Capturing and managing SMS consent is an important part of sending SMS messages. With Intercom’s SMS Subscription management tools, it’s easy for you to manage consent and opt-ins, target messages to consented users and enable your customers to update their own SMS consent status.

To manage your Subscriptions for SMS, go to Settings > Outbound > Subscriptions.

To add new Subscriptions specifically for SMS, go to Settings > Proactive Support > Subscriptions and click New Subscription.

Then select SMS as the "Message Type".

Now you can give your Subscription a name and description which tells customers what they've opted in to and what kinds of messages they can expect. For example, you could create a "Marketing" Subscription for latest news and sales.

Choose a "Consent Type" for your Subscription based on the type of messages customers will receive. It's best practice to choose "Opt-In" and allow customers to opt themselves in to any Subscriptions.

However, you can automatically opt customers in to this Subscription if you already have their consent and need to send them operational or critical updates. By choosing "Opt-Out" customers will need to take action to stop receiving these messages.

Then click Save and close to add this as a new Subscription.

You'll need to select Put Live to start sending outbound SMS with this Subscription and for customers to be able to opt-in/out from the SMS Preference Center.

These Subscriptions will be shown to customers in the SMS Preference Center when they click on the appended “Opt-Out Text” of your outbound SMS message.

Preview how the SMS Preference Center will look to your customers using the preview function and selecting SMS.

To edit the name or description and make it more relevant to the types of SMS messages you send, or archive a Subscription you no longer use, simply hover over it and click the edit or archive button:

Now that you have your SMS Subscriptions set up, you can use them to target your SMS messages to customers who are opted-in.

When creating a new outbound SMS message, select the “Subscription” the message should be sent to:

This will add a targeting rule to limit the audience to users who are opted in to that Subscription.

While messaging customers via the Inbox or via bots in the Messenger, you can insert the Subscription Type Opt-In Form app to quickly collect messaging consent.

When creating a new outbound message, simply insert the app into the content composer. For example, we can add the app to a chat:

Now select the Subscription Type you’d like them to opt into. You’ll be shown a list of all your active Subscriptions. If an SMS subscription type is selected, the customer will be asked to provide a phone number.

The form title should explain what you’re asking the customer to do and can be customized to suit your specific use case. For example, “Sign up to our SMS deals to get 10% off”.

Personalize the opt-in form experience with a custom call-to-action button. If this field is left empty, the app will default to “Sign Up Now”.

You can also provide any legal information or other text along with the opt-in form. This is ideal for SMS marketing opt-ins where it’s best practice to provide links to a privacy policy or explain the frequency at which a customer will receive SMS.

Once the fields are completed, click “Insert Form” and the app will be ready to be delivered as part of the message.

As well as inserting the Subscription Type Opt-in Form into outbound messages, it can also be inserted from the Inbox as part of a conversation.

There are 3 easy ways to update your customers’ SMS Subscription opt-in or out status.

Every user profile has a “Subscription preferences” panel where you’ll find that customer’s opt-in/out status for SMS. This can be manually toggled to opt them in or out:

From Contacts, simply select the customers you’d like to update and then click on the “More” option before selecting either “Subscribe users” or “Unsubscribe users”:

Then select the Subscription you want to opt them in or out of:

Find out how to opt customers in and out from Subscriptions via the API in the REST API documentation.

Go to Contacts and use the “Subscription opt-ins” filters to view customers who are opted in or out from specific Subscriptions: