Calling Rules

What every call and text is checked against before it reaches somebody, and what RubyDoo Phone does about each rule for you. For reading, not changing.

Everything that has to be true before a call or text reaches somebody. Every rule says which it binds: text, call, or text · call for the ones that apply either way. Most outreach here is texting, and the rules a text skips are marked as plainly as the ones it does not.

Every call and text says what kind of contact it is
What each kind changes ↓

Recorded with where it came from, and kept — never checked. Cool chips are not selling; warm chips are selling. Selling means it asks them to buy, rent or invest: what they already owe you is not selling, and something offered free to lead to a sale is.

Staff works for you
Business a vendor or partner, not selling
Recruiting inviting them to join you
Reply answering them
Customer service informing a customer, not selling
Lead follow-up selling after an inquiry
Customer sale selling to a customer
Written consent selling, agreed in writing
Automatic You or your assistant The person you are reaching A check — the path splits

Drag anywhere on the map to move around.

1 Somebody asks
A call or text is asked for
By your assistant, by you from a line’s Activity page, or by the app answering somebody — and it says what kind of contact it is
2 Refused before it is queued
Refused on the spot
Any kind
On your do-not-call list text · call
Any kind
They replied STOP, or asked plainly to stop. A texted STOP goes on the do-not-call list, so it stops calls as well as texts. text · call
RecruitingLead follow-upCustomer sale
An AI voice may not place these. Selling by artificial voice needs written consent; a contact that sells nothing needs their own prior express consent, because the rule is about the voice. call
Allowed?
Refused in the reply
Whoever asked gets the reason and what would change it, there and then
3 Is it selling?
Is it selling? Does it ask them to buy, rent or invest?
Not selling
StaffBusinessRecruitingCustomer service
No registry, no state lists, no consent laws, no litigator check and no sales cap. Straight to the hours. text · call
Reply
The same, with one exception: Maryland counts a reply toward its 3-per-24-hour cap, because its law defines a solicitation without asking who got in touch first. Everywhere else a reply is outside the cap. text · call
4 Business or consumer
Is it a business?
Written consent
Kept wherever you keep it, and it varies by source. Your assistant passes a reference — where it is and which record — and nothing here checks it.
Exempts the National Do Not Call Registry — which is why the consumer path comes through here text · call
Satisfies the states that want consent before the first word. They want it whether or not the number is a business, so this still applies on the business path. text · call
Written consent
The only basis on which an AI voice may place a sales call — checked back at step 2, before anything is queued call
held outside this app
5 The do-not-call checks
National Do Not Call Registry
Consumers only — a business line is outside it
Lead follow-upCustomer saleWritten consent
Scrubbed against data no more than 31 days old text · call
Exempt: an inquiry within 3 months, a purchase within 18, or written consent text · call
State do-not-call lists
B2B clears the federal registry, not every state
Lead follow-upCustomer saleWritten consent
Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Missouri, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas keep their own list — each with its own windows, and some do not count an inquiry at all text · call
Any kind
Wyoming keeps no list of its own. It points at the Telephone Preference Service instead — a private suppression list run by the advertising industry, not a government register — which is another paid subscription to hold. text · call
Any kind
A business line is outside the federal registry, not outside state law. It is reached in 28 of the 51 US jurisdictions — 2 outright (Illinois, Nevada) and 26 on conditions. The commonest condition is the one no list can answer: exempt only until that business itself says stop. Honouring an opt-out covers more of this than any subscription does. text · call
How we contact them decides it
7 of the 26 states with conditions
Any kind
A recorded or auto-dialled call reaches a business line in these states, where a live call does not: District of Columbia, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Washington. text · call
Any kind
Business calls are exempt except for one kind of sale — the retail sale of nondurable office or cleaning supplies: New York. text · call
We already have the answer
6 of the 26 states with conditions
Any kind
Exempt until that business itself says stop. No list answers this; honouring an opt-out does, and we already do: Florida, Texas, Wisconsin. text · call
Any kind
Turns on our own trading history — years under the same name, the share of repeat business, or whether the buyer resells: Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania. text · call
No subscription answers these
13 of the 26 states with conditions
Any kind
The do-not-call list is residential, but the hours, identification and caller-ID duties are not: Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Maryland, Mississippi, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont. text · call
Any kind
Turns on a fact about the number we cannot reliably establish — registry listing, wireless or wireline, held out as a business, or the area code: California, Colorado, Kansas, Virginia. text · call
States that want consent first
Lead follow-upCustomer saleWritten consent
California, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Washington want consent before the first word. California bars sales texts outright. text · call
What satisfies it is written consent, the same store at step 4. These states want it whether or not the number is a business, so a business line needs it here too. text · call
Litigator check
Lead follow-upCustomer saleWritten consent
$0.04 a check, billed to your account. Not law — a serial plaintiff is a commercial risk whether or not the number is a business. text · call
Any kind
A match stops marketing to that number and nothing else. It never decides whether somebody gets a policy, a rate, credit or a job. text · call
State sales cap
Lead follow-upCustomer saleWritten consent
At most 3 to one person in 24 hours in Florida, Maryland, Oklahoma and Oregon — calls and texts together, on every line text · call
Reply
Counts toward that 3 in Maryland only, where the cap does not turn on who got in touch first text · call
6 Calling hours, where they are
Calling hours, by kind
From their ZIP when given and their area code always. Federal and state hours, and Sundays everywhere. Public holidays only where a state sets its own rule — six do.
text
Staff
Skipped, any time text
ReplyCustomer serviceLead follow-up
Skipped for an hour after their message, the update or the inquiry text
BusinessRecruitingCustomer saleWritten consent
The law’s hours where they are text
call
Staff
Skipped, any time call
Reply
Skipped for an hour after they got in touch call
BusinessRecruitingCustomer serviceLead follow-upCustomer saleWritten consent
The law’s hours where they are call
Some states close an automated voice earlier than a person — South Carolina at 7pm call
Allowed at the time asked?
7 Now, later, or queued
Sent or dialled now
Asked for now, and allowed now
Scheduled
A later time that is allowed. A repeat is each time in turn.
Queued for the next open time
Moved, never dropped. The queue shows when it will really go.
8 Checked again, the moment it goes
The last gate, whatever the path
Everything here runs again the moment it goes — including something asked for and sent in the same breath.
Any kind
Your do-not-call list · a text opt-out text · call
Any kind
The line’s daily cap. Texts are never counted against it, and never stopped by it call
ReplyCustomer serviceLead follow-up
Its hour may have run out: the hours again text · call
RecruitingLead follow-upCustomer sale
Still no AI voice call call
Lead follow-upCustomer saleWritten consent
Still inside the 3-per-24-hour state cap text · call
Reply
Still inside it as well, in Maryland only text · call
Any kind
And that the line can still place it at all — the one check that happens here and nowhere earlier call
Still clear?
Held back
Any kind
Moved to the next open time — outside calling hours, or over a state’s cap. Nothing is sent to anyone; the queue row carries the reason. text · call
Any kind
Not sent at all — on your do-not-call list, they opted out, or no open hours. You get an email that says whether it was a call or a text, and a repeating one stops rather than coming back next week. text · call
Any kind
Over the line’s daily cap — also not sent, and also an email, but a repeat still comes back tomorrow. One busy day does not end the series. call
Any kind
Either way the assistant that asked is long gone, so it is not told. It finds out by calling list_scheduled, which returns the status and the reason. text · call
9 It goes out
They get the call or text
Any kind
From your line’s own number, so a reply comes back to the same place text
Any kind
It opens by naming your business and saying it is an AI assistant on a recorded line, before anything else call
Written consent
A sales call then offers an automated way to opt out, within two seconds of the opening. Saying so takes them off your list there and then — it has to be something they can act on, not just a sentence about it. call
10 If they say stop
They say stop
STOP, QUIT, END, REVOKE, OPT OUT, CANCEL or the same thing said plainly by text — or said aloud, in their own words, on a call
They are not contacted again
Any kind
They go on your do-not-call list at once. Texts stop with one confirmation, and nothing queued to them is sent — calls included, whichever way they told you. text · call

