You will need the Limited SMS permission to add, opt in or delete opt-ins. What the list shows you follows your campus access.
The Text Opt Ins screen is where you see who your church can text, how each number came to be subscribed, and what you can do about it. Go to Settings & Tools (cog icon in the tool-bar) > Messaging Center > Text Messages and select the Text Opt Ins tab.
If you are not yet sure what consent means or why someone is unreachable, start with What is text messaging consent?
If your account has more than one organization, consent is per organization. Opting in to, or stopping, one organization's texts does not change a person's consent for another organization.
See who is opted out
The listing shows subscribers only. Opted-out numbers are hidden until you ask for them, which is why a number someone opted out of can look deleted.
Click Filter.
Under Status, tick Opted Out. Leave Subscribed ticked to see both together, or untick it to see opted-out numbers on their own.
Click Search.
Every row shows a Status of Subscribed or Opted Out, so you can tell the two apart at a glance.
Tip: The screen opens with Status already set to Subscribed, which is why Filter shows a count of 1 before you change anything. Click the red x beside Filter to clear it and start over.
Show how each number agreed
The Consent Source column records how a number reached its current state, and it decides what you can do to that row. It is hidden by default.
Click Columns.
Select Consent Source.
Click Done.
You can also narrow the list to particular sources without showing the column. Click Filter, expand Consent Source, and tick the ones you want:
Added By Admin
Blocked At Carrier
Existing Mobile On File
Opt-In Form
Set On Profile
Texted JOIN and Confirmed
Texted START
Texted STOP
check all and uncheck all select or clear the whole set at once. What each value means is explained in What is text messaging consent?
Add numbers in bulk
Click Opt In Numbers, enter one number per line, and save. Use this when you have collected written consent outside One Church Software, such as a connection card or a sign-up sheet. If your account has more than one organization, choose the organization the numbers are opting in to. It must be an active organization in your access that holds a texting number.
Warning: Adding a number here means your church is asserting that the person gave you permission. Keep the evidence. Do not add your whole directory to make a send reach more people.
Opt someone back in
If someone was opted out by mistake, for example because a staff member marked them or they answered No to the opt-in question on a form, you can restore them.
Click Filter, tick Opted Out under Status, and click Search so the row is visible.
Open the row's menu and choose Opt in, or tick several rows and use Bulk Actions > Opt in.
Type OPT IN to confirm.
The row's Consent Source becomes Added By Admin, because your church is now the one asserting permission.
When Opt in is not offered
Rows whose Consent Source is Texted STOP or Blocked At Carrier do not offer Opt in or Delete at all. Those people stopped the messages themselves, and only they can start them again by texting START to that organization's number.
This is the difference between a hard and a soft opt-out:
Texted STOP or Blocked At Carrier - a hard opt-out. Staff cannot undo it.
An opt-out recorded by staff - a soft opt-out. Staff can clear it, and transactional texts still reach the number.
If one of those numbers is caught in a bulk selection, the whole request is refused and the numbers are named in the error. Nothing else in that batch is applied either, so untick those rows and submit again. On a person's profile and in the People bulk action, numbers like these are skipped without a message instead.
Tip: If a bulk Opt in reports that none of the selected numbers carry an opt-out that can be cleared, either those rows are already subscribed or every opted-out row you picked is one of the two protected sources. Filter by Consent Source, or turn the column on, and check.
Removing a row is not the same as opting someone out
Delete removes the opt-in record. It does not restore consent. It stops messages being sent to that number, which the confirmation says as well. When you want to make someone reachable again, the action is Opt in, never Delete.
Deleting a row also does not un-revoke a STOP. The two protected sources are refused here in the same way they are refused for Opt in.
Read one person's messages
Every row offers View messages, which opens the text history for that number. You can also see one person's full history from their profile, on the Messages > Text Messages tab.
With more than one organization
Consent is per organization. A person can be subscribed to one organization's texts and opted out of another's.
The Text Opt Ins list and its export show a campus-limited person only the numbers of organizations they reach.
The person shown beside a number is matched by mobile phone across the whole account, and appears only when you can see that person. Otherwise the row shows the number alone.
The public opt-in page is per organization. A link with no organization in it uses the organization that kept the old links while that organization still holds a number, and otherwise the default organization.
A form's opt-in question gives consent to the form's one active organization, or to the default organization if there is not exactly one.
What is an organization? explains organizations.