New Texas SMS law (SB 140) impacting all incoming texts to Texas

Starting September 1, 2025, businesses sending text messages to or from Texas must comply with important new regulations. These changes may apply to your business regardless of where you’re based — whether you’re in the United States or elsewhere around the globe.

Below is a helpful guide outlining what is changing in Texas text messaging law and TCPA compliance, what actions you need to take, and where to find more resources. 

Texas already enforces several TCPA-related regulations, and by amending this law (also referred to as Mini-TCPA) the state is now expanding the definition of “telephone communications” to cover text messages—SMS, MMS, and RCS.  

These changes bring significant compliance responsibilities, and risks, for businesses who engage in text marketing with customers in Texas.  

Prior Texas telemarketing regulations were about unsolicited phone calls, but now, it officially covers text, graphic, and image messages, which includes communications sent via SMS, MMS, and RCS.

So, if you’re currently sending (or planning to send) any of these types of messages to customers in Texas, these new law amendments, restrictions, and requirements apply to you. 

In Texas law, there were already quiet hours previously set forth in Section 301.051. With these new legal amendments to the mini-TCPA, quiet hours also now apply to text messages.  


As a new requirement, businesses cannot send unsolicited business text messages within these quiet hours: 

• before 9am or after 9pm (recipient’s local time) on Monday–Saturday 

• before noon or after 9pm on Sundays 

Qualifying businesses must register with the Texas Secretary of State, pay a $200 annual fee, and submit a $10,000 security deposit.

👉 Learn more and register at the Texas Secretary of State website 

Some businesses and use cases fall into exempt categories which include, but are not limited to:  

• A publicly traded corporation 

• An educational institution or organization or a nonprofit organization exempt from taxation under Section 501(c)(3), Internal Revenue Code of 1986. 

• A business who has operated under the same business name for at least two years, and is soliciting business from a former or current customer 

While the registration effort and costs are probably not the most welcomed news, ignoring these new Texas texting law updates comes at a bigger cost. Failure to comply can result in fines up to $5,000 per violation. 
 
If that isn’t enough of a deterrent, you also can get sued.

As part of this new Texas SMS law, private citizens are now given the right of action to bring lawsuits against non-compliant businesses. This means that, for the first time, private individuals can sue your company directly for violations of telemarketing law.  

Sinch provides tools to manage consent, enforce quiet hours, segment audiences, and maintain detailed compliance logs so your business is always in good standing and in compliance—whether it’s for texting customers in Texas or anywhere around the globe.   

We also have text messaging and local texting compliance experts on hand 24/7 to answer any questions you have — reach out to our experts anytime.  

Disclaimer: This content is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Please consult your legal counsel to understand how these regulations apply to your business. 

Author: The Sinch team