Texas SB-140 Is Here. You are probably NOT Compliant. What to do.
Texas SB-140 officially is in effect as of today, Sep 1, 2025. If you text, the law probably impacts you. And you are probably not compliant.
Even if you’ve done everything right (obtained your bond, submitted your registration and reviewed your texting practices), at the time of writing, unless you’re very lucky, the Texas Secretary of State has probably not officially approved your registration. The office is flooded with registrations. And approval might take weeks. If you haven’t submitted yet, you should, so see our guide which offers ways to take away as much of the pain as possible.
Be Aware - This new Texas law gives Texas residents the right to sue any brand that’s not approved.
This leaves you with three options until you get your approval:
- Pause texting altogether
- Text while out of compliance
- Exclude presumed Texas residents
Option 1 is the safest and also the most drastic. Many brands report that OneText is their top revenue channel. We’d hate to see you lose entirely because of one oppressive state law.
Option 2 comes with risk. You’re exposed until approved, so make sure your registration and bond are submitted ASAP.
That leaves Option 3. A middle path we created to help brands minimize risk.
We’ll say at the start – #3 is not fool proof. Texas resident detection relies on Area Code, IP Address, and/or shipping address detection. But, everyone will have undetectable Texans on their list. And if a professional litigator chooses to target you, they can still obfuscate their location during opt in and evade detection/ suppression.
While not 100% reliable, it is something. We can help brands reduce the number of Texans you text and we’ve made this easy.
Here’s how our layered approach to risk minimization works:
Exclude Texas Residents
Our dashboard now offers you a one-click option to disable texts to presumed Texans. When enabled, we’ll suppress everything excluding compliance messages.
Universal Quiet Hours
We’re seeing that customers on other SMS platforms are facing increased litigation for Quiet Hour violations. By default, OneText applies “Smart Quiet Hours” to classify subscribers by state and timezone, and apply sending policies based on automation type.
But if you want something more conservative, you may choose to enforce “Universal Quiet Hours” limiting all sends to 12pm to 8pm eastern – the window when the entire continental US is approved to receive messaging.
Timezone Assignment Notification
As an extra layer of protection, you can choose to notify subscribers at the time of opt in, advising what timezone you’ve assigned and allowing them to specify a different timezone. That way if the assignment is wrong, you can argue that you gave shoppers fair warning and a chance to correct. OneText live agents will handle timezone change requests at any time.
Tell Texas to STOP
Sign our petition and tell the governor and legislature to end the mess in Texas.. There’s precedent for states to back away from bad compliance legislation. We’re hoping this happens.
Until then, while none of the options are ideal, we hope this article and our guide give you the tools you need to make informed decisions and keep your program running.
As always, happy texting,
Jonathan
Founder and CEO
Disclaimer: We are not attorneys and cannot provide legal advice. We are sharing our understanding of the new law and industry best practices, but for any legal questions or concerns, we recommend consulting with your legal counsel..
