Request: TCR opt-in/opt-out auto-replies and enforcement

• There is no automated way to send the OPT OUT verbiage with SMS messages sent from RingCentral
  • My understanding of TCR requirements is that this is required for all outbound SMS messages
  • From my point of view, this is the first priority to have automated.  It is unreasonable to believe that the human will type or copy / paste this into every message that they send by SMS

• There is no automation, other than sending a message to the sender, when they send a keyword like Start, Stop
  • The automation I have set up, sends the automated response if a keyword match is found.
  • However, as far as I can see, RingCental doesn't use this information to manage future correspondence.  For example; the customer sends STOP, it doesn't update the customer's contact preferences or prevent future messages from being sent.

​@esoper We previously had opt-in and opt-out messages powered by Automator (now Workflow Builder), but we recently made this feature a core part of our SMS sub-system. We now automatically responds to and enforces opt-in and opt-out requests. 

Yes you can auto send the outbound messages when you receive the keywords in a SMS. What the Automator doesn’t do:

• automatically send the opt out info when a text is generated, the user has to do it manually
• there is no tracking of customer preferences. i.e. customer opts out but you can still send them a SMS

These elements are needed to support TCR.

Thanks Ellen

Ellen - everything you mentioned above is supported by our Core system now. Please see the knowledge base article I shared with you above. If you do not see these capabilities in your account, please reach out to support and they can assist. 

I have already reached out to support. I have been told by at least 4 people that it is not possible to automatically send text with the text message to provide opt out information. The user has to enter it manually See case # 26276139 

Here is the response from RingCentral

Hi Ellen, Got your email. Apologized for the inconvenience. With regards to your queries. They told me that there is no option for the receiver to Opt Out on every text message they receive. https://support.ringcentral.com/article-v2/Automating-SMS-replies-and-other-common-workflows.html?brand=RingCentral&product=RingEX&language=en_US Regards, Joe

​@esoper Wow. Ok. I am terribly sorry you are caught in the middle of this. I think there is a misunderstanding part somewhere within our teams. Either I am misinformed, or support is. I will reach out to schedule a call with you and the PM for SMS to make sure we are all aligned. 

​@ByrneReese I and my colleagues are also extremely interested in this, I was under the impression Automator had the option to create the messages for all opt in/out/help keywords, however the “Enable this automation for what phone numbers?” option only gives my direct number or all of our numbers (we need to be able to select the numbers to match each TCR campaign). The documentation you linked above about the built-in opt-out feature does not appear to have any option to create or modify the message that is sent to someone who texts an opt-out keyword. If you could please post the solution to this publicly to this thread that would be greatly appreciated! 

If the sender of the text sends a message to the RingCentral system with a keyword, you can send a message back based on the keyword.  You can then include the opt in / opt out message that you want sent using the RingCentral Automator.

The issue is if a new text message is created by the RingCentral sender, they have to manually append the opt in / opt out verbiage on each message.

The Automator doesn’t have an option for this presently.

To close the loop on this issue for the community, I met with ​@esoper over the phone. Opt-out enforcement and built-in autoreplies were not worked as she was on a server cluster that had not received the update yet. She was scheduled to receive the update on December 11, 2024. We accelerated that for her and everything should now be working. ​@esoper can you confirm?

I appreciate your time today and agree that the majority of my concerns were resolved. 

The remaining issue that isn’t resolved, but we have a semi manual / auto solution, is to automatically send the opt out verbiage with the text initiated by the RingCentral user.

The workaround for this is to create a text template that the user manually selects when creating a text.  It is an extra step, but will help us be compliant.

Thanks again for your help.

Ellen

​@ByrneReese  I apologize if this has been mentioned -- How do I turn off the core auto response since I’ve created one specific to each of our users with our company name?

​@Adawson It is not possible to turn off the core response. We have enabled those to ensure our own compliance with TCR rules and customers’. In January we will release a feature so that you can register custom messages in your TCR campaign that will used instead of the stock responses we have today. 

Our recommendation and guidance is that you disable the auto-replies being sent by Workflow Builder. 

However, your use case is intriguing. I would like to talk to the SMS product manager to see if there is something we could do here that let’s you craft highly customized messages. 

​@Adawson ,

This is Gurpreet, and I’m the PM on the RingCentral side managing the SMS opt-out feature. I wanted to provide you with a full context of what we’ve done so far and what’s coming soon. Many of the concerns raised will be addressed by our core features. Here’s an overview:

1. Customized Auto Replies

• This feature is expected to launch in mid/late January 2025.
• How it works:
  • TCR-registered numbers: START, STOP, and HELP auto replies will use the text provided by admins during TCR registration. Please NOTE:  If there are 10 numbers in a TCR campaign, they will use the same OPT-IN, OPT-OUT and HELP text messages as were provided by admins during the Campaign registration. (User level customization is not allowed)
  • Non-TCR-registered numbers: Canned auto replies (similar to today’s behavior) will be sent.
• Next Steps:
  In 4-6 weeks, you’ll see customized auto replies being sent without requiring any changes on your end—it’ll work out of the box.

2. Adding Opt-Out Instructions to Outgoing SMS

We recognize the challenges today of manually including opt-out instructions to comply with regulations. Here’s how we’re addressing this:

• Checkbox Option in RingCentral App:

  • Users will see a checkbox when composing SMS messages, allowing them to append the opt-out instruction with a single click.
  • While this solution is manual and user/agent-level, it simplifies the process compared to typing instructions repeatedly.
  • ETA: Tentatively, January/February 2025.

