Is It Legal to Text Back a Missed Call? TCPA Guide

You missed a call from a homeowner with a burst pipe, and you want to text them back before they dial your competitor. Is that legal? In most cases, yes — a single reply about the call itself is very different from a marketing blast. But the line between the two is thin, and crossing it can be expensive, so it is worth understanding what the law actually requires before you automate anything.

Last updated 7 November 2026

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The short answer: a reply is not a marketing campaign — but the line is thin

A text back that says you missed their call, names your business, and offers a booking link is an informational message about a conversation the caller started. A text that advertises a discount, promotes a service, or enrols the caller in ongoing messages is marketing — and marketing is held to a much stricter standard. The problem is that one careless sentence can push a reply from the first category into the second. That is why the safest auto-replies are short, boring, and strictly about the missed call.

There is also no FCC guidance that says a missed-call auto-text is exempt from the rules, so design it conservatively and keep records of what you sent and when.

Marketing vs informational: the two consent standards, in plain English

Under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), marketing texts need prior express written consent — a clear, documented agreement to receive marketing messages. Informational texts need prior express consent, which can be given simply by a person sharing their number with you for a purpose, such as calling your business. A missed call is a strong signal that the caller wanted to talk to you, which is why an informational reply is generally treated as consented to.

Keep the two uses separate: the auto-reply answers the call, and nothing else.

What the first text is allowed to say (and what it must never say)

A safe first text has four ingredients: your business name, a short apology for the miss, a booking link or a promise of a quick callback, and an opt-out instruction such as “Reply STOP to opt out.” That is all it needs. It should not contain a price, an arrival window, a warranty promise, or any sales language. Prices and arrival times are decisions a person should make, not lines an automatic message should commit you to.

It must also never enrol the caller in anything, and the conversation continues only if the customer replies.

STOP, HELP, and “any reasonable means”: the opt-out rule since April 2025

Every business text should explain how to stop it, and the FCC made the opt-out rule stricter with a rule that took effect on 11 April 2025: a customer can revoke consent by any reasonable means, and you must honour that revocation within 10 business days. That means “stop,” “quit,” “do not text me,” or even a reply in plain words all count — not just the word STOP in capital letters.

In practice, your text-back tool must watch for opt-outs in every reply, not just exact keywords, and you must never text that number again.

What happens if you get it wrong ($500–$1,500 per message)

TCPA damages are $500 per violation, rising to $1,500 per violation if the breach was wilful. Those are per-message figures, so a single badly worded campaign sent to hundreds of numbers can add up to a serious claim very quickly. Most small trade businesses will never face a lawsuit, but the risk is real enough that the rules deserve respect rather than a shrug.

The risk is concentrated in marketing behaviour: bulk promotional texts, messages to people who never contacted you, and texts sent after someone opted out. Stay in the informational lane and the exposure stays small.

The state rules that are stricter than the federal ones (FL, TX, WA, MD)

Federal law is only the floor. Several states add their own rules, and they can be stricter. Florida limits marketing calls and texts to 8am–8pm and caps contact attempts at three per 24 hours on the same subject. Texas law (SB140, in force from 1 September 2025) restricts marketing calls to 9am–9pm Monday to Saturday and noon–9pm on Sunday. Washington and Maryland have their own consent and calling-time rules too.

Federal quiet hours also apply: no telemarketing texts before 8am or after 9pm in the recipient’s local time. A sensible default for a trade shop is to send text-backs only inside those windows, and to queue any after-hours reply for the next morning.

A safe first-text template — and why a lawyer should still read it

Here is a template that follows the principles in this post: “Hi, this is [Business Name]. Sorry we missed your call — we’re on a job right now. You can book a visit here: [booking link], or reply and we’ll call you back within the hour. Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help.” It names the business, apologises, offers a booking link, promises a callback, and gives the opt-out. It sells nothing.

Even so, a template is not legal advice, and your situation may differ — a different state, a different customer list, a different message history. Before you go live, ask a telecom lawyer to read your exact first text and your registration setup. An hour of a lawyer’s time is far cheaper than a single TCPA claim. You can read more about the registration half of this question in our guide to what A2P 10DLC is, and the common questions on our homepage answer whether texting customers this way is legal in brief.