Managing Apteco SMS opt-outs

When setting up your Apteco SMS channel, you can send messages in two ways:

  • Using a specified phone number: Messages appear to originate from this number

  • Using an alphanumeric sender ID (e.g., your company name): Messages display this as the sender

See Setting up your SMS channel.

The process for managing your opt-outs differs between the two.

Standard long number opt-outs

When sending an SMS via long numbers (two-directional), you can process recipient responses through either FERG or the AptecoResponsesAPI webhook. See Setting up Apteco SMS webhooks for responses.

Long numbers allow for direct response handling, making opt-out management straightforward.

Setting opt-out keywords

Configure your opt-out keywords in the appsettings.json file within the OrbitResponsesAPI directory:

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"OptOutKeywords": "OPTOUT,STOP,UNSUBSCRIBE”

When recipients reply with any of these keywords, the system records an entry in the Responses table with a MessageType of 'OptOut', preventing further SMS messages to those numbers.

Alphanumeric sender opt-outs

Alphanumeric senders (e.g., "Apteco") present a challenge as they are one-directional and cannot receive replies.

Note: This solution requires Apteco software version Q2 2025.

Implementation steps:

To implement opt-outs:

  1. Add a dedicated long number to your Sinch account.

  2. Configure your channel with:

    • Sender: Your alphanumeric name (e.g., "Apteco")

    • Reply Sender: Your dedicated opt-out long number

Customer communication

Inform recipients that to opt out, they must text keywords like "STOP" to your designated opt-out number (specified in the Reply Sender parameter).

Technical details

When running a campaign with this configuration, the Broadcasts table records the parameters:

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TargetSMS=true;MobileNumberField=Mobile;Sender=Apteco;UrnFieldName=Urn;Reply Sender=<tel number>;

If recipients send opt-out keywords to this Reply Sender number, the SMS webhook records this in the Responses table with:

  • Phone Number in the Email field

  • MessageType of "OptOut"

Note: These entries won't have Communication Key or BroadcastId, as they can't be linked to specific originating messages.

Suppression mechanism

While Orbit won't exclude opted-out numbers during campaign setup through the gross and nett counts, the broadcast process suppresses delivery to any phone numbers that:

  • Appear in the Email field of the Response table

  • Have a MessageType of "OptOut"

Identifying opt-outs for alphanumeric senders

The system identifies opt-outs through:

  • Response table entries with MessageType 'OptOut'

  • Related ResponseDetails entry with a 'TO' field matching your Reply Sender number

You can query this using:

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SELECT R.Email
FROM ResponseDetails RD
INNER JOIN Response R ON RD.Id = R.Id
WHERE RD.[Name] = 'To'
AND RD.[Value] = '447418628101'
AND R.MessageType = 'OptOut'

Replace 447418628101 with your specific opt-out number.