---
title: Text messages — consent, compliance and what gets sent
slug: sms-consent-and-compliance
category: Messages & Notifications
url: https://alaga.io/help/article/sms-consent-and-compliance
audiences: business_owner, manager
updated: 2026-08-19
source: Alaga Help Center
---

# Text messages — consent, compliance and what gets sent
Sidebar: **Business Settings → Notifications → Text Messages**.

Texting is regulated. The rules exist because unwanted texts are a genuine nuisance, and the penalties for ignoring them are real. Alaga enforces consent rather than trusting it, which occasionally means a text you expected does not go out.

## Every gate must be open

A text only sends when **all** of these are true:

1. **Your business has that text type switched on.** Reminder texts are **off by default**, separately from reminder emails.
2. **The client has agreed to receive texts.**
3. **The client has not opted out of that particular kind of message.**
4. **You have messages left in your monthly allowance.**
5. **The client has a mobile number on file.**

Any one of them closed and the text is skipped silently. That is the answer to nearly every "why didn't my text send" question — see *Why didn't my reminder send?* for working through it in order.

## STOP and START

A client replying with any of **STOP, END, CANCEL, QUIT, UNSUBSCRIBE** or **STOP ALL** is opted out immediately and automatically.

- It happens without you doing anything, and it cannot be undone from your side.
- Asking them to opt back in by phone does not work. **Only the client can reverse it**, by replying **START**, **YES**, **SUBSCRIBE** or **UNSTOP**.
- Replying **HELP** returns information about your messages.

Do not try to work around an opt-out by texting from a different number. That is precisely the behaviour the rules exist to stop.

## Consent does not transfer

When you move from another platform, **the consent your clients gave does not come with them**. They consented to that provider, not to Alaga. Everyone opts in again.

This surprises people mid-migration, so plan for it: the portal invitation is a natural moment to ask, and clients agreeing while they are setting up their account is far more effective than a later campaign.

## Your monthly allowance

Each plan includes a number of texts per month. When it runs out, texts stop until the month rolls over. **Emails are unaffected** — reminders keep going by email.

Worth knowing before a busy month: reminders are usually the bulk of the usage, and a two-reminder-per-appointment pattern adds up quickly in a business doing thirty appointments a day.

## What gets sent

Automatic texts cover appointment reminders and similar operational messages, controlled per type under **Notifications → Text Messages**. Turn on only what earns its place; every text is a cost and a small imposition.

Conversations you send by hand from **Messages** are subject to the same consent rules.

## Marketing is different

Promotional texts carry stricter requirements than operational ones. Send those through **Marketing**, which handles consent and unsubscribes properly. Do not use a reminder or a conversation to slip in an offer.

## If you are unsure

The safe position is: operational messages about a booking the client made, to a client who agreed to texts, with an easy way to stop. Anything beyond that is worth checking against the rules where you operate — this article describes how Alaga behaves, not what the law requires of you.