AI voice calls and consent — a creator's checklist

Before Loop calls anyone on your behalf, you need a real reason to reach them: an existing relationship or prior consent, a clear way for them to know who's calling, an easy way to say "don't call me again," reasonable timing, and a record of what happened. This guide covers each in plain language — it is not legal advice.

Why does consent matter for AI voice calls?

Voice is one of Loop's four launch channels, alongside Email, Instagram, and WhatsApp. A call feels different from a message sitting in an inbox — it interrupts someone in real time, and in the US, outbound calls (automated or not) sit under rules like the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) that put the burden on the caller to have a legitimate basis for reaching out. Getting consent right protects the person you're calling and protects you as the creator whose name is on the call.

This isn't a legal opinion — TCPA rules vary by call type, consent basis, and jurisdiction, and they change. Talk to a lawyer if you're unsure whether your list and use case need prior written consent. What follows is a practical checklist for how to think about it before you turn Voice on for a loop.

Do I actually have permission to call this person?

Start here, before anything else. Ask yourself:

• Did this person give you their phone number directly — through a booking, a form, a signup, a past call, or a purchase?
• Is calling them a reasonable continuation of that relationship (a booking reminder, a form they submitted, a customer following up), or is it a cold outreach to a number you sourced from somewhere else?
• If you imported this list from a CSV, do you know where the phone numbers came from and what the person was told when they gave them?

The Loop People list is built from lists you import yourself — through Settings → Channels connections or a CSV upload (see Importing your contacts) — plus anyone who has already been in a conversation with you. That's a meaningfully different footing than a purchased or scraped list: you're calling people who have some existing context with you, not strangers Loop found on your behalf. Whether that context is enough consent for a given call is still your call to make — Loop doesn't evaluate consent basis for you.

If you're not confident a person on your list would recognize why you're calling, leave Voice off for that Loop and use Email or Instagram instead, or get explicit opt-in before you turn Voice on.

How does Loop identify itself on a call?

Voice is provisioned and managed by Loop rather than dialed from your own personal number — you don't set up a phone connection yourself, you just keep the Voice row on in Settings → Channels (see Connecting your channels). That means the number on someone's caller ID won't already be recognizable to them the way your personal or business line might be.

That makes the opening seconds of the call matter more, not less. Make sure the call itself says clearly, near the start, who's calling and why — your name or brand, and the reason for the call. If your business has a standard identification requirement for outbound calls in your industry or region, that requirement doesn't go away because Loop is doing the talking.

What happens when someone asks not to be called again?

Two different situations, two different tools:

1. They tell you directly, mid-conversation. Open the conversation in Conversations and click Take control in the thread header. This pauses Loop immediately on that thread — no further automated calls (or emails) go out on it, even ones already scheduled — so you can reply yourself and confirm you've heard them. See Taking control of a conversation for the full flow.
2. They ask to be removed for good. From the People list, mark them (or a bulk selection) as unsubscribed. This is one-way: once someone is unsubscribed, they stay off future outreach and are never automatically re-subscribed. Treat "don't call me" the same as "unsubscribe me" — don't leave someone on a list just because they asked over the phone instead of by email.

Do this promptly. A do-not-call request that sits unactioned for days is the single easiest way to turn one uncomfortable call into a pattern of them.

What about calling times and quiet hours?

Calling someone at an unreasonable hour in their local time is a bad idea regardless of what any tool enforces — it's rude at best and, depending on where they are and how the call was placed, can carry its own compliance exposure. A few practical habits:

• Know roughly what time zone your list is in before you turn Voice on for a loop, especially if your audience spans regions.
• Avoid early morning, late evening, and anything that reads as an odd hour for the recipient — not for you.
• If you're not sure what time it is where your audience lives, that's a reason to double-check your list's location data before you launch, not to guess.

Loop's own scheduling defaults are tuned around sensible daytime hours in your own local time as the creator setting things up — they aren't a substitute for knowing your specific audience's time zone, and you're still the one who decides when a loop with Voice enabled goes live.

What should I keep for my records?

If a consent question ever comes up — from a person you called, a platform, or a regulator — you want to be able to answer it quickly. Keep:

• Where each phone number came from (which import, which form, which booking) and roughly when it was collected.
• What the person was told at the time you collected it, if that's documented anywhere outside Loop (a form's fine print, a booking confirmation, etc.).
• The conversation history itself. Every call Loop makes shows up in that person's thread in Conversations, so you already have a record of what was said and when — you don't need to keep a separate call log for calls made through Loop.
• Any do-not-call or unsubscribe request and when you actioned it.

None of this needs a separate system — the People and Conversations views already carry most of it. The habit that matters is checking it before you call, not after someone complains.

Quick checklist before you turn on Voice for a loop

• Every phone number on this list came from a real interaction with you, not a purchased or scraped source.
• You'd be comfortable explaining, to the person or to a regulator, why you have permission to call each of them.
• You know roughly what time zone your audience is in and you're not calling at an unreasonable hour.
• You know how to take control of a call thread and unsubscribe someone the moment they ask.
• You have some record of where the numbers came from and what people were told.

If you're building a call list for the first time, start with Importing your contacts and Connecting your channels, and reach out at dharsan@topmate.io if you have questions specific to your situation. Again — this guide is practical, not legal, guidance; when in doubt, get advice from someone qualified to give it for your jurisdiction.