Messaging Policy

Last updated: October 5, 2026

The short version

Text people only after they asked you to, and only about what they asked for.

Keep proof of that consent for at least four years.

Stop the moment they say stop, in any words. We enforce this for you.

Say who you are, keep to daytime hours, and do not hide behind rotating numbers or public link shorteners.

Some content is never allowed (phishing, sexual content, firearms, tobacco). Some needs our approval first (alcohol, cannabis, gambling, lending, debt relief).

This Messaging Policy is our acceptable use policy. It is part of the Terms of Service and applies to every message sent through SimpleSMS, by you or by anyone you let use your account. It reflects the TCPA and FCC rules, the CTIA Messaging Principles and Best Practices, and carrier codes of conduct. Carriers enforce these rules independently of us, so a violation can get traffic filtered or numbers blocked even before we act.

1.1 Get the right consent first.

Informational and transactional messages (order updates, appointments, account alerts, verification codes) require the recipient's prior express consent, typically given when they provide their number to you for that purpose.
Marketing and promotional messages require prior express written consent: a signed (electronic is fine) agreement that clearly authorizes you to send marketing texts to that number, and that is not a condition of purchase.
Conversational replies. A person who texts you first has consented to a reply about what they asked, not to ongoing messages or marketing.

1.2 Consent is specific. Consent covers the brand and the kind of messages it was given for. It cannot be bought, sold, rented, shared, or transferred, and consent given to one business does not cover another. Separate consent for texts from consent for email or calls, and never bury it in general terms or pre-check the box.

1.3 Disclose at opt-in. Wherever you collect consent, disclose your program or brand name; what messages to expect and how often (or "message frequency varies"); "Message and data rates may apply"; "Reply STOP to cancel" and "Reply HELP for help"; and links to your privacy policy and terms. We review these disclosures during campaign registration and may require changes before activating a campaign. Our registration tool checks the public pages you give it for these disclosures automatically and suggests wording, and checks the example messages you give us against a fixed set of rules; it can also fill in a registration from your website and draft example messages for you to review (Privacy §4). It is a convenience, not legal advice: what it suggests can be wrong, you are responsible for what you submit, and passing it does not guarantee that carriers approve a campaign. The example messages on your registration must be real examples of what you will send: we file them as yours, and we keep a copy of exactly what was filed.

1.4 Keep records. Keep evidence of every consent: the number, the date and time, the method (web form, keyword, paper, checkout), the exact disclosure language shown, and, for online forms, the IP address and page. Keep it for at least four years after your last message to that number (the TCPA's limitation period), and produce it within five business days if we ask (Terms §3.3). You may store this evidence with us through the consent API's opt-in proof, or by including opt-in status, date, and source columns when you import contacts; we keep it with your consent records and include it in your consent export, but keeping complete evidence remains your responsibility. Importing a contact list does not create consent, and an import never opts anyone back in.

2. Who You May Text

Do Not Call. Marketing messages are subject to the National Do Not Call Registry and to state lists. Unless you have prior express written consent or another exemption the law recognizes, do not send marketing to numbers on those lists, and keep your own internal do-not-contact list.
Reassigned numbers. Phone numbers change hands. Remove numbers you learn have been disconnected or reassigned (for example from carrier deactivation files or the FCC's Reassigned Numbers Database) promptly, and do not keep texting a number whose new owner never consented.
Minors and age gating. Do not direct age-restricted content (alcohol, cannabis, gambling) to anyone under the legal age, and age-gate opt-in for those programs.

3. Opt-Outs and Help

Any reasonable means. A recipient can revoke consent in any reasonable way: a keyword, a plain-language reply ("please stop texting me"), a phone call, an email, or a form. You must honor a revocation however it reaches you, within the time the law requires and in any case within 10 business days, and we recommend immediately.
What we enforce for you. On every number, the replies STOP, STOPALL, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, QUIT, OPTOUT, REVOKE, and ARRET opt the sender out of your messages immediately. We also detect plain-language revocations and treat them the same way. HELP, INFO, and AIDE receive your help reply, including from a number that has opted out. These replies identify your business, not us: a number sending under an approved campaign uses the help and opt-out messages that campaign registered. Opt-outs reach you through the API and webhooks; record revocations that reach you by other channels in your own systems and via the opt-out API.
One confirmation, then silence. After an opt-out, at most one message confirming it, with no marketing in it, may be sent. Nothing else may be sent to that number until it opts back in, for example by replying START. A message you try to send to an opted-out number is refused, not delivered and not billed, and the refusal is recorded in that number's consent history. A recipient who opts back in by keyword receives one message confirming it.
Never re-add. Do not re-import, re-upload, or otherwise re-subscribe an opted-out number without a new, documented opt-in. Importing contacts never lifts an opt-out: an opted-out number stays opted out, and a row your file marks as unsubscribed is recorded as an opt-out.
Subscription topics. You can let recipients stop one kind of message (for example marketing) and keep another (for example account alerts). A broadcast sent on a topic skips anyone unsubscribed from it. Topics only ever narrow who you text: an opt-out still stops every message, and subscribing someone to a topic does not opt them back in.

