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Contacts is your store’s list of customers for outbound calls and WhatsApp messages, with consent and opt-outs built in. The rule that governs the whole page is printed at the top:
A contact can be called or messaged only once you record a lawful basis. Do-not-call numbers, opt-outs and out-of-hours calls are suppressed automatically.
When you have contacts, the same line ends with the total, for example ”· 36 contacts”. Contacts belong to your whole store, not to one agent, so this page has no agent selector.
The Contacts page

The Contacts page, with a consent badge for each contact.

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Two words used on this page

  • Lawful basis: the reason you are allowed to contact a person, for example “they ticked a box at checkout” or “they are an existing customer”. You record which basis you rely on for each contact. RuleInside does not check that the basis is true; you are responsible for it.
  • Consent: on a contact, consent means you have recorded a lawful basis for one channel. Phone calls and WhatsApp are recorded separately, and one never implies the other.

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How a contact becomes reachable

A newly imported contact cannot be called or messaged. It becomes reachable on a channel only once a lawful basis is recorded for that channel. Even then, every call and every message is checked at the moment it is sent:
  1. your store’s Calling consent confirmation;
  2. the person has not opted out;
  3. the number is not on your do-not-call list;
  4. consent is recorded for that channel;
  5. it is inside your calling hours (calls only);
  6. the person has not been contacted too often, and your account is within its daily limit.
If any check fails, the person is not contacted. See How calling rules protect your customers.

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Who can do what here

Opting someone out is open to every member on purpose: honouring a “stop contacting me” request should never wait for an owner. A member sees this where the import buttons would be: “Only account owners can import contacts or change consent - ask an owner of your team.” If a member tries an owner action anyway, it is refused with “Permission denied: this action requires an account owner (billing) permission.”

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The buttons at the top

  • Columns opens the Columns panel, where you choose what you see and owners manage the workspace’s custom fields. When columns are hidden, the button shows how many, for example “Columns -2”. See Showing, hiding and adding columns.
  • Import contacts imports a CSV. The people arrive as Calls: no consent. Owners only.
  • Import with consent imports a CSV and records a lawful basis to call for everyone in it. Owners only.
Both import buttons are greyed out until a store is linked to your workspace. Everything about importing is on Importing contacts.

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The list

The list shows 50 contacts per page, newest first. When there is more than one page, “Page 1 of 3” appears with Previous and Next (greyed out on the first and last page). The header row stays visible while you scroll. Contacts without a phone number can appear in the list. They come from your store’s orders and customers, from conversations, or from other sources. They cannot be called, granted consent or opted out from this page; owners can only edit them.

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Searching

The Search this page box appears when there are contacts. It searches only the contacts on the current page (up to 50), by name, phone, email and calling basis. To find someone on another page, move to that page with Previous or Next and search again.

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When the list is not shown

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Store accounts to review

Sometimes a shopper creates or updates an account on your store with an email address that matches an older contact who is not linked to any store account. RuleInside does not link them on its own: it shows the owner a suggestion above the list, titled for example 1 store account to review. Only owners see it, and only when there is something to decide. Each suggestion shows the contact (name, email and phone) and a line such as “Store account #123, seen” followed by the date the match was first seen. You have two buttons:
  • Link opens Link this contact to the store account?, which explains what linking does. Click Yes, link them to link, or Cancel. You see “Contact linked to the store account.”
  • Not the same person dismisses the suggestion without changing the contact. You see “Marked as not the same person.” A dismissed suggestion does not come back.
Link only if you are sure it is the same person. Once linked, a shopper logged in to that store account is treated as this contact: your agent greets them by this contact’s name, can tell them this contact’s order history, and sees this contact’s past call summaries, notes and preferences. Later changes to the account’s name and email also update this contact. If linking is refused, nothing is changed and you see why, for example “This store account is already linked to another contact. Nothing was changed.” or “This contact is already linked to a store account. Nothing was changed.” Each contact shows a Calls badge. A WhatsApp badge appears only when there is something to say about WhatsApp. The two channels are independent. Calls: callable does not allow WhatsApp messages, and WhatsApp: opt-in does not allow calls.

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The buttons on each contact

On a wide screen each contact shows up to three buttons. On a narrow screen, such as a phone, they collapse into one ”…” button that opens a menu with the same choices, with Opt out in red at the bottom. So a contact with no phone shows only Edit, and only to owners. Use Record consent to record, or replace, the lawful basis for one contact on calls or on WhatsApp. Owners only. The dialog shows the contact’s name and number, with “record the lawful basis on which your agents may contact this person on the channel you choose. You are responsible for having that basis.” Buttons: Cancel closes without saving. Record consent saves (it shows “Saving…” while it runs). It stays greyed out until you choose a basis and tick any required statement. When you save, the basis and today’s date are recorded for that channel, replacing any earlier basis on that channel, and a record of who did it is kept. You see one of these:
  • “Consent recorded - this contact can now be called.”
  • “Consent recorded - you can now message this contact on WhatsApp.”
  • “No change (the number could not be recorded).” Nothing was written.
  • “Could not record consent.” or a more specific message, for example when the stored number cannot be put in international format.
You may also see these messages inside the dialog:
  • “There is no channel available for this contact right now - they have opted out, or the lawful-basis list could not be loaded.” Refresh the page; if the person has opted out of both channels, consent cannot be recorded.
  • “These are the options for a different channel, so consent cannot be recorded here right now. Please reload the page, and contact support if it keeps happening.” The save button stays greyed out.
There is no button that removes consent while leaving the contact reachable. Update consent replaces the basis; it cannot set a contact back to Calls: no consent. To stop contacting someone, use Opt out.

