# Stop and Unsubscribe

> How customers stop your marketing messages on WhatsApp: the Unsubscribed tag, the ready-made STOP and START automations and their exact words, tagging by hand, and WhatsApp's own opt-out.

Source: https://docs.theavoxai.com/contacts/unsubscribe

Anyone who gets your offers and news on WhatsApp should be able to say "stop" and be heard. In Avox,
that's one tag: **Unsubscribed**. Contacts with it are always left out of [broadcasts](https://docs.theavoxai.com/broadcasts),
and two ready-made automations add it when someone replies STOP and take it off when they reply START.

## The Unsubscribed tag

Every Switchboard has one **Unsubscribed** tag, in **Contacts > Tags & categories**. It's an ordinary
tag in most ways: it shows on contacts and in the [Inbox](https://docs.theavoxai.com/inbox), you can search and filter by it, and
you or an automation can add it to a contact or take it off.

Two things make it different:

- **Broadcasts always skip it.** A contact with the tag never gets a broadcast, whatever the list says.
  They're checked again right before their message goes, so someone who asks to stop while a broadcast
  is sending is still left out.
- **It's locked.** It shows a small **Locked** badge ("Avox keeps this tag. People who ask to stop get
  it, and broadcasts always skip them."). It can't be renamed, recoloured or deleted
  ([AVX-3888](https://docs.theavoxai.com/error-codes/avx-3888)), because Avox relies on it. You can still add it to or take it
  off any contact.

A tag named "Unsubscribed", in any capitals, added anywhere (by a person, an automation or the API) is
that same tag.

The built-in [chat signal](https://docs.theavoxai.com/chat-signals) **Unsubscribed** also marks these chats in the Inbox, so your
team sees at a glance who asked to stop. It appears within about a minute of the tag being added and
clears when the tag is taken off.

## The ready-made STOP and START automations

The [automation library](https://docs.theavoxai.com/automation/library) has two ready-made automations that look after the tag
for you. Add them from **AI Automation > Library** (search "stop" or "start"), like any
[premade automation](https://docs.theavoxai.com/automation#premade-automations).

### Stop and unsubscribe

Added as **Unsubscribe on STOP**. When someone's **whole message** is one of these words, it adds the
**Unsubscribed** tag and replies:

```text
stop    stop all    unsubscribe    cancel    opt out    optout    opt-out
no more    band karo    बंद    बंद करो
```

> You're unsubscribed. We won't send you offers or updates here any more. If you change your mind, just
> reply START.

### Start again after STOP

Added as **Resubscribe on START**. When someone's **whole message** is one of these words, it takes the
**Unsubscribed** tag off and replies:

```text
start    subscribe    resubscribe    unstop    opt in    optin    opt-in
```

> Welcome back! You'll get our offers and updates here again. Reply STOP any time to stop them.

### How the words are matched

- **The whole message, not part of it.** "STOP" unsubscribes someone; "please don't stop my order"
  doesn't. That's also why "cancel" is on the list: on its own it reads as a stop request, while "cancel
  my booking" is left for your team.
- **Capitals, spaces, punctuation and emoji don't matter.** "STOP!", " Stop. " and "stop 🙏" all count.
- You can change the words, or the reply, after adding the automation, like any other automation. It
  keeps matching the whole message.

### What they cost

Each one sends a single text reply, so it uses **1 automation credit** each time it runs. Adding or
removing the tag is free. See [Automation credits](https://docs.theavoxai.com/automation/credits).

The reply goes out straight away, inside the 24-hour window the customer's own message opened, so no
template is needed.

## Tagging by hand

People don't always say STOP. "Please don't send me these", a call, an email: when someone asks to stop
in any other way, add the **Unsubscribed** tag to them yourself, on their profile in
[Contacts](https://docs.theavoxai.com/contacts), in the Inbox chat header, or on several contacts at once from the Contacts page.

Take it off only when that person asks to hear from you again.

## What the tag changes

| Messages | With the Unsubscribed tag |
| --- | --- |
| [Broadcasts](https://docs.theavoxai.com/broadcasts) | **Always skipped**, shown in the check and the report as "Asked to stop messages (Unsubscribed tag)". |
| Replies from your team in the [Inbox](https://docs.theavoxai.com/inbox) | Still go out, so you can answer a question they ask. |
| [Automations](https://docs.theavoxai.com/automation) | Still run, including the START automation, so a question they send still gets its answer. |
| [Smart link](https://docs.theavoxai.com/chat-links) follow-ups and the [Avox API](https://docs.theavoxai.com/avox-api) | Still go out. They answer a chat the customer started, or come from your own system. |

Each broadcast's report also counts **Asked to stop within 7 days**: people who got the tag within 7 days
of that broadcast. Its **Recipients** list can be filtered to **Asked to stop** to see who they are. See
[the report](https://docs.theavoxai.com/broadcasts/report#after-the-broadcast).

## WhatsApp's own opt-out

WhatsApp has its own switch: anyone can stop marketing messages from businesses in WhatsApp itself.
When a broadcast reaches someone who has, WhatsApp refuses it, and the report shows it as **Stopped
marketing messages**.

Avox remembers that answer. For the next 180 days, later broadcasts skip that person and the check
shows them as "Stopped marketing messages from businesses in WhatsApp". They don't get the Unsubscribed
tag: the choice was made in WhatsApp, and they can change it there. These answers never count towards
a broadcast's [automatic pause](https://docs.theavoxai.com/broadcasts#automatic-pauses) for failures.

## Good habits

- **Add both automations before your first broadcast.** Then nobody has to ask twice.
- **Say how to stop.** A short "Reply STOP to stop these" at the end of a Marketing template makes it
  easy.
- **Treat every stop the same.** A STOP reply, a call or an email: they all mean the tag.
- **Watch "Asked to stop".** A broadcast with many stops is a sign to send less often, or to fewer people.

## Related

- [Broadcasts](https://docs.theavoxai.com/broadcasts): Send one approved Marketing template to many contacts

- [Chat signals](https://docs.theavoxai.com/chat-signals): Labels on Inbox chats that show what needs attention