The details

Limits and fine print, in one place. Short version first; open a rule for the full version.

Limits that matter before you buy

The caller chooses: Only callers who press 1 get a text. Others get no text; you get a Missed call alert with their number.
Cell phones only: Texts can't reach a landline. A landline caller who presses 1 gives you the same "Pressed 1 for a text" alert, and nothing tells you the text didn't arrive: call them if they don't text back.
Call forwarding: Your line must forward unanswered and busy calls. Most carriers can; Google Voice can't. Calls while your phone is off or has no signal only reach Island Reply if your carrier also forwards "unreachable" calls.
Voicemail: Voicemails can't be read or played back yet. With forwarding on, unanswered calls go to Island Reply instead of your own voicemail box. You get the caller's number and call back. A hidden number means no number to call.
Texting hours: No customer texts 8 pm to 8 am. Numbers from outside Hawaiʻi: 8 am to 2 pm Hawaiʻi time (3 pm in winter). A new caller's emergency at night isn't marked URGENT; you still get an alert with their number.
You do the talking: It doesn't talk with callers, quote prices, give arrival times or book jobs. You do.
Your software: It doesn't connect to Jobber, Housecall Pro or ServiceTitan. It works next to them on the same phone number.
One alert phone: Alerts go to one phone per shop, the owner's cell. Not yet more than one. On the "More than one location" plan, each location has its own alert phone.
No app: No app, no login, no dashboard, no email. Everything is a text to your cell.
Time to go live: About 4 to 8 weeks from signing to live texts, because the carriers must approve business texting.
Your website: An SMS terms page and a privacy policy in your shop's name, on https, live before we file your carrier registration and kept up while you use Island Reply. No website yet? A simple one-page site is enough. What your pages must contain
Who the texts come from: Your shop's own Island Reply number, not your business line. Every text starts with your business name.
BOOKED or LOST: Text BOOKED or LOST for every lead. A repeat caller with an open request who presses 1 and hangs up gets no new text, and you get no new alert. A voicemail or a hang-up without pressing 1 still alerts you.
It's new: Nobody is using it yet, so there are no results or reviews to show.

Rules every customer text follows

Built around permission

You choose: press 1 for a textReminders only after YES (up to 3)STOP ends texts right awayNo customer texts 8 pm to 8 am*Fixed texts you OKEmergency words marked URGENTVoicemail recordings deleted within about a day

*Replies to STOP, HELP and START go out any time. Numbers outside Hawaiʻi: 8 am to 2 pm Hawaiʻi time (3 pm in winter). Alerts to your own phone come any hour.

Permission first

A caller only gets a text after being told what the texts are about and pressing 1. Reminders need a separate, exact YES, which they can only send after texting the shop themselves; the question says "Consent not required to buy." Hidden numbers and people who opted out aren't offered texts. Each permission is recorded: the number, date and time, how it was given, and for press 1 the exact greeting that was playing.

Read the terms

STOP works at once

STOP, CANCEL, END, QUIT, UNSUBSCRIBE and the other standard words work, and so do plain words like "please stop texting me", "wrong number" or "take me off". Everything for that customer stops right away, including anything waiting to go out. One confirmation, then nothing. It's per shop. If they used their own words, you see them, so a misunderstood "stop" never silently loses a job.

Quiet hours

No customer texts between 8 pm and 8 am Hawaiʻi time. Numbers from outside Hawaiʻi only get texts while it's also daytime on the mainland: 8 am to 2 pm Hawaiʻi time (3 pm in winter). Anything due at night waits for the morning. Exceptions: the replies to HELP, STOP and START go out at any hour, and alerts to your own phone come at any hour.

Fixed texts, not AI-written

Customers only get fixed texts you OK. AI never writes a message to customers. The only words that change are your shop's name and a short job name like "AC repair" in the reminders (picked by the AI when it's on, otherwise by fixed rules). Otherwise the AI only reads and sorts incoming texts and writes the one-line summary for you. Nothing promises a price or an arrival time.

Emergencies flagged

Fixed word rules mark a text URGENT, even when the AI is off: gas smell or leak, "rotten egg", carbon monoxide or a CO alarm, smoke, burning, sparks, flooding, sewage or septic backup, a burst pipe, electrocution, no AC with kūpuna, a baby or someone sick or medically fragile at home, and no hot water with a medical need. A quote for a gas water heater, or a smoke detector that just chirps or needs a battery, doesn't count on its own. Texts only: voicemails can't be checked. At night (8 pm to 8 am) a new caller's first text waits until 8 am, so they have no number to text and their emergency can't be marked URGENT; you get a plain alert with their number instead. A customer who texts an emergency at night gets no text back. Only you are alerted.

Voicemail recordings

Deleted within about a day. They can't be read or played back yet.

No double texts

One first text per request. While a request is open, calling again doesn't send another. One first alert to you per request, URGENT at most once per 30 minutes per request, and each morning line is sent once.

If the AI is down

The fixed rules still catch STOP and emergency words, every message still goes through, and you get the customer's own words. Customers get the same fixed texts (the job name in reminders may fall back to "service request").

Mobile numbers

Never sold or shared for marketing. There are no text blasts: the only texts are replies to people who called or texted the shop, about their own request. Consent stays with the one shop the customer called or texted.

Details in the Privacy Policy

Small print

Callers with a hidden number, and numbers that opted out, never hear the press-1 offer. They can leave a voicemail but never get a text.
A hidden caller ID shows "anonymous-" plus 6 characters instead of a number, so there's nobody to call back.
"Thanks", "ok", "mahalo", "shoots" and similar get no reply.
Photos aren't forwarded. You see "(+photo)".
Requests never expire on their own. They close on BOOKED, LOST, an opt-out, or after the 3rd reminder.
"Our on-call tech" in the emergency text means whoever holds your shop's one alert phone. There is no on-call routing.
Later texts from the same customer are passed on to your cell, at most 5 per lead per hour.
On a live number, the phone company's own reply to STOP, HELP or START may answer instead of your shop's text. That's why those examples say "Wording may differ".
Don't text STOP to your Island Reply number from your alert phone: it would block your own alerts.
A BOOKED or LOST sent at night doesn't stop a first text, thank-you or YES question that is already waiting for 8 am.