Written consent is the one that does three jobs

It exempts the registry, it satisfies the states that want consent first, and it is the only basis on which an AI voice may place a sales call. It lives outside this app; your assistant passes a reference to it.

A business line skips one thing, not everything

The registry protects consumers, so a business line is outside it. The state lists, the consent laws, the hours and the litigator check all still apply — and a business cell is still a cell, so written consent is still needed before an AI may sales-call it.

Checked twice

When it is scheduled, and again the moment it goes. A number added to your do-not-call list an hour ago stops a call that was queued yesterday.

Stop means stop

An opt-out takes effect the moment it arrives, not within the ten business days the rules allow, and nothing already queued to that number is sent.

What each kind of contact changes

Every call and text says which of these it is, and where that is recorded. Nothing checks the claim; it is kept so it can be looked up. Whatever the kind, these always apply: your do-not-call list, text opt-outs, the opening that says who is calling, the ability to opt out by saying so on a call, and the line's daily cap.

Kind of contact Hours call only Both
text call An AI voice may place it Opt-out line after the opening State sales cap
FL, MD, OK, OR
 National registry
Staff Staff staff
The person works for this business: a technician check-in, a text forwarded to the owner. Not outreach to a consumer.
 Skipped, any time Skipped, any time Yes No — Not a sales contact, so it does not apply
Business Business contact business
A vendor, supplier, subcontractor or partner, about your business with them — not selling to them.
 Always apply Always apply Yes No — Not a sales contact, so it does not apply
Recruiting Recruiting recruiting
Inviting somebody to join or work with you, selling them nothing. If joining costs them money it is a sale, not this.
 Always apply Always apply No — an artificial voice needs their own consent No — Not a sales contact, so it does not apply
Reply Replying to them reply
They texted or called this line, and this answers them — including a call back they asked for.
 Skipped for an hour after they got in touch Skipped for an hour after they got in touch Yes No Maryland only — 3 in 24 hours Not a sales contact, so it does not apply
Customer service Customer service customer_service
Information for a customer, not selling: an appointment, a job update, a confirmation of something they just signed up for.
 Skipped for an hour after the event Always apply Yes No — Not a sales contact, so it does not apply
Lead follow-up Following up a lead lead_followup
Selling to somebody who asked about it — a quote form, a lead inquiry. The time is when they asked. Texts only: an AI call needs written consent.
 Skipped for an hour after the inquiry Always apply No — needs written consent — Counts: 3 in 24 hours Exempt for 3 months after the inquiry
Customer sale Selling to a customer customer_sales
Selling to somebody who buys, or has bought, from this business. The time is their last purchase, payment or delivery — a policy or subscription still being paid counts from its latest payment. Texts only: an AI call needs written consent.
 Always apply Always apply No — needs written consent — Counts: 3 in 24 hours Exempt for 18 months after the last purchase, payment or delivery
Written consent Written consent on file written_consent
Selling to somebody who agreed in writing to be contacted by this business — including a lead form with consent wording. The time is when they agreed.
 Always apply Always apply Yes Yes Counts: 3 in 24 hours Exempt while the written consent stands