You will need the Limited SMS permission to work on consent records: adding numbers, opting someone in, or deleting opt-ins.
Having someone's mobile number is not permission to text them. Before One Church Software sends an announcement or other marketing text to a number, that number must have opted in to receive messages from your church. This is a requirement from the mobile carriers, and it is the single most common reason a church reaches fewer people than it expected.
Numbers without consent are removed from a send quietly. Nothing errors, nothing is charged, and no warning appears. The message goes to fewer people.
Tip: If you selected 400 people and the message went to 137, consent is almost always the reason. Some of those 400 have no mobile number on file, some share a number with a family member, and the rest have not opted in.
Consent belongs to an organization
If your account has more than one organization, consent is held per organization. Each organization holds at most one texting number, so the number a person texts, and receives texts from, is what tells them which organization it is.
Consent to one organization, or a stop sent to one organization, does not change another. A person can be opted in to the church and opted out of the school on the same phone number.
What is an organization? explains organizations, and How do people opt in and out of text messaging? explains what the person does and receives when they opt in or out.
The six ways someone opts in
Each route records how the person agreed, which appears in the Consent Source column on the Text Opt Ins screen.
Your public opt-in page - The person enters their number, accepts the disclosures and submits. One Church Software records the date, their IP address and browser, then texts a welcome message confirming the subscription. Recorded as Opt-In Form. With more than one organization, each organization has its own page, and the person opts in to that organization.
Texting JOIN, then CONFIRM - Texting JOIN on its own grants nothing. It triggers an invitation asking the person to reply CONFIRM, and only that reply records consent. This is a true double opt-in and the strongest evidence you can hold. Recorded as Texted JOIN and Confirmed. If the number has stopped your texts, the invitation is not delivered, so this route does not work after a stop.
Texting START or UNSTOP - An immediate opt-in, and the only thing that clears a previous opt-out. Recorded as Texted START.
Answering the opt-in question on one of your forms - Any form that collects a phone number can ask the consent question alongside it. The person answers in their own words on your form. Recorded as Set On Profile. With more than one organization, the answer consents to the form's one active organization, or to the default organization if the form does not have exactly one.
Adding numbers as an admin - Staff add numbers on the Text Opt Ins screen using Opt In Numbers, or use the Opt in action on a row. Recorded as Added By Admin. With more than one organization, staff choose the organization the numbers are opting in to.
Marking a person opted in - Staff turn on Opt in for text messages? on the person's record. Recorded as Set On Profile.
Warning: The last two routes put your church on the hook. When staff mark someone as opted in, your church is asserting that you have permission from that person, obtained somewhere outside One Church Software, such as a paper connection card or a sign-up sheet. Keep that evidence. Do not bulk opt in your whole directory to make a send go through.
What does not count as consent
Having the person's mobile number on their record.
The person being a member, a volunteer or on staff.
The person filling in a form, registering for an event or giving online, unless that form carried the opt-in question and they answered Yes.
The person texting your church about something.
The person having opted in to another of your organizations.
The 24-hour reply window
When someone texts your church, you can answer them for the next 24 hours even if they have never opted in. Replying to someone who contacted you is not an unsolicited message, and the carriers recognize that.
That window does not subscribe them. Once it closes, the number goes back to being unreachable for announcements until they opt in properly. This is why you can reply to someone on Monday and find that same person missing from Thursday's message.
Which texts need consent
Consent rules depend on the kind of text:
Marketing texts, such as announcements - reach only people who have opted in.
Conversational replies - also reach someone who texted you during the reply window, unless they stopped or blocked your texts.
Transactional and emergency texts - reach everyone except a person who stopped or blocked your texts themselves.
How someone opts out
Anyone can stop messages at any time by texting STOP, END, QUIT, STOPALL, CANCEL or UNSUBSCRIBE to your messaging number. They receive one final confirmation text, which the carriers require, and then nothing further. With more than one organization, this stops only the organization whose number they texted.
An opt-out lasts until the person reverses it. If they text your church again next month about something unrelated, they stay opted out.
Texts sent to a number that is not verified yet are ignored, and a STOP sent to one is recorded nowhere.
Hard and soft opt-outs
An opt-out is either hard, which only the person can reverse, or soft, which your church can reverse. Two consent sources are hard opt-outs, permanent as far as your church is concerned:
Texted STOP - The person revoked consent themselves by texting a stop keyword.
Blocked At Carrier - The person blocked your number with their mobile carrier instead of texting STOP. The failed delivery tells One Church Software, and the opt-out is recorded for you. With more than one organization, it is recorded for the organization whose number sent the message.
On those two, every church-side route is refused: the Opt in action, Opt In Numbers, marking the person opted in on their record, and submitting their number through your public opt-in page. The rows cannot be deleted either. The One Church Software support team cannot lift the block on your behalf, because overriding an opt-out is exactly what the carriers audit for and it puts your number's approval at risk.
The way back in is for the person to text START or UNSTOP from that phone, to the same number they stopped. JOIN followed by CONFIRM would also work, but after a stop the invitation to confirm is not delivered, so always tell people to text START.
Every other opt-out is a soft opt-out and yours to undo, for example when a staff member marked someone as opted out by mistake, or the person answered No to the opt-in question on a form. Transactional texts still reach a number with a soft opt-out. Use the Opt in action described in How do I manage text message opt ins?
Email unsubscribes work differently
A text STOP covers one organization. An email unsubscribe covers every organization. Email unsubscribes are kept by email address and by category: general, invites, serving and discussions. Important emails still reach someone who has unsubscribed.
Example: Riverside Community and Riverside Academy each have a number. A parent texts STOP to the Academy's number. They stop getting Academy texts, and Riverside Community can still text them. If the same parent unsubscribes from an Academy email, they stop getting general email from both. The page they unsubscribe on tells them so.
Where to see how each person agreed
Go to Settings & Tools > Messaging Center > Text Messages and select the Text Opt Ins tab. Every number carries a Status of Subscribed or Opted Out, and a Consent Source recording how it reached that state. The Consent Source column is hidden by default, so turn it on from Columns. With more than one organization, consent is recorded per organization, and a campus-limited person sees only the numbers of organizations they reach.
Opt-In Form - Submitted your public opt-in page.
Texted JOIN and Confirmed - Completed the double opt-in.
Texted START - Texted START or UNSTOP.
Added By Admin - Staff added the number on the Text Opt Ins screen.
Set On Profile - Staff marked the person opted in from their record, or the person answered Yes to the opt-in question on a form. The column does not distinguish the two.
Existing Mobile On File - The number was already on file before consent tracking began.
Texted STOP - The person revoked consent by texting a stop keyword. This is a hard opt-out, so you cannot reverse it.
Blocked At Carrier - The person blocked your number at their carrier. Also a hard opt-out.
This column is your audit trail. It answers "how did this person agree?" for every number, which is what a carrier will ask for if your messaging is ever reviewed.