Is it legal to auto-text people who call your business?
The short answer: one plain text back to someone who just called you is the most defensible kind of business text there is, but it isn’t a guaranteed safe harbor. Here is what is settled, what is a grey area, and the conservative way to do it. This is general information, written for contractors, not legal advice for your situation.
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What is settled
- Business texts need carrier registration. US carriers expect business texts from a 10-digit number to be registered (A2P 10DLC); Twilio says unregistered traffic is filtered more and pays extra carrier fees. How 10DLC registration works, and what it costs.
- STOP has to work. The carrier guidelines expect STOP and its common equivalents to end all texts, with one confirmation (CTIA Messaging Principles, section 5). The FCC’s consent-revocation rules require honoring opt-out requests made in any reasonable way.
- Marketing needs more consent than a reply. CTIA separates conversational, informational and promotional messages, and a call-to-action such as a coupon can make a message promotional.
The grey area
CTIA’s guidelines describe a message as conversational, needing no extra permission, when the consumer texts the business first and the business replies once. A missed call isn’t a text. Nobody has written down that one reply to a phone call gets the same treatment, so the honest position is: it is the closest thing to a conversational reply, and it should be done the conservative way below so it stays there.
The FCC rules on opting out are also still moving. The effective date of the part that makes one STOP apply to all of a business’s messages was extended to January 31, 2027 by an FCC bureau order in January 2026, and the FCC revised the rule in September 2026 (FCC fact sheet, September 9, 2026).
The conservative way to do it
Tell them a text is coming. The caller hears a short greeting that says you’ll text them at this number and that they can reply STOP. That way the text isn’t a surprise, and you have a record of what they were told.
Send one text, not a sequence. One reply to a call is the defensible version. A drip of follow-ups is a different thing.
Name your business first. Start with your business name so they know who it is from.
No links, coupons or offers in that text. CTIA’s guidelines say adding a call-to-action such as a coupon code can move a message into the promotional category, which needs more consent.
Honor STOP, and the words that mean STOP. “Stop”, “unsubscribe”, “cancel”, “quit”, “please stop texting me”: treat all of them as an opt-out, send one confirmation, and never text that number again.
Register the business with the carriers. US carriers expect business texts from a 10-digit number to be registered (A2P 10DLC); Twilio says unregistered traffic is filtered more and pays extra carrier fees.
Keep a record. Keep when and how each person contacted you, and when anyone opted out.
Things to avoid: texting numbers you bought or scraped, sending follow-up after follow-up, putting a discount in the first text, and texting anyone who said stop, in any wording.
Why the text doesn’t come from your cell
Texting services generally can’t send from a number that lives on a cell phone plan. That is why missed-call text back uses a separate business number, local to you, and why every message should open with your business name. When you call the customer back yourself, it still comes from your own phone.
Join the first five
LeadHunter USA Line (coming soon), is being built this way: a greeting that tells the caller a text is coming, one text that opens with your business name and has no links or offers, STOP and its equivalents honored automatically, and carrier registration set up with you.
Available now: LeadHunter USA Alerts, the free LeadHunter USA CRM (customers, quotes, invoices, receipts) and LeadHunter USA Payments (customers pay by card).
Coming soon: LeadHunter USA Line, a business number with missed-call text back, an inbox and review requests.
More guides
- How to forward only unanswered calls, by carrier
- What to text when you miss a call: templates for 25 trades
- How to ask for a Google review by text
- Missed-call text back tools compared, with vendor prices
- Keep your cell number or get a business number?
- Can your iPhone or Android text back missed calls on its own?
- Estimate follow-up and payment-reminder texts
- How to write a contractor estimate
- How much deposit can a contractor take? State limits
Common questions
Is it legal to text back a missed call automatically?
One plain reply to someone who just called your business is the most defensible kind of business text, but it is not a settled safe harbor. The industry guidelines (CTIA) describe a one-message reply as conversational when the consumer texted first; a phone call is not the same thing, so treat it conservatively: tell callers a text is coming, send one text that names your business, include no offers or links, and honor STOP immediately.
What is 10DLC and do I need it?
US carriers expect business texts from a 10-digit number to be registered (A2P 10DLC); Twilio says unregistered traffic is filtered more and pays extra carrier fees. The business (the brand) and the kind of messages it sends (the campaign) are registered. If you use a texting service, it normally handles the registration for you, but it registers your business, so your details have to be accurate.
Can the text come from my own cell phone number?
Usually not through a texting service. Those services generally can’t send business texts from a number that lives on a cell phone plan, so the text comes from a business number, usually local to you, and should start with your business name so the caller knows who it is.
What do I have to do when someone replies STOP?
Stop texting them. CTIA’s guidelines say to act on STOP and on common equivalents like unsubscribe, cancel, quit or “please opt me out”, to send one final confirmation, and then to send nothing further. The FCC’s 2024 consent-revocation rules also require honoring opt-out requests made in any reasonable way.
Can I text a customer to ask for a review?
Asking for a review is a separate message from the missed-call reply, so be more careful with it: only text customers you actually did work for and who gave you their number in the course of that work, keep it to one request, include STOP, and offer nothing in exchange. Google prohibits any incentive for a review.
What is still unsettled?
Two things as of October 2026. Whether a single text in reply to a missed call needs consent beyond the call itself has no clear answer in the carrier guidelines. And the FCC’s opt-out rule has kept moving: the effective date of the part that applies one STOP to all of a business’s messages was extended to January 31, 2027 (an FCC bureau order of January 2026), and the FCC revised the rule in September 2026 (FCC fact sheet, September 9, 2026). Check for updates before you rely on any one answer.
Sources · checked 2 October 2026
- CTIA Messaging Principles and Best Practices (May 2023)
- FCC order on the consent-revocation rules (DA 25-312, April 2025)
- FCC fact sheet on the revised consent-revocation rule (September 9, 2026; read 4 October 2026)
- Twilio: Programmatic messaging and A2P 10DLC
- Google: prohibited and restricted content for reviews