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This page is for anyone sending campaigns: what happens when a customer says STOP, what it stops and what it does not, and how to send the confirmation they expect.

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What Watx does on its own

On WhatsApp, Instagram and the website chat, an incoming message that is exactly one of these words opts the contact out of marketing. Case and surrounding punctuation are ignored, so STOP! counts. A message that only contains one of the words is not an opt-out: “please stop sending me the wrong size” is a complaint, not a request to unsubscribe. A tap on a quick-reply button is read more loosely, because you wrote the label and the customer chose it. A button whose label starts with stop, unsubscribe, unsub, opt out, optout, no more, mute, band karo, बंद करो or रोको opts the contact out — so Stop promotions, Stop alerts and Stop updates all work. A label starting with resubscribe, subscribe, start, opt in or optin opts them back in.
Because the match is on the whole message, a customer who replies with just cancel, end or quit is opted out of marketing, and one who replies with just yes is opted back in. Keep that in mind when you write buttons and questions that invite one-word answers.
When it happens:
  • The contact is marked as opted out, and the first time they asked is kept — a repeat does not move the date. The contact’s Overview tab shows Opted out with when and how. See Contacts.
  • Watx sends no reply of its own. The message still reaches your automations, flows and AI agents like any other.

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What opting out stops

Opting out stops campaigns and broadcasts: an opted-out contact is skipped from every audience. See Broadcasts. It does not stop replies, order updates or receipts. A customer who opts out and then asks where their parcel is still gets an answer, from your team, an automation or an AI agent. The flag belongs to the person, not the channel. Somebody who says STOP in your website chat is not sent WhatsApp campaigns either.

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Confirm the opt-out with an automation

A customer who taps Stop promotions and hears nothing cannot tell whether it worked, and tends to try again. The Consent & opt-outs category of the template gallery has two ready-made automations for this:
1

Open the template

Automations → Templates, filter by Consent & opt-outs, and pick one.
2

Check the keywords

Add the exact labels of any opt-out buttons your own templates use. Leave the match on Is exactly the keyword.
3

Edit the reply and save

The reply goes out as an ordinary message. The customer has just written to you, so it is inside WhatsApp’s 24-hour window.
4

Switch it on

Turn Active on in the editor toolbar.
An active automation whose keywords match the message also stops an AI agent replying to that same message, so the customer gets your confirmation and not a second answer. See Why is my agent silent?.

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The two steps

Use the steps directly when consent is decided by something other than a keyword — a form answer, a button with your own wording, or a condition on an earlier step. Both are in the Contact category of the add menu, have no settings, need a contact, and work on every channel. The opt-out is recorded as made by an automation, so the contact’s record shows how it happened. See Steps.
Building your own keyword automation? Always use Is exactly the keyword. With Contains the keyword, stop fires on any sentence with the word in it and unsubscribes customers who were asking for help.