Compliance

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 (see Changing the default), and new campaigns on that channel then start from it (and can still override it). RCS has its own default policy, set like the SMS one in its channel's Compliance tab; left unset, it falls back to the project value, not to the SMS setting. What RCS shares with SMS is the contacts' consent (the same subscription and marketing preference), not this policy.

Flows use the same default: a new Send message step starts from the channel's default policy, or Basic if none is set, and each step can still change it. See Sending messages.

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).
• No 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

The Default compliance policy is set in two places, both in the project's Channels settings:

• Project values: the button at the top of the channel list opens the values shared by every channel. A policy set there applies to every channel that doesn't set its own.
• A channel's Compliance tab: open the channel (SMS, RCS or WhatsApp) and set the policy in its Compliance tab. It overrides the project value for that channel only, and Use project value goes back to the shared one.

Each campaign can still override it with its own Consent policy selector; a campaign that doesn't set one inherits the default.

If you import opt-out lists

If your project imports lists of contacts who don't want your promotions (see Importing consent), set No opt-out as the default policy. Imported opt-outs only apply to sends under the No opt-out or Opt-in policy; Basic ignores marketing preferences, so it still reaches those contacts.

The panel's upload page gives the same advice: choose No opt-out as the default policy in each channel's Compliance tab. Do it on every channel you send marketing on. RCS has its own policy, and so does WhatsApp, so setting it on SMS doesn't change them; setting it in Project values covers every channel that doesn't override it.

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.