following: "By participating, you consent to receive text messages sent through an automatic telephone dialing system."

3. This disclosure must be clear and conspicuous, and your contacts must see it before they opt in to your SMS service. In practice, you should disclose the use of an "automatic telephone dialing system" (equipment that can dial without human intervention) right next to the field where contacts enter their mobile phone number.

Condition of Purchase

The TCPA requires that contacts be told their consent is not a condition of making a purchase. Your contacts or constituents can't be required to agree to receive text messages from your account when they buy something from your organization. When asking your contacts to participate in your message service, you must disclose the following: "Consent to these terms is not a condition of purchase."

Related considerations:

• All advertising and promotional material must clearly indicate whether the service is a subscription.

• Subscription terms and billing intervals must be disclosed to your contacts.

• You must clearly communicate all material terms and conditions of the program.

• All advertising, promotional material, and your "Help" message must clearly display the opt-out information.

• The service should not be promoted as "free" if subscribers will pay premium fees with a reasonable level of participation in the program.

CTIA Requirements

While this guide focuses on TCPA requirements, you should also consider the requirements of the Cellular Telephone Industries Association (CTIA). The CTIA is an international trade group representing the interests of wireless telecommunications companies. These are the CTIA requirements for advertising a recurring SMS service to your contacts:

• Recurring program description (e.g., 'subscribe to receive recurring SMS offers')

• Stop instructions (e.g., 'Text STOP to opt out')

• Disclosure that message and data rates may apply (e.g., 'msg&data rates may apply')

• T&C/privacy policy link (e.g., 'T&C/Privacy Policy: www.acme.co/privacypolicy')

Opting Out

Under the TCPA, your contacts must be able to opt out at any time.

How Twilio Manages Opt-outs

When a contact sends STOP, STOPALL, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, or QUIT to one of your Twilio numbers, Twilio stops sending them messages until they reply START. They'll receive the following message:

"You have successfully been unsubscribed. You will not receive any more messages from this number. Reply START to resubscribe."

When the contact resubscribes, they'll receive the following message:

"You have successfully been resubscribed to messages from this number. Reply HELP for help. Reply STOP to unsubscribe. Msg&Data Rates May Apply."

How We Manage Opt-outs

When Twilio notifies us that a contact has blacklisted one of your Twilio numbers, we place that contact in the default Stopped group under Contacts in your account. The contact is removed from all other groups and marked so that any outbound messages to them are blocked.

You should configure alerts in your Twilio account so that Twilio notifies you of errors such as the 21610 blacklist error.

Read more about tracking and managing opt-outs yourself here.

Sending Timeframe

The TCPA stipulates that text messages may only be sent between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. in the recipient's time zone. If you send messages to contacts in different time zones, contact us about the options we provide.

Record Keeping

To protect your organization from future disputes, keep a record of each contact's consent for at least four years from the date it was given. Four years is the federal statute of limitations for bringing an action under the TCPA.