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When building an SMS app, there are some "reserved" keywords, such as HELP and STOP that are commonly expected to perform a certain function.

MMA (Mobile Marketing Association) has published the following best practices: http://mmaglobal.com/bestpractices.pdf

After reading the document, I made a list of the following reserved keywords that should be handled:

  • STOP (means opt-out)
  • HELP (means send help info)
  • OPT OUT or OPTOUT or OPT-OUT (means opt-out)
  • END (means opt-out)
  • MORE (means opt-in)
  • CONTINUE (means opt-in)
  • ADD (means opt-in)

I have also seen services treating curse words as an opt-out request.

What other keywords should be reserved and handled globally? What is the expected behavior?

Sologoub
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1 Answers1

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We see a number of developers also implementing Cancel, Unsubscribe, Unsub, and Quit as synonyms for opting out. We also encourage developers to respond to the vowel-less versions of keywords. For example, STP for "stop" and "HLP" for "help". We also suggest that you implement "{keyword} ALL" since some shared shortcodes use that syntax and your users may be expecting it to work.

It's just good UI design - anticipate what your users are going to attempt, and then respond to that. It's also a good idea to have some analytics on what people send to your SMS application -- especially if that input is rejected. You can analyze this for commonly-used commands that you're unable to respond to.

Adam Kalsey
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