How to Manage your Opt Outs


Managing opt-outs ensures you're respecting contact preferences and staying compliant with texting regulations. The Opt Out Manager provides texting admins with several tools for managing opt outs.


This guide will walk you through the Opt Out Manager page in the admin dashboard, which includes how to search, insert, and delete opt outs, as well as managing opt out tools. For information on how opt outs look for a message sender, read our guide: Opt Outs for Texters.


TABLE OF CONTENTS


What are Opt Outs?

An opt out is a request by a contact to stop receiving communication. Once a contact is opted out:

  • They will not receive any additional messages from your account.
  • They will be removed from future campaigns and groups.
  • They will no longer receive texts from any existing campaigns.

An opt out is only applicable for a single organization's account, so if your organization uses multiple accounts, you must opt out the contact from each one individually.


Contacts can be globally opted out from the entire ThruText platform by reaching out to GetThru Support at support@getthru.io. Global opt outs apply to all ThruText accounts.


It's important to note that opt outs are specific to ThruText and do not apply to ThruTalk. To unsubscribe someone from ThruTalk, add them to the Do Not Call list, which you can read more about here: Do Not Call Management for ThruTalk.


Accessing the Opt Out Manager

To access the Opt Out Manager page, go to the sidebar navigation menu and expand ThruText, expand ThruText Tools, and then click Opt Out Manager.

This image shows the admin dashboard on the opt out manager page. It highlights the opt out manager menu item in the sidebar navigation menu.

On this page, you'll see several tools for managing opt outs.


Opt Out Settings

In the Opt Out Settings section, you can toggle the Automated opt outs feature.

This image shows the opt out settings section of the opt out manager page.

  1. Country: Use the dropdown to set a default country code. This code is applied to any manually entered phone number. If a country code is already provided at submission, the country code will not be applied.
  2. Toggle: Click this to toggle Automated opt outs. When enabled, you'll see Automated opt outs enabled. When disabled, you'll see Automated opt outs disabled.


What are Automated Opt Outs?

When enabled, ThruText will automatically opt out any contact who responds with an opt out term in their first response. An auto opt out won't be triggered if a response contains anything besides the keyword, or if it isn't their first response after the initial message.


Opt Out Terms

The six single-word opt out terms:

  • STOP
  • STOPALL
  • UNSUBSCRIBE
  • CANCEL
  • END
  • QUIT

When one of these is received as a contact’s first reply, ThruText automatically opts them out and sends an opt out confirmation message.


The opt out message supports sender name variables. However, the opt out message for an auto opt out is sent by the "System User", so you should NOT add sender name variables if you use automated opt outs.


Opt Out Message

The opt out confirmation that is sent when a contact is opted out is customizable. Use the Opt Out Message section to edit it.


To start, the default opt out message will show:

This image shows the Opt out message section where you can edit the opt out message. This image shows the default opt out message if you don't edit it.

  1. Default Opt Out Message: This message will be automatically sent to a contact when they are opted out.
  2. Edit: Click Edit to customize the opt out message.

This image shows the opt out message section when you click edit. It highlights the different functions that can be used to customize your message.

  1. Action Buttons: Save or cancel the edits made to the opt out message.
  2. Variables: Insert variables to dynamically populate in the opt out message. Do not use sender first name or sender last name if automated opt outs is enabled.
  3. Message Text: Change the content of the opt out message here. 
  4. Total Segments: An estimate of how many message segments the reply will use. This varies depending on variable or custom field length. Read more about text message segments here: Text Message Segments.
  5. Character remaining in current segment: The approximate number of characters left in the current segment This is also an approximation because variables vary in length.
  6. Character set: This is the character set of your text message. 7-bit supports longer segments. Adding special characters may change this to Unicode, which can increase the total segments. Read more about this here: Text Message Encoding.


Create Opt Outs

You can add individual opt outs or you can bulk upload opt outs in the Create Opt Outs section.


NOTE - Opt Outs can NOT be reversed in bulk. Contacts can only be opted in individually. Double check that you are not uploading target audiences here.

This image shows where you can create individual or bulk opt outs. It shows an input field for numbers as well as a CSV upload tool.

  1. Individual Opt Outs: Enter individual numbers or a comma separated list of phone numbers to opt out of your account.
  2. Bulk Upload: Upload a CSV of phone numbers to opt them out. Large lists can take long times to process, so give them time to finish processing. The CSV must have the following to be correctly processed:
    • The file must have only 1 column with a header of "phone". The header is case-sensitive.
    • The file must be a .csv extension
    • ThruText will strip out any spaces, parentheses, letters, or dashes, but will not remove all special characters (e.g. ?, /, | &).
      This image shows the different formats of phone numbers that are acceptable for bulk uploading in a CSV.

Existing Opt Outs

Use the Existing Opt Outs Section to search for and manage existing opt outs. 

This image shows where you can search for an existing opt out. It highlights the input field and the shortcut link to the exports page.

  1. Search: Enter a phone number and click Search to see if an opt out exists for that phone number
  2. Admin Export Page: Shortcut to the ThruText Exports page, where you can create an Account Opt Outs export, where you can see all the opt outs created in your account.

After searching a number, you can see the following.

This image shows the opt out search when you search a number that has been opted out. It highlights some of the key details and functions.

  1. User: The name and e-mail address of the user who created the opt out.
  2. Date: The date where the opt out was created.
  3. Delete Opt Out: Click to remove the opt out, or opt the contact in.
  4. Source: Indicates where the opt originated, whether it was in a campaign or the Opt Out Manager page.


Additional Information and Best Practices

  • Contact Phone Number Lookup: Use the phone number lookup tool to see more details about any numbers uploaded to a group or texted or called. You can toggle the opt out status and see more opt out events on this page. Read more about this tool in our guide: Contact Phone Number Lookup.
  • Account Opt Out Export: You can view all opt outs in an account by generating an account opt out export. You can leave the start and date range blank to view opt outs throughout the entire history of the account, or you can filter to certain dates. Read more about this here: Account-Level ThruText Exports.
  • Double-check your Bulk Upload CSV: Bulk opt outs can NOT be easily undone. You can only opt-in contacts one-by-one, so make sure to double check your CSV before submitting
  • Automated Opt Outs: Auto opt outs can save lots of time by handling most opt out requests. These will be hidden from the user messenger, but visible in the admin messenger.
  • Daily Opt Out Export API: You can receive daily opt out files via API. Read more about this here: