> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.theculpernetwork.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# P2P Texting

> Volunteers send one-to-one texts to voters and handle their replies — from the phone app or the web.

Peer-to-peer (P2P) texting is a volunteer having real one-on-one conversations with voters. Every message is typed (or approved) and sent by a person, one voter at a time. There is no "send to all" button — that is what makes it P2P, and it is also what keeps it on the right side of the law.

<Info>
  Texting works the same on the phone app and the web. A texter can start on their phone and finish at a desk — it is the same queue.
</Info>

## For texters

### Find your queue

* **Phone app:** open your campaign and tap **Texts** in the bottom bar.
* **Web:** open **Outreach → P2P** in the sidebar. If you are staff, click **Send texts**.

The tab appears whenever your campaign has an active texting campaign. If you see "you're not on this texting list yet," ask an organizer to add you — the queue appears the moment they do.

### Work the queue

Your queue is sorted so the person waiting on you comes first:

1. **Unread replies** — someone answered you
2. **Waiting** — you texted, no reply yet
3. **New** — voters you haven't opened yet

Tap a name to open the conversation.

### Send your first message

1. Open a new contact. Tap **Use campaign script** to load the campaign's opener.
2. Make it sound like you. Voters answer people, not scripts.
3. Press send.

<Note>
  The first message to any voter must carry opt-out language. If you forget, Culper adds "Reply STOP to opt out." automatically — you never send a non-compliant opener.
</Note>

Messages are capped at 480 characters. Past 160 characters, the counter shows how many texts the carrier will split it into.

### Attach the campaign flyer

If your campaign has set an attachment, a checkbox appears under the composer: **Attach \[filename]**. Tick it and your next message goes out with the flyer (as an MMS). The box unticks itself after each send — attaching is a choice per message, not a mode.

You cannot attach your own photos or files. The flyer is set by the campaign, so every voter receives the same approved material.

### Replies

When a voter texts back, it lands in the same conversation, your queue shows an unread badge, and the app sends you a notification. Reply from the thread like any messaging app.

### Mark how it went

When a conversation reaches a natural end, set a **disposition** — Supporter, Undecided, Opposed, Wrong number, and so on. This is the entire point of the conversation: it is what the campaign can act on later.

<Warning>
  **Do not contact** is honored globally, immediately, and permanently. So is any STOP reply — the voter is added to a suppression list no campaign can override. Never try to work around an opt-out.
</Warning>

### A few rules the app enforces for you

* **Texting hours.** Sends outside the campaign's texting window are held — the app tells you to try later. This is a legal requirement, not a preference.
* **No offline sending.** Unlike walk data, texts never queue for later. A message that fails tells you immediately, and pressing send again retries the *same* message — it can never double-text a voter.
* **Opted-out voters are locked.** The composer disappears and that is final.

## For admins

### Create a texting campaign

1. Go to **Outreach → P2P** and click **New campaign**.
2. Pick a saved voter list. Culper keeps only voters with a usable **mobile** number, drops duplicates, and keeps one contact per phone number so a household never gets the same message twice.
3. Write the script — the opener your texters start from.
4. Set texting hours.

### Assign texters

Open the campaign and click **Assign texters**. Contacts are split evenly across everyone you pick. Adding a texter later rebalances the unworked contacts; conversations that have already started never move.

Anyone on the campaign can be a texter — volunteers, precinct chairs, staff, the candidate.

### Set the attachment

On the campaign page, use the **Campaign attachment** card. One file per campaign — JPG, PNG, GIF, or PDF, under 4MB.

<Note>
  Attached messages send as **MMS, which costs roughly three times an SMS**. Texters choose per message whether to include it, so the flyer goes where it earns its cost.
</Note>

### Monitor

The management view shows the campaign's numbers — contacts, sent, replies, opt-outs — and every conversation as it happens. Sending still happens one texter, one voter at a time.

### How numbers work

Each voter always hears from the **same phone number** for the life of their conversation, even if their contact is reassigned to a different texter. A thread that changes numbers reads as spam, and a voter cannot reply to a number that stopped writing to them.

## Compliance in one paragraph

P2P texting is human-initiated: a person reviews and sends every message individually, which is why it does not require the same prior-consent machinery as automated texting. Culper enforces the rest — opt-out language on openers, texting hours, immediate and global STOP handling, and A2P-registered numbers. Your job is simpler: be a person, respect every "no," and log the disposition.