Text STOP To Unsubscribe on iPhone: How It Works

The industry-standard opt-out word for marketing texts. This page explains what it does, how to use it on an iPhone and which carriers it applies to.

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What is Text STOP To Unsubscribe?

STOP is the opt-out keyword defined in CTIA's Messaging Principles and Best Practices. Reply STOP to a marketing or shortcode message and the sender must stop messaging you and send one final confirmation that you have been opted out.

CTIA's guidance is broader than the single word. Senders are expected to honour plain-language opt-outs too — end, cancel, quit, unsubscribe, even a sentence asking to be removed — and capitalisation and punctuation are explicitly not allowed to invalidate the request. Separately, the FCC says you may opt out of any robocall or robotext at any time and in any reasonable manner, even if you previously agreed to receive them.

STOP is per-campaign, not global. Opting out of one brand's alerts does nothing to the rest, and CTIA treats an opt-in as applying only to the specific sender it was given to. It also does nothing about criminals — scammers ignore the rules entirely, and replying only confirms your number is live.

Important: Never reply STOP to a message you believe is a scam. Report it to 7726 and delete it instead — a reply tells the sender a real person reads that number.

How do I do it?

1. Confirm the message is from a business you actually recognise.
2. Reply to that thread with the single word STOP.
3. Wait for the confirmation message that CTIA guidance requires senders to send.
4. If messages continue, report the sender to the FTC at DoNotCall.gov.

Which carriers does this apply to?

Published for	Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, UScellular and any iPhone
Type	Works on all iPhones
Good to know	Works with legitimate US senders who follow CTIA guidance. It is not enforced by your carrier and has no effect on scam texts.

Related security and scam reporting

• Report Junk In Messages
• Text HELP For Program Details
• Report A Spam Text To 7726
• Verizon Number Lock
• Verizon SIM Protection
• T-Mobile Port Out Protection

See all security and scam reporting or every category of iPhone codes.

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