Overview

Opt-Out Assist is a built-in keyword management service that Vonage offers to customers to help lessen compliance overhead and complexity. You can elect to have Vonage manage the mandatory HELP and STOP keywords, reply messages and block list when sending 10DLC and Short code SMS and MMS. 

As of 6/15/2023, Opt-Out Assist is in Beta for 10DLC and in Early Access for US/Canada Short codes. 

How it Works

Keywords and message replies are configured during the registration process. 

• Vonage fetches your customized message replies directly from your associated 10DLC and short code registration. You can find more details about 10DLC campaign registration in this article.
• For 10DLC, the opt-in keyword is fetched and used as a re-opt in mechanism only if you have included it within your 10dlc registration. An opt-in keyword is a mandatory field for short code registrations. 

Customers should contact their Account Manager or Vonage support to request to enable the feature.

10DLC

Opt-Out Assist is enabled at the account level and applies to the main api key and all sub api keys. Please ensure that all existing related campaigns have keywords and messages specified. You can create/view/edit the opt-in, opt-out, and help fields within the campaign and content attributes section of the 10DLC registration. 

Updates can also be done via our Partially update a specific campaign 10DLC API endpoint.

Short codes

Opt-Out Assist is enabled on a per short code basis and is available for US and Canada short codes. The following keywords are mandatory as part of the short code  registration process:

• Stop, end, quit, cancel, unsubscribe
• Help
• Opt-in Keywords such as START, JOIN

Customers should contact their Account Manager or Vonage Support to request to enable the feature.

Toll-Free 

STOP messages and opt-out functionality are managed at a network level, enforced by the US operators.  This service can not be disabled. You can find more details on how it works in this article. 

FAQs

How do I check if Opt-Out Assist is enabled on my 10DLC campaign?

Currently, the Vonage dashboard does not display this information. Customers can use the following 10DLC API endpoints to check if Opt-Out Assist (opt_out_assist) is enabled:

1. Account endpoint
2. Retrieve all of the campaigns associated with a brand endpoint
3. Retrieve a specific campaign endpoint

What happens if I have a pool of numbers within my 10DLC campaign and an end user texts STOP to only one of those numbers? 

The STOP management applies only to the number the end user texts STOP to. It is the customer’s responsibility to prevent further messages from other numbers used in a pool. 

What happens if I do not have a webhook url enabled? Will the service work?

Yes, all appropriate triggers and responses will still work even if you do not have a webhook to pass the inbound MOs or DLR to you.  

Am I charged for the auto-reply responses? 

Yes, all auto-reply messages are charged like a regular message.

Am I charged for the error code return when a message is sent to an opted out end user?

Yes, the DLR error code is a billable message. 

What error code will I receive if I send an SMS to a recipient who is in the block list? 

If sending via the SMS API, the error code that would be returned is error code 9 - Illegal Number. If sending via the Messages API, the error code returned is 1240.