Compliance
The default consent policy each channel ships with, plus the inbound keywords and opt-in behavior you can tune per channel.
Every campaign sends under a consent policy — the rule that decides who it reaches and what happens when someone opts out. Out of the box no channel forces one: each campaign picks its own when it's created. If you'd rather not decide it campaign by campaign, you can set a default compliance policy per channel, and new campaigns will start from it.
This page covers those channel defaults and the related inbound settings — opt-out keywords, automatic opt-in and the like. The consent model itself (preferences, suppression, how opt-outs are recorded) is explained in Consent & subscriptions.
Default compliance policy per channel
Out of the box no channel has a policy configured — the field is empty. That does not leave a campaign without one: an unset channel resolves to Basic, so a new SMS or RCS campaign starts on Basic until you say otherwise. You can set a default consent policy per channel from the project's channel defaults, and new campaigns on that channel then start from it (and can still override it). RCS shares SMS's consent, so it follows the SMS setting.
What each policy does
The same three policies are available on every campaign's Consent policy selector:
- Basic — everyone except suppressed contacts (a repeated opt-out, or a manual block by your team).
- Opt-out — everyone receives unless they've explicitly opted out (STOP, unsubscribe).
- Opt-in — only contacts who explicitly opted in receive marketing messages.
All three always skip suppressed contacts. The full breakdown of who receives a message under each policy is in Compliance policies.
Changing the default
You can set or change a channel's Default compliance policy from the project's channel defaults (Default Settings). Each campaign can still override it with its own Consent policy selector; a campaign that doesn't set one inherits the default.
Opt-in and opt-out keywords
Your contacts can manage their own consent by replying with a keyword: STOP to opt out, START to opt back in. Both lists ship filled in and active on every channel, so there is nothing to set up for them to work.
The shipped keywords are multilingual, not English only. Alongside the English words (STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL to opt out; START, SUBSCRIBE to opt back in), they cover Spanish (BAJA, CANCELAR, PARAR to opt out; ALTA, SUSCRIBIR to opt back in), Catalan, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Russian and Chinese. A Spanish-speaking contact who replies BAJA is opted out straight away, with nothing configured on your side.
You only need to set your own keywords if you want a word the shipped list doesn't carry, such as a brand term or a language it doesn't reach. They're set per channel, in the channel's settings.
Automatic opt-in from inbound messages
Off by default. When enabled for a channel, any inbound message from a contact — not just a keyword — marks them as opted in. Leave it off if you only want explicit opt-ins.
Opt-out confirmation reply
When someone opts out, Instasent replies with a short confirmation, with a version per language. This is on by default, so a project that has configured nothing is already sending it. The confirmation goes out as a message and is billed like any other; you can turn it off per channel if you'd rather not send it.
Per-channel or global scope
By default, an opt-out applies only to the channel it happened on (per-channel). You can switch a channel to global, so an opt-out propagates to every marketing channel. RCS always follows SMS regardless of this setting — they share the same consent.
The complete model is in Consent & subscriptions.