Blog Playbooks · What You Missed: Oct 26 to Nov 1, 2026 · Part 2

QUIT is a legal opt-out in a text. So are six other words. Is your system listening?

New FCC rules on how people take back consent to texts and calls take effect November 25, 2026. If you text leads or members, make sure your system catches all seven opt-out words before Thanksgiving week.

David SteelCEO, Sneeze It

6 min read

A front desk bell at a small gym with seven different hand-written note cards fanned beside it, one card bright magenta, as a staff member reaches for all of them at once

A member texts your gym "STOP" and the texts stop. Good. Another member texts "quit." Another writes "cancel." Does your system hear those too? Under federal rules, it has to.

This post explains what changed. It is not legal advice. If you text customers at any volume, have your own lawyer read the rule.

What happened

The FCC adopted a Report and Order, FCC 26-67, on September 30, 2026. It was published in the Federal Register on October 26, 2026 (91 FR 67214), and it takes effect November 25, 2026. It changes how people can take back their consent to autodialed or prerecorded calls and to texts sent with an autodialer.

The core of it, in the rule text: callers may now pick an exclusive way for people to opt out. There are three allowed options. An automated voice or keypress opt-out on a call. A website or phone number set up for opt-outs. Or a reply text with "any one of the following standardized words: 'stop,' 'quit,' 'end,' 'revoke,' 'opt out,' 'cancel,' or 'unsubscribe.'"

The FCC adopted that standardized list of words back in 2024, according to the order. What is new is the exclusive option, and the fine print that comes with it.

One word in the message, seven words honored. The FCC said putting all seven words in every text would be too long. So a text can say just "Reply STOP to opt out." But the sender "still must honor revocation requests made using any of the standardized words."

No exclusive method, any reasonable request counts. If you do not pick an exclusive method, the rule says you "must process revocation requests made by any reasonable means." That can mean a reply like "please take me off your list."

Ten business days is the ceiling. Either way, opt-outs must be honored "within a reasonable time not to exceed ten business days."

Informational texts can be narrower. If someone opts out of an informational text, one with no advertising or telemarketing, you may treat it as covering only that category. Think payment reminders versus appointment reminders, as Kelley Drye describes it. An opt-out from a marketing text still covers all future marketing texts and calls from that sender.

Some of this is only proposed. In the same document, the FCC asks for comment on cutting the deadline to seven business days, requiring two-way texting, and requiring a one-step "revoke all" option. None of that is a rule yet.

7Standardized opt-out words a sender must honor in a reply text
10Business days, at most, to honor an opt-out
Nov 25Date the new rules take effect

Source: Federal Register, 91 FR 67214, Oct 26; FCC 26-67

What it means for your business

Many texting tools are set up to catch "STOP." Whether yours also catches "quit," "end," "revoke," "opt out," "cancel" and "unsubscribe" is something to test, not assume. Same for a person who writes "quit texting me" in a full sentence. If your tool misses one, a person who clearly asked to stop keeps getting texts.

The gap gets wider when people text by hand. A dental office front desk texts a patient from a shared inbox. A home services company has a sales rep texting leads from a separate app. The automated system may catch "stop." The person texting by hand may never learn that the patient asked to opt out.

The timing matters too. The rules take effect November 25, the day before Thanksgiving. For a gym, a spa or a salon, that is the start of the holiday promo season, when texting volume goes up.

Ten business days is the legal ceiling. When someone says stop, stop today.

If you pick an exclusive method

Pick a reply text, a keypress, or a website or phone number. Disclose it clearly in each call or text. Honor all seven standardized words even if the text names just one. You do not have to process opt-outs sent other ways.

If you do not

Process opt-out requests made by any reasonable means, including plain-language replies. Honor them within ten business days. Expect to show that a request was not made reasonably if you ignore one.

A salon reception desk with a row of seven small paper cards clipped to a string above it, each a different shape, one bright magenta, while the receptionist checks each card off on a clipboard
Seven words, one rule: every one of them means stop.

What to do this week

  1. Find your texting tool's opt-out keyword list

    Look in its settings or ask its support team. Check that stop, quit, end, revoke, opt out, cancel and unsubscribe are all on it.

  2. Test every word

    From a staff phone that has opted in, reply with each of the seven words, one at a time. Confirm each one stops the texts.

  3. Close the gap for texting by hand

    If anyone on your team texts customers from another app or a personal inbox, make sure an opt-out reaches them the same day. Keep one shared do-not-text list.

  4. Read what your messages say

    If you name one word, like "Reply STOP to opt out," make sure the system honors all seven anyway.

  5. Ask your lawyer the hard questions

    Whether to pick an exclusive method, how your informational and marketing texts are split, and whether your texts are covered at all. This post is not legal advice.

Running more than one location? Check each location's texting setup. They are often different tools.

This is part of What You Missed, our weekly read on the marketing news that matters to business owners. See the full week: /blog/what-you-missed-week-of-october-26-2026

Sources

  • Federal Register, "Enhancing the Ability of Consumers To Control the Robocalls," Federal Communications Commission, final rule, 91 FR 67214, October 26, 2026, effective November 25, 2026 (document metadata read from the Federal Register API). federalregister.gov
  • Federal Communications Commission, Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, FCC 26-67, CG Docket No. 02-278, adopted September 30, 2026, released October 1, 2026. docs.fcc.gov
  • Consumer Financial Services Law Monitor, "FCC Publishes Revised TCPA Revocation Rules," October 26, 2026. consumerfinancialserviceslawmonitor.com
  • Kelley Drye, Ad Law Access, "FCC Revises TCPA Consent Revocation Rules," Alysa Z. Hutnik and Jennifer Rodden Wainwright, October 13, 2026. kelleydrye.com
  • Latham & Watkins, "FCC Revamps Rules on Consent to Calls and Texts Under the TCPA," October 8, 2026. lw.com
  • Inside Global Tech, "Update: FCC Adopts Final Order and Further Notice on TCPA Consent Revocation," Yaron Dori and Rosie Moss, October 2, 2026. insideglobaltech.com

Keep reading

See your own locations in it.

Book a walkthrough with David Steel. Bring last month's lead count and one location you are worried about.

Book a walkthrough See the eight tools