Messaging terms

These terms are part of the terms of service. They apply when your workspace has the messaging channels add-on and connects text messages (SMS), WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, Telegram or Discord. The messaging channels are coming soon: until they open, no workspace can connect them and nothing is charged.

Each channel also has its provider's own rules, which you must follow too: the mobile carriers and Twilio for text messages, Meta for WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram, and Telegram and Discord for their bots.

Every message from your workspace is sent by your business, in its name. You are responsible for what is sent, including the AI's answers, and for having the consent the law requires before you send it.

Your messages must say who they are from, and a commercial message must tell people how to stop receiving them.

• When someone writes to you first, you may reply. ATON Desk records their message as consent implied by an inquiry, which lasts six months, as Canada's anti-spam law allows.
• To text or message someone first, you need their consent on record: express consent, or consent implied by a purchase or contract within the time the law allows. Your admins record it in ATON Desk with how and when it was given.
• A message that would need consent ATON Desk does not hold is held back, and the console says why.
• Consent records are kept as they were written, and never edited, so you can show them if asked.

• Anyone who replies STOP, or a word like it such as UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, QUIT or ARRET, is opted out at once. They get one reply confirming it, and nothing more until they send START.
• Only the person can opt back in, by sending START. Your team cannot opt them back in for them.
• Anyone who replies HELP, INFO or AIDE gets your help text, which says who you are and how to reach you.
• Your team can also record an opt-out a person asks for in another way, and it takes effect at once.

• Do not send text messages about sex, hate, alcohol, firearms, tobacco or cannabis, or anything else the carriers forbid.
• Register your business and your use where a carrier or Twilio requires it, such as for text messages to the United States.
• On WhatsApp and Messenger, you may reply freely for 24 hours after the person's last message. After that, WhatsApp allows only templates Meta has approved, and Messenger only a person's reply where Meta allows it. ATON Desk enforces these windows.
• Do not use Telegram or Discord bots to message people who have not chosen to talk to you.

• Messages you start are held during quiet hours in the person's country, where the law or the carriers set them, and sent when they end.
• Text and WhatsApp messages go only to the countries your workspace chooses. It starts with Canada and the United States.
• Incoming messages are limited per channel and per person, so a flood of them cannot run up costs.

• The messaging channels add-on is $29 a workspace a month.
• Message fees are our price: the carrier's cost plus 20%, in Canadian dollars. That covers text messages, WhatsApp messages and phone numbers. Twilio and Meta charge us in US dollars, so we convert at the Bank of Canada's rate for the day.
• ATON Desk shows the rate for each country before you send. Where carriers in a country charge different rates, it shows the highest, so an estimate never comes in low.
• Your bill lists every fee. A monthly cap, which you set, holds messages back once it is reached, until you raise it.

On every channel, the AI's messages are labelled as AI, and people can ask for a person at any time. The AI use policy applies.

A provider may block a number or a bot that breaks its rules, and we may pause a channel that breaks these terms, to protect the people receiving messages and other workspaces. We tell you why, and what to do about it.

When these terms change, we publish a new version with its date, and earlier versions stay readable on this page. Questions: support@aton-network.org.