4. Prohibited Content and Uses

These are never allowed, with or without approval:

Content that is illegal where it is sent or received, including illegal drugs and the sale of prescription drugs without a valid prescription.
Fraud and deception: phishing, smishing, and impersonation of any person, brand, government agency, or bank; requests for a recipient to send back a security code; fake prize, refund, or delivery notices; romance and advance-fee scams; and simulated phishing, even for training.
Sexual or adult content, including links to it.
Firearms, ammunition, and explosives, and their parts or accessories.
Tobacco and vaping products, including e-cigarettes.
Hate speech, harassment, threats, and content that promotes violence or self-harm.
Third-party lead generation and affiliate marketing, and any use in which phone numbers or consent are collected to be sold, rented, or shared.
Spoofing or misrepresenting the sending number or sender identity.
Malware, and links to it.
Traffic with no human purpose: SMS pumping, artificially inflated traffic, or any scheme that generates messages for revenue share.
Messages to emergency numbers, or any attempt to use the Service as an emergency service.

5. Restricted Content

These categories need our approval in advance, which we give per account and only where the carriers allow the use case. Our content screen blocks most of them automatically until you are approved; sending any of them without approval violates this policy even where a message gets through.

Alcohol (age-gated opt-in required).
Cannabis, CBD, kratom, and psychedelics, where legal.
Gambling, sweepstakes, contests, and lotteries.
High-risk financial services: payday, short-term high-interest, and title loans; third-party loans; debt relief, consolidation, settlement, or credit repair; and cryptocurrency or securities promotions.
Get-rich-quick, multi-level marketing, and work-from-home offers.
Debt collection, which must also comply with the FDCPA and Regulation F.
Political and advocacy campaigns, which must also be registered with the carriers and include the disclosures election law requires.

6. Sending Practices

Identify yourself. Each conversation must identify your brand, and you may not impersonate anyone, including in the app_name of verification messages.
Quiet hours. Do not send marketing messages before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. in the recipient's local time, or outside any narrower window a state requires (several states end at 8 p.m. and limit messages per day).
No filter evasion. Do not spread traffic across numbers to avoid per-number limits or filtering ("snowshoeing"), deliberately misspell words, or alter content to evade carrier filters.
Links. Use links on a domain you own. Public URL shorteners (shared bit.ly-style domains) are blocked, because carriers filter them as a phishing signal.
Register before you text the public. A US local number may text the public only once it is linked to an approved registration. Until then it can text only phone numbers you have verified with us as your own, so you can test; a message to anyone else is refused before it is sent, with an error that says why, and is not charged. One registration covers up to 49 numbers.
Match your registration. Messages must fit the use case you registered for the campaign and the example messages you filed with it; register a new campaign before sending a different kind of message.
Watch your rates. We may pause a campaign whose opt-out, complaint, or carrier-filtering rate is well above industry norms while we review its consent.
Sensitive data. Do not send payment card numbers, account passwords, government ID numbers, or protected health information (Terms §6.5).

7. Sending on Behalf of Others

If you run a platform, agency, or reseller business that sends for other businesses:

Each end business must be registered as its own brand and campaign with accurate information. Do not send one business's traffic under another's registration.
Each end business must obtain its own consent and follow this policy, and you must flow these obligations down in your contract with them.
You must be able to identify, on our request, the end business behind any message, and to stop any end business's traffic promptly. Assigning each end business's numbers to a customer in the API is the simplest way to do both, though it is not required.
You are responsible for their traffic as if it were your own (Terms §2.4).

8. Canada

Messages to Canadian recipients must also comply with CASL (express consent, sender identification, and an unsubscribe mechanism in each commercial message, honored within 10 business days) and with French-language expectations: ARRET and AIDE work on every number.

9. How We Enforce This Policy

We screen messages automatically before they are sent and inbound replies as they arrive, using rules and machine-learning classifiers, for the prohibited and restricted content above, for scam patterns, and for opt-outs. We also refuse messages to the public from a number that is not yet linked to an approved registration (§6). We never silently drop or rewrite a message: a blocked send returns an error that names the reason. We may also pause campaigns, suspend keys or numbers, request consent evidence, and share information with carriers and registries (Terms §3.5). Carriers run their own filtering, which we do not control.

Received an unwanted text from a number on SimpleSMS? Reply STOP to that number, then email support@deliveredsms.com with the number that texted you and the date. We investigate every report, and we act on phishing and scam reports first.