SMS and Viber marketing consent

Marketing consent records whether a phone number agreed to receive marketing SMS or Viber messages. Pushwoosh sends a marketing message only to numbers that can receive it. In opt-out mode, that’s everyone who hasn’t opted out. In opt-in mode, it’s only those who agreed. Transactional messages skip this check.

Pushwoosh keeps consent in two Boolean tags, one for each channel.

Tag	Channel	Values
SMS Marketing Consent	SMS	`true`: the phone number agreed to marketing SMS. `false`: the phone number opted out. No value: Pushwoosh doesn’t know whether the phone number agreed.
Viber Marketing Consent	Viber	`true`: the phone number agreed to marketing Viber messages. `false`: the phone number opted out. No value: Pushwoosh doesn’t know whether the phone number agreed.

Each subscriber has its own value in each application. A phone number registered for both SMS and Viber is two subscribers, so consent on one channel doesn’t change the other.

Pushwoosh adds the tag to your account the first time a value is saved: when a phone number first opts out, or when you first set it with setTags. After that, the tag appears on the Tags page. Use it in segment filters like any other Boolean tag, for example, to count subscribers who agreed to marketing.

Which messages are blocked

Each application works in one of two modes, set separately for SMS and Viber:

Opt-out mode (default): marketing messages go to every subscriber except those with the tag set to false.
Opt-in mode: marketing messages go only to subscribers with the tag set to true.

Tag value	Marketing message	Transactional message
`true`	Sent	Sent
`false`	Not sent	Sent
No value	Sent in opt-out mode Not sent in opt-in mode	Sent

A message is transactional when you choose Transactional message in the SMS element, in the one-time SMS form, or in the Viber element. In the API, set the message type to transactional: message_type in /createMessage for SMS, or MESSAGE_TYPE_TRANSACTIONAL in Messaging API v2 for SMS and Viber. Pushwoosh treats every other message as marketing, including SMS sent without a message type.

Pushwoosh checks consent before it applies the control group. A subscriber who can’t receive the message isn’t counted in the control group of that message.

Switch to opt-in mode

Set SMS Marketing Consent or Viber Marketing Consent to true for every subscriber who agreed to marketing messages. See Record consent.
Contact Pushwoosh Support. Name the application and the channels to switch.

You can’t change the mode in the Control Panel.

Ask your developers to set the tag with the setTags API method when a person agrees to or declines marketing messages, for example, on a signup form. The request needs the code of the application you send from and the subscriber’s hwid:

SMS: the phone number in E.164 format, for example, +15551234567.
Viber: the phone number in E.164 format with the viber: prefix, for example, viber:+15551234567.

The phone number must already be registered as an SMS or Viber subscriber in that application.

Pushwoosh never sets the tag to true by itself. A reply such as START doesn’t restore consent. Only your developers’ setTags request does.

Opt-outs Pushwoosh records automatically

Pushwoosh sets the tag to false when a person opts out in one of these ways:

Reply by SMS or Viber: the reply is exactly STOP, STOPALL, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, or QUIT. Upper or lower case and a final . or ! are accepted.
Opt-out at the mobile operator: the SMS provider rejects a message because the person unsubscribed with their mobile operator. Pushwoosh records Twilio error 21610 and SMSAPI.ro errors 57 and 59.
Unsubscribe in Viber: the person unsubscribes from your business account in Viber, and MStat reports it through the Viber subscription webhook.

A longer reply or a reply in another language, such as “please stop the delivery”, doesn’t change the tag. Pushwoosh gets replies from Twilio, MStat, and CapitoleMobile after their incoming webhook is set up.

After any of these opt-outs, Pushwoosh also unsubscribes the phone number from the channel:

The number gets no messages on that channel, including transactional ones.
If you register the number again, or the person sends your SMS number any reply other than an opt-out word, transactional messages resume.
Marketing messages stay blocked until you set the tag to true.

Blocked messages in statistics

A subscriber skipped for missing consent gets status code 1038 for SMS or 1039 for Viber. The delivery funnel counts these subscribers as unsubscribed and excludes them from the audience.