Missed call text back: what to send, what you pay for, and the law in 2026

You’re up a ladder, the phone rings, and by the time you’re down it’s stopped. A text back means the caller hears from you straight away and knows when you’ll ring.

Here’s what the text says, what you pay for to run it, and the two rules that catch businesses out in 2026.

What is a missed call text back?

A text that goes out on its own when a call to your business isn’t answered. It says who you are, that you’ll ring back, and roughly when.

It doesn’t sell anything. It holds your place until you can call, and then you call.

What should the text say?

Five things, and nothing else:

• Your business name, so they know who’s texting.
• That it’s automatic. Don’t let a machine pretend to be you.
• When you’ll ring back, as a time you’ll actually keep.
• A way to say stop, such as “Reply STOP to opt out”.
• No link and no offer. I’ll come to why.

Keep it inside one text. SMS Broadcast, one of the Australian text providers, counts “A standard single message” as 160 characters.7

The two texts to copy

During working hours:

[Business]: sorry we missed your call. This is an automatic text. [Name] will ring you back by [time]. Reply STOP to opt out.

After hours:

[Business]: closed for the night. This is an automatic text. [Name] will ring you after [time] tomorrow. Emergency? Call [number]. Reply STOP to opt out.

Only add the emergency line if someone really answers that number at night. An honest “we’re closed” beats a promise nobody keeps.

To fit your own version inside a single text, paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot or Gemini and ask: “Cut this to under 160 characters. Keep the business name, the call-back time and the words Reply STOP to opt out.” Then check it still says what you meant.

Why no link and no offer?

Because a link can turn a plain text into a marketing message. The Spam Act 2003 counts a message as commercial if one of its purposes is to offer or promote goods or services, judged partly on “the content that can be located using the links” in it (section 6(1)).1 The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), the regulator for phones, internet and spam, says “A link to a web page with commercial content is likely to mean the message is also commercial”.3

Texts are covered: the Act’s definition of an electronic message includes one sent to “a telephone account” (section 5(1)).1 A commercial one needs consent (section 16), the sender’s details (section 17) and a working way to unsubscribe (section 18).1

Whether a plain “I’ll ring you back” text is commercial isn’t settled in anything we read. A text with no offer and no link is the safer version, and the stop line costs you a few words. This isn’t legal advice.

Why shouldn’t the text come from your business name?

Two reasons, and the first is new this year.

A business name has to be registered now

ACMA runs the SMS Sender ID Register, where a sender ID is “the name at the top of text messages”.4 From 1 July 2026, ACMA says, texts sent with unregistered sender IDs have the name replaced with the word “Unverified” and are grouped into one thread on the phone. Its own words: “People will likely treat unverified messages as scams”.4

You register through your telco or message provider, who registers it for you, and your contact email on the Australian Business Register has to be current first.5 ACMA’s register pages, which we read on 7 October 2026, publish no fee.

A business name can’t take a reply

ACMA’s spam page says alphanumeric message headers, meaning a name in place of a number, “are generally not capable of receiving return messages”.2 Twilio’s pricing page says the same of its own, which “Can only be used to send SMS”.8 So “Reply STOP” behind a business name goes nowhere.

That matters, because section 18 of the Spam Act wants the unsubscribe address to be able to receive unsubscribe messages for at least 30 days after the message is sent.1 In April 2026 ACMA penalised Latitude Finance partly over this: “While recipients were told they could reply ‘STOP’ to unsubscribe, many messages were not capable of being used in this way”.6

So send from a number that can take replies. SMS Broadcast, for example, leases a dedicated mobile number so you can “have 2-way SMS conversations”.7

What does a missed call text back cost to run?

Three parts, and only two of them have a price you can see up front:

• A number that can take replies. You lease it. SMS Broadcast sells a one-year lease, and Twilio prices its numbers by the month.78
• Each text you send. SMS Broadcast sells credits, and the price per text falls the more you buy; it says replies coming in are free.7 Twilio charges for each message segment, which is how it counts a long text (one long text can be billed as two or more), and says carrier fees, charged by the phone networks that deliver the text, may apply.8
• Whatever spots the missed call and sends the text. That might be your phone system, an app or an automation tool, and its price depends on which.

Prices change, so read each pricing page on the day you buy. Check three things on every one:

1. GST. SMS Broadcast’s page says its prices exclude GST and that a card surcharge applies.7 Not every provider says either way.
2. Currency. Not every pricing page prints its currency beside the price, so check.
3. What counts as one text. A long text can be charged as two or more.

What is a missed call worth to you?

Only your own numbers can say. When we looked, on 29 August 2026, we found no Australian government, telco or academic research on how many calls small businesses miss, so I won’t hand you someone else’s American number.

So start with yours. Open your phone’s call log, count the missed calls over a fortnight, and halve it for a week.

Then put that, what a job’s worth to you, and how many of those callers you think you’d win into our missed-call calculator. It’s arithmetic on your figures, not a forecast.

Ring back yourself, and when you said

The text only buys you time. The call is what wins the job.

ACMA’s guidance says “Calls made by businesses that are requested by a consumer and are made within a reasonable time after the request is made are generally not telemarketing calls”.3 It also says that where a call has more than one purpose and one of them is to sell, the call is commercial.3 So I’d ring back the same day, about what they rang about, and keep any other offer out of it.

Make the call yourself. ACMA says commercial calls that “use pre-recorded or AI voices are all telemarketing calls”,3 and a robot ringing back someone who wanted you isn’t the call they were waiting for.

Setting it up, step by step

1. Count your missed calls for a fortnight, so you know what it’s for.
2. Write your two texts, working hours and after hours, from the templates above.
3. Pick a provider, and ask: will the texts come from a number customers can reply to? Will a STOP reply be recorded, and stop the next text? Is the price per text, and the number, quoted with or without GST?
4. Test it. Ring your business from another phone and let it ring out. Check the text arrives, reply STOP, and check you don’t get another.
5. Ring back when the text said you would.

Want it set up for you?

On our menu this is A text back when you miss a call: a text inside a minute when you cannot pick up, and an honest reply after hours. It needs a small subscription, a phone and text service.

If you’re an electrician, it’s on the electricians page too, beside the other fixes for a working day. Start with one thing, or a bundle. If yours is different, we scope it.

Book a free hour.