• Admin-Configurable Policy (Under Discussion):

  • We’re exploring a feature that would allow admins to mandate opt-out instructions for all outgoing SMS messages as a policy.
  • This is currently under discussion, and we’ll keep you updated on progress.

For now, only work around is to type opt out instruction every time, or create a template and reuse it like what ​@esoper is doing.

Lastly, if you're seeking advanced SMS solutions with enhanced features like better consent management(conversational/transactional/marketing), shared inbox functionality (allowing multiple users to access SMS from a single number), broadcast/marketing workflows, and much more, I recommend exploring our Advanced SMS Inbox.

This is a paid add-on to the RingEx license and can be applied selectively to users/numbers who need advanced SMS solutions.

Do let us know if you have any more questions!!

Regards

Gurpreet

PM, RingCentral

​@gurpreetsingh Thank you for this information.  We will be using the templates for now. 

​@gurpreetsingh Do you have any status updates on the Opt-Out changes you mentioned above (checkbox option in RingCentral App and admin forced policy)? We’ve been struggling to get a couple of our accounts registered properly for TCR. Despite this, we need to make sure we stay compliant until then with Opt-out notices. 

​@bt-chris.brown 

Checkbox option - This is now available when you try to send SMS to multiple recipients at once. This was number 1 use case for opt out instruction, as most the multiple recipient texts are marketing in nature.

Checkbox Option - As a checkbox for 1-1 SMS. This for conversational use case, but we have got requests to have checkbox option here as well. This is coming by end of Q1 (in March, 2025)

Admin forced policy - It’s lil complicated and is being discussed. No timeline yet. Will update as soon as we have one.

​@gurpreetsingh Thanks for confirming. I see the new feature now for Opt-Out. Since our use-case is conversational only, is our only option for now to have our users utilize the templates for any messages we are initiating? Will RingCentral be able to offer any further guidance regarding Opt-in/Opt-language/policies as it relates to conversational communications? As mentioned in my previous post, we continue to have issues getting our TCR registrations completed. 

​@bt-chris.brown  Sorry for late reply, somehow missed the notification. Nice to know that you can see the feature now.

is our only option for now to have our users utilize the templates for any messages we are initiating?

For now, yes best it to use templates till we have a check box for 1-1 comms also in our apps in 2 months or so.

Will RingCentral be able to offer any further guidance regarding Opt-in/Opt-language/policies as it relates to conversational communications?As mentioned in my previous post, we continue to have issues getting our TCR registrations completed. 

• RingCentral TCR KnowledgeBase
• RingCentral TCR Best Practices

Please use above links for anything TCR. In case you have are having issues getting TCR registration complete, pls call in to our support. We have a dedicated TCR support team who can help your case. 

Regards, 
Gurpreet
PM, RingCentral

Hello! It seems that the customized START/STOP/HELP messages are not yet implemented. Also, those automated replies do not show up in the RingCentral app, so there is no way to confirm/show that a contact has received them after they send the keyword. (I texted our company from my personal number and received the standard replies, but could not see them in the RingCentral side of the thread). ​@gurpreetsingh Is it also in the plan to display those automatic messages in the RingCentral interface?

Thank you!

Amina

amidragon wrote:

Hello! It seems that the customized START/STOP/HELP messages are not yet implemented. Also, those automated replies do not show up in the RingCentral app, so there is no way to confirm/show that a contact has received them after they send the keyword. (I texted our company from my personal number and received the standard replies, but could not see them in the RingCentral side of the thread). ​@gurpreetsingh Is it also in the plan to display those automatic messages in the RingCentral interface?

Thank you!

Amina

​@ByrneReese any insight?

​@amidragon I must defer to ​@gurpreetsingh on this question as he is the PM for this product, and I do not have the same level of expertise and knowledge that he has. This could be by design, or a bug, I am not sure. 

​@amidragon , Good questions, as we are actively working thru it. Here are my inline replies.

>>It seems that the customized START/STOP/HELP messages are not yet implemented.

Correct, it’s developed but under deployment process. We should see them later this month or early March.

>>Is it also in the plan to display those automatic messages in the RingCentral interface?

This is planned for Q2, 2025 to show automated messages sent by RingCentral in our desktop and mobile apps.

Regards

Gurpreet

PM, RingCentral Platform Products

Thank you, ​@gurpreetsingh! It is helpful to know that these things are in the pipeline. I appreciate the response!

​@gurpreetsingh Do you have any updates on the SMS feature updates? 

I do see that during the creation of a new SMS message (1-to-1) from the RingCentral App, there’s now a checkbox to add opt-out message, but it just says “Reply STOP to opt out of these texts” and doesn’t necessarily reflect any custom Opt-out messaging we submitted during the TCR Registration. Is that going to be available at some point? 

​@bt-chris.brown 

There are two key components:

1. Adding an Opt-Out Instruction to Outbound Messages:

   • Currently, there is a checkbox option to include an opt-out message when sending outbound messages. This message is a predefined template:
     “Reply STOP to opt out of these texts.”
   • Since the opt-out instruction is not collected as a separate field during TCR registration, customization is not available at this time. We will evaluate internally whether to support custom opt-out messages in the future, but for now, the standard message will remain unchanged.

2. Sending an Auto-Reply When Someone Opts Out:

   • At present, the auto-reply for recipients who send STOP is a canned message.
   • By the end of this month, this message will be customizable—it will be automatically replaced by the opt-out auto-reply you specified during TCR registration, ensuring recipients receive the personalized opt-out confirmation you’ve configured.

Let me know if there are more questions.

Regards

Gurpreet

PM, RingCentral Platform Products