Skip to content

Managing Apteco SMS opt-outs

When setting up your Apteco SMS channel, you can send messages in two ways:

  • Using a specified phone number—messages appear to originate from this number
  • Using an alphanumeric sender ID (e.g. your company name)—messages display this as the sender

See Setting up your SMS channel.

The process for managing opt-outs differs between the two.

Standard long number opt-outs

When sending SMS via long numbers (two-directional), you can process recipient responses through either FERG or the AptecoResponsesAPI webhook. See Setting up Apteco SMS webhooks for responses.

Long numbers allow for direct response handling, making opt-out management straightforward.

Setting opt-out keywords

Configure opt-out keywords in your channel settings:

JSON
"OptOutKeywords": "OPTOUT,STOP,UNSUBSCRIBE"

When recipients reply with any of these keywords, the system records an entry in the Responses table with a MessageType of OptOut, preventing further SMS messages to those numbers.

Alphanumeric sender opt-outs

Alphanumeric senders (e.g. "Apteco") are one-directional and cannot receive replies, which presents a challenge for opt-out management.

Note

This solution requires Apteco software version Q2 2025 or later.

Implementation steps

  1. Configure your channel with:

    • Sender: Your alphanumeric name (e.g. "Apteco")
    • Reply Sender: Your dedicated opt-out long number

    Apteco SMS channel configuration showing Sender and Reply Sender fields

Customer communication

Inform recipients that to opt out, they must text keywords like "STOP" to your designated opt-out number (the Reply Sender value).

Technical details

When running a campaign with this configuration, the Broadcasts table records the parameters:

Text Only
TargetSMS=true;MobileNumberField=Mobile;Sender=Apteco;UrnFieldName=Urn;Reply Sender=;

If recipients send opt-out keywords to the Reply Sender number, the SMS webhook records this in the Responses table with:

  • Phone number in the Email field
  • MessageType of OptOut

Responses table showing opt-out entry

Note

These entries won't have a Communication Key or BroadcastId, as they can't be linked to specific originating messages.

Suppression mechanism

The broadcast process suppresses delivery to any phone numbers that:

  • Appear in the Email field of the Response table
  • Have a MessageType of OptOut

Identifying opt-outs for alphanumeric senders

Query the Response and ResponseDetails tables to identify opt-outs:

SQL
SELECT R.Email
FROM ResponseDetails RD
INNER JOIN Response R ON RD.Id = R.Id
WHERE RD.[Name] = 'To'
AND RD.[Value] = '447418628101'
AND R.MessageType = 'OptOut'

Replace 447418628101 with your specific opt-out number.