Should you add 'Reply STOP' to texts sent from HighLevel?

What HighLevel adds on its own

HighLevel's Messaging Compliance feature can append two things to an outgoing text: a line identifying who it's from, and instructions for opting out. It adds them when the message doesn't already contain them.

The first outbound message to a contact includes this compliance information even when periodic insertion is switched off. With Enable Periodic Opt-Out on, HighLevel repeats it at the interval you choose, anywhere from one to sixty days.

This page is about texts. HighLevel's SMS articles don't settle what happens to email footers or to every route through the API, so check those separately.

Will the opt-out show up twice?

Not if your own line is complete. A full opt-out instruction already in the message stops HighLevel from inserting its own.

A passing use of the word stop doesn't count. "Stop by on Friday and we'll fit you in" isn't an opt-out instruction, so HighLevel still adds its line. The same goes for a half-written instruction: if yours isn't complete, HighLevel doesn't treat it as one and can add its own next to it.

Write the message. Let the compliance setting write the opt-out.

Why we leave it out of the copy

If HighLevel is going to add the opt-out line where it's needed, a hand-written one gives you nothing extra. It does give you something to check: every template, snippet and workflow message that carries its own version has to be complete, or the reader ends up with two lines.

One setting per sub-account is easier to keep right than every message body that might hold its own wording. It also keeps the message itself about the customer, while the opt-out still appears where HighLevel's settings put it.

Where the setting lives

The controls sit in each sub-account's phone settings. This describes how HighLevel's setting behaves, not what any law requires of you, and it isn't legal advice.

1. Go to Settings > Phone Numbers > Messaging > Messaging Compliance. Some HighLevel articles name the menu Phone System instead; HighLevel has renamed it before, so follow what your screen shows.
2. Review the opt-out and sender-information controls, and use Customize if you want to change the wording.
3. Decide on Enable Periodic Opt-Out, and if you turn it on, choose the interval.
4. Click Save.
5. Repeat in every sub-account. The periodic setting is controlled separately in each one, and new and existing sub-accounts can start from different defaults.

If a control won't switch off

Some accounts can't disable these controls yet. Trial status, a recently created account, or the user's permissions can each prevent it. Check those before you assume the setting is broken, and before you start writing opt-out lines into your copy to make up for it.