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Lawful bases

So on WhatsApp you can choose from three bases, and none of them needs a statement. The two bases with a statement are for calls only, because the statement is about phone calls. Under each Calls: callable or WhatsApp: opt-in badge, the small line shows the basis in short form (for example “purchased list” or “wa user initiated”) and the date it was recorded.
“I confirm that these contacts are existing customers, or people with whom I have a prior relationship that gives me a lawful basis to contact them by phone using an automated AI voice agent, and that I am solely responsible for the lawfulness of contacting them. I understand that RuleInside applies do-not-call, opt-out, and calling-time suppression on my behalf.”
“I confirm that I have a lawful basis to contact these people by phone using an automated AI voice agent, that the contacts were obtained in a way that permits such calls, and that I am solely responsible for the lawfulness of contacting them. I understand that RuleInside applies do-not-call, opt-out, and calling-time suppression on my behalf, but does not verify how I obtained these contacts or whether I may lawfully call them.”
The statement you confirm is stored word for word, together with who confirmed it and when.

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Editing a contact

The Edit contact dialog

Edit contact: name, email and custom fields can be changed; the phone number cannot.

Edit opens Edit contact, where an owner corrects a contact’s details and fills in their custom fields. The custom columns are passed to your agent on an outbound call as variables. Buttons: Cancel closes without saving. Save saves (it shows “Saving…”). You see “Contact saved.”, or “Could not save the contact.” if it failed. Values for fields that are not current workspace columns are kept as they are. To add a column, see Workspace fields.

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Opting a contact out

Use Opt out when a person asks not to be contacted. Any member can do it. The confirmation, Opt this contact out?, reads: “+15551234567 will be added to your do-not-call list for both calls and WhatsApp, and any consent on either channel will be revoked. This suppression survives a re-import and cannot be reversed from the portal. On WhatsApp, the customer can opt back in themselves by replying START.” Buttons: Cancel closes without changing anything. Opt out opts the contact out straight away. What happens when you click Opt out:
  • The contact is opted out of calls and WhatsApp, and any consent on either channel is removed.
  • The number is added to your do-not-call list for calls and for WhatsApp.
  • Any calls already scheduled for the contact are cancelled, and any WhatsApp messages waiting to be sent to them are stopped.
  • A record is kept for each channel.
  • You see “Contact opted out - they will not be contacted again on calls or WhatsApp.”
If the stored number is not in international format, the opt-out cannot be completed and you see: “We couldn’t opt this contact out - the stored phone number isn’t in international format. Please edit the contact to a +… number and try again.” The phone number cannot be edited in the portal, so if you see this message, contact support. Other failures show “Could not opt this contact out.”
An opt-out cannot be undone by you. Not with a button, not by importing the number again (an import never touches opt-outs or the do-not-call list), and not by recording consent again (the opt-out still wins, and the badge stays Calls: opted out). Only the customer can reverse it, and only for WhatsApp, by replying START. See WhatsApp.
The Opt out button stays until the contact is opted out of both calls and WhatsApp. If the person opted out of calls only, for example by saying so during a call, Opt out stops WhatsApp too.

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Your do-not-call list

Your store has a do-not-call list, kept separately for calls and for WhatsApp, and checked before every call and every message. There is no page in the portal to view or edit it. Numbers are added to it when:
  • someone uses Opt out on a contact (calls and WhatsApp);
  • a person says during a call that they do not want to be called (calls);
  • a person replies STOP on WhatsApp (calls and WhatsApp). The whole message must be the word STOP, in any letter case, or a quick-reply button that says STOP. “Stop calling me” does not count;
  • your own system sends a “do not call” request through a Connection (calls);
  • your system uses the RuleInside API.
A STOP on WhatsApp stops both calls and WhatsApp. An opt-out from calls made during a call does not stop WhatsApp.

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Common questions

A plain import adds people as Calls: no consent. Record a lawful basis with Import with consent, or with Consent on each contact. If the badges say Calls: callable and still nobody is called, check Settings, Calling consent: until an owner confirms it, nothing is sent. Then check your calling hours and days.
No. Not with a button, not by importing the number again, and not by recording consent again. On WhatsApp, the customer can opt back in by replying START. For calls there is no way back.
Yes. Opt out stops both calls and WhatsApp, and cancels anything already scheduled for that contact on either channel.
Use Opt out on that contact: it is still shown while WhatsApp is open, and it stops WhatsApp too. The customer can also reply STOP on WhatsApp, or your own system can opt them out through the RuleInside API.
That basis, and Purchased marketing list, are for calls only, because their statement is about phone calls. On WhatsApp you can choose Web / checkout opt-in, Explicit written consent, or WhatsApp user-initiated (messaged us first).
No. You are responsible for it. RuleInside records who recorded which basis and when and, for the two bases with a statement, the exact statement that was confirmed.
You cannot edit it, because consent and the do-not-call list are tied to the number. If needed, opt the old number out, then import the new number. Always write numbers in international format with a + and no spaces, for example +15551234567.
Search covers only the current page of 50 contacts. Use Next to move through the pages.
They came from your store’s orders and customers, or from conversations. They cannot be called, given consent or opted out from this page. Owners can edit them.
The date of the last outbound call attempt recorded for that contact.