TCPA Compliance for Cold SMS: What You Need to Know

What the TCPA covers

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act governs calls and text messages to US phone numbers, with stricter rules for mobile numbers and automated systems. Courts have treated SMS as 'calls' under the statute, which is why text campaigns fall squarely within it.

Consent is the core requirement

Marketing texts generally require prior express written consent from the recipient. 'Cold' SMS to people who never opted in is the highest-risk pattern under the statute. The safest programs send only to numbers with a documented consent trail.

Practical guardrails

• •Scrub against the National Do-Not-Call Registry and your internal opt-out list.
• •Honor STOP and opt-out requests immediately and permanently.
• •Respect calling-time windows and applicable state-level rules.
• •Keep records of consent for every number you contact.

Where suppression tooling helps

Compliance is partly an operations problem: you have to make sure a suppressed number never gets contacted again, fast. Trackyr supports sub-minute suppression so an opt-out propagates before your next send, and it surfaces line type so you aren't blasting landlines.

Build consent into the funnel

Rather than retrofitting compliance onto a purchased list, design your funnel to collect consent up front. Inbound opt-ins with a clear disclosure are far more defensible than appended numbers used cold.