What are the FCC requirements

As of Jan 2025, the FCC has a few key requirements when businesses send text messages. They are primarily around consent to text, how a recipient can revoke consent and identifying yourself. These have been best practices for a while and would have been discussed during your implementation - now the FCC has turned those best practices into rules.

Consent

The FCC now requires that express consent be gathered before text messages can be sent. For pure marketing messages, express written consent is required. For informational messages, simple express consent is acceptable. The opt-in must be clear and voluntary.

While the FCC does not spell out how consent be gathered, there are a few ways that most organizations and institutions go about getting it. Most commonly, this will be a checkbox when a student, prospect or alumni signs up for something. For example, all admissions applications include a field for providing a phone number. A simple way to obtain consent is to add an option (like a checkbox) to opt-in to receiving text messages.

It's okay to start affirmative, that is to have the checkbox pre-checked, so long as it can be unchecked. Because the requirement is that consent be given voluntarily, you cannot require opt-in nor can you infer that consent was given when a phone number is provided. You want to be explicit and clear.

Opt-out

There must be a simple and clear way to opt-out of receiving texts. This is where we can help. Message already has opt-out keywords, such as STOP, that are both industry standard and comply with FCC rules. Any contact that responds back with STOP, CANCEL, UNSUB or variants of these is automatically opted out of future texts. Message will then prevent any user or automation from texting that contact unless they opt back in.

The FCC does allow a confirmation message after opt-out, which you're free to work with our team to customize. The confirmation message usually notes they've been opted out and gives instructions for how to opt back in if they wish to do so in the future, such as:

We're sorry to see you go. You'll no longer receive text messages from us. If you wish to opt back in, respond with START.

Identifying yourself

When you first begin texting with a contact, you'll need to clearly identify yourself. This isn't really a problem for Modern Campus Message customers - we've always recommended and required that you have an intro message that includes who you are.

You can support this requirement further by taking advantage of the keyword HELP. HELP is an industry standard keyword that returns information on who is texting. Typically, it looks something like this:

This is Modern Campus University. We'll be texting you about your application for admission, as well as opportunities for financial aid and scholarships. You can opt out at any time by replying STOP.

This is something the carriers want to see, so we've been working with customers on customizing their HELP response when registering new institutions. If you want to review or change your HELP response, reach out to our support team for help.

What about the rules on auto-dialers

You don't have to worry about any new or existing regulations about autodialers - Modern Campus Message does not provide autodialing services. Autodialers are systems where random or sequential numbers are sent texts, such as sending a message to (555) 555-1001, then (555) 555-1002, then (555) 555-1003 and so on. Message does not - and will never - provide this kind of feature.

As long as you're following the above practice and getting individual consent, you'll never run afoul of any autodialer rules.

Finally

In the end, the new FCC rules aren't as scary as they sound. It's all about being clear, gaining consent and making sure to respect a contact's opt-out when they revoke it. If you have questions as to whether your practices conform with FCC rules, please don't hesitate to reach out to us.