Knowledge Base · Peer-to-Peer Texting
Peer-to-Peer Texting: Guidelines and Best Practices
Accurate matching makes your outreach more personal, protects the campaign’s data, and helps ensure that every message reaches someone who genuinely knows you.
The three checks before you match
Confirm a Contact Match only when all three of these statements are true.
It is the exact same person
Be at least 85% certain. Use the available details-not only the name-to verify that your phone contact and the voter record belong to the same individual.
They know you
Only match people who are likely to recognize your name and phone number when you reach out. A familiar message should feel personal, not unexpected.
You want to mobilize them
Match people for whom campaign outreach is appropriate-someone you genuinely want to inform, encourage, or mobilize.
Do not match a spouse, relative, household member, or same-name voter instead of your actual contact. Even when the people are related, they are separate individuals with separate voter records.
Why an exact match matters
Contact Match connects the person in your phone to a specific voter ID in the campaign’s database. That connection may later be used to understand whether the matched voter voted early, requested or returned an absentee ballot, or completed another tracked action.
Matching your contact to a spouse or another person with the same name can create inaccurate campaign data and may cause future voting-status information to be associated with the wrong person.
Before sending a Bulk SMS
Take a moment to review the recipient list before moving into the Messages app.
Recognize every name
Send only to people you personally know and expect to recognize your number.
Skip unfamiliar numbers
If a recipient appears only as a phone number, has a blank name, or is unfamiliar, skip that message.
Make it sound like you
Use the campaign template as a starting point, then add personal context when it will help the recipient recognize you.
Respect the response
If someone says you have the wrong person or asks not to be contacted, do not message them again.
If you see a number instead of a name, skip it
Do not assume that an unfamiliar number is safe to contact simply because it appears in the outreach flow.
“Hi Sarah, it’s Mark from the neighborhood association…”
Send at a thoughtful pace
Relational outreach works because it comes from a real person-not because it reaches the largest possible number of people at once. Smaller, spaced-out batches also give you more time to review recipients and personalize your messages.
UpVote best-practice maximum per day
Keep outreach to no more than 300 messages in one day, and spread messages throughout the day instead of sending them all at once.
This is a conservative UpVote recommendation-not an Apple-published threshold or a guarantee that an account cannot be limited below this number.
Your 30-second checklist
- I am at least 85% certain this is the exact same person.
- I did not substitute a spouse, relative, household member, or same-name voter.
- This person knows me and is likely to recognize my number.
- This is someone I genuinely want to mobilize.
- I recognize every recipient shown before I send.
A brief note about iMessage
Apple allows recipients to report unwanted iMessages. Apple states that a reported iMessage is sent to Apple with the sender’s information, and that iMessage misuse may result in service limitations.
There is no public Apple rule stating that a specific number of reports or messages automatically triggers a restriction. The safest approach is not to rely on a numerical “safe limit,” but to contact only people who know you, verify every match, and send relevant messages at a reasonable pace.
What should I do if iMessage stops working?
Pause additional outreach, then follow these steps:
- On a computer, open Apple’s iMessage and FaceTime reactivation form and sign in to your Apple Account.
- Enter your phone number. If Apple asks you to describe the issue, type: iMessage/FaceTime activation unauthorized, iMessage and FaceTime don’t work
- Submit the form. Apple may take up to 24 hours to review the request and send you an email.
- After Apple confirms that your account is ready, go to Settings → Apps → Messages on your iPhone and turn iMessage back on.
If the form does not resolve the issue, contact Apple Support by chat or phone and ask them to help reactivate iMessage and FaceTime for your Apple Account.
Official Apple references:
Report spam and block senders in Messages
Messages & Privacy
If you can’t turn on or sign in to iMessage
Frequently asked questions
Can I match my contact to their spouse?
No. Each person has a separate voter record. Match your contact only to the voter record belonging to that exact individual.
What should I do when I am not sure?
Skip the match. Leaving a contact unmatched is safer than creating an incorrect connection in the campaign database.
Is 300 messages per day guaranteed to be safe?
No. It is an UpVote best-practice maximum, not an official Apple limit. Recipient recognition, message relevance, accuracy, personalization, and sending behavior all matter.
Why might someone see my message as coming from an unknown number?
They may not have your number saved, may no longer recognize it, or the wrong voter may have been matched. Review both the identity and the displayed recipient before sending.