Glossary
What Is a Robocall?
What is a robocall?
Short answerA robocall is a phone call placed using an automatic telephone dialing system or delivering an artificial or prerecorded voice. The term describes the technology, not the legality -- a robocall made with proper consent is entirely lawful. Under the TCPA's autodialer and prerecorded-voice rules, courts generally treat a text message as a call, so the same consent rules apply to automated SMS.
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"Robocall" is a colloquial term that has hardened into a legal category. Its everyday use implies something unwanted and probably fraudulent, but the statutory concept is narrower and purely technical: it is about how the call was placed, not whether the recipient wanted it.
Two independent triggers
A call falls within the robocall rules if either is true:
- It was placed using an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS) -- equipment with the capacity to store or produce numbers using a random or sequential number generator, and to dial them; since Facebook v. Duguid (2021), dialing a stored list automatically is not enough on its own; or
- It delivers an artificial or prerecorded voice, however it was dialled.
The second trigger catches more callers than expected. A manually dialled call that plays a recorded message is a robocall for TCPA purposes, even though no autodialer was involved.
What makes one lawful
| Purpose | To a mobile | To a residential landline |
|---|---|---|
| Marketing / advertising | Prior express written consent under the FCC's rule (prior express consent, oral or written, in the Fifth Circuit) | Prior express written consent, subject to exemptions |
| Informational / transactional | Prior express consent (lower bar) | Generally permitted, with limits |
| Emergency | No consent required | No consent required |
The practical consequence for outbound teams: the same dialler, calling the same list, can be lawful or unlawful depending entirely on the paperwork behind each number and the line type it reaches. That is why line type and consent records are operational concerns rather than legal footnotes.
Quick check: what counts as a robocall
Pick an answer to see whether it is right, and why.
Why enforcement is aggressive
Robocall volume has driven sustained regulatory attention -- STIR/SHAKEN caller ID authentication, mandatory carrier blocking of traffic highly likely to be illegal, one-day traceback obligations, and a 2024 FCC ruling that AI-generated voices are "artificial" voices under the TCPA, so those calls need consent like any prerecorded call. Legitimate callers feel this indirectly: carrier-level spam labelling degrades delivery for everyone originating from a number with a poor reputation.
Keeping invalid and disconnected numbers out of your dialler is therefore not only a cost question. High failure rates are one of the signals that gets a calling number labelled, which suppresses the connect rate on the numbers that were good. Number scrubbing protects deliverability as well as compliance.
Frequently asked questions
Are all robocalls illegal?
No -- this is the most common misconception. A robocall is lawful when you have the right level of consent for the call's purpose. Marketing robocalls to mobiles need prior express written consent under the FCC's rule, though the Fifth Circuit held in Bradford v. Sovereign Pest Control (2026) that the statute asks only for prior express consent, oral or written; informational and transactional calls sit under a lower standard. Appointment reminders, fraud alerts and delivery notifications are all typically lawful robocalls.
Is a text message a robocall?
For the consent rules, yes. Under § 227(b), which governs autodialed and prerecorded calls, the FCC and courts generally treat a text as a call (the Ninth Circuit held it in Howard v. RNC, January 2026), so an automated text carries the same consent requirements as an automated voice call. That is why an SMS blast without documented consent is exactly as risky as a dialler campaign.
The Do Not Call claim is different. The Seventh Circuit held in Steidinger v. Blackstone (July 2026) that § 227(c)(5) "does not permit plaintiffs to sue for the receipt of unwanted texts", while a federal court in Oregon held that it does. See SMS compliance under the TCPA.
Does manual dialling avoid the robocall rules?
It avoids the autodialer consent requirement, but not the rest of the TCPA. Do Not Call Registry rules, internal do-not-call obligations, calling-hour limits and caller ID requirements all still apply to manually dialled marketing calls.
Are ringless voicemails robocalls?
Yes. The FCC determined in 2022 that ringless voicemail to a wireless phone is a call using a prerecorded voice, so it needs consent. Delivering a message without ringing the handset does not remove it from the statute's scope.
- 47 U.S.C. § 227 (Cornell LII)
- FCC -- Consumer Policy: robocalls and robotexts
- 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200 -- Delivery restrictions (eCFR)
- Howard v. Republican National Committee, 164 F.4th 1119 (9th Cir. 2026)
- Steidinger v. Blackstone Medical Services, No. 25-2398 (7th Cir. 2026)
- Wilson v. Skopos Financial, No. 6:25-cv-00376 (D. Or. 2025)
- Bradford v. Sovereign Pest Control of TX, No. 24-20379 (5th Cir. 2026)