FOCUS OPERATOR FO-1

Documentation

SMS consent

How an accountability partner opts in to Focus Operator SMS.

Summary

Focus Operator’s accountability feature notifies a user’s chosen partner via SMS when the user ends a focus session early. Partners are added through a public web consent form — not by the user submitting their phone number on their behalf.

Every recipient on our messaging service has affirmatively opted in through the form below. Opt-out is honored immediately on receipt of STOP.

Step 1 — User generates an invite

Inside the Focus Operator iOS app, a user types their chosen partner’s name and taps “Create invite”. The app calls our backend to generate a single-use invite token and receives a shareable URL of the form https://focusoperator.com/invite/{token}.

No message is sent at this stage. Focus Operator does not have the partner’s phone number yet.

Step 2 — User shares the link with the partner

The user shares the link via the standard iOS share sheet (iMessage, WhatsApp, email, AirDrop, or whatever they use to talk to the partner) — from their own phone, on their own communication channel. Focus Operator is not involved.

Step 3 — Partner opens the consent page

The partner taps the link and lands on a public consent page. The page is hosted at focusoperator.com over HTTPS. It shows:

  • The inviter’s name (“[Name] invited you to be their focus partner”)
  • The program disclosure: purpose, frequency typically <5 messages/month, “Msg & data rates may apply”, opt-out method
  • A phone number input field
  • An unchecked consent checkbox: “I agree to receive SMS notifications from Focus Operator”
  • Links to Privacy and Terms
  • A Cloudflare Turnstile challenge (anti-bot)
  • A submit button

The partner enters their own phone number, ticks the consent checkbox, completes the Turnstile challenge, and submits the form. This is the express, recipient-supplied opt-in of record.

Step 4 — Backend validates and confirms

On submit, our backend validates the Turnstile token, normalizes the phone to E.164, checks the invite token is unused and within its 7-day expiry, and writes a confirmed buddy record. It also records a consent audit row containing the consent timestamp, the partner’s IP, and their browser user-agent.

Step 5 — Single confirmation SMS

The backend sends one transactional SMS to the partner:

Focus Operator: You’re confirmed as [inviter]’s focus partner. You’ll get a text when they end a focus session early. Reply HELP for help, STOP to opt out anytime. Msg&data rates may apply.

Future break-focus notifications go to confirmed partners only. Focus Operator’s A2P messaging service is used solely for the confirmation message and the break-focus notifications that the partner explicitly consented to receive.

Opt-out

A partner can opt out at any time by replying STOP to any Focus Operator SMS. On receipt, the buddy record and consent audit trail are deleted from our backend immediately. No further messages are sent.

Replying HELP returns:

Focus Operator: You receive alerts when the user who added you ends a focus session early. Reply STOP to opt out. Support: hello@focusoperator.com. Msg&data rates may apply.

Limits and abuse protection

  • Any one phone number can be invited at most three times per seven days, regardless of how many different inviters are involved.
  • Invite tokens expire seven days after creation.
  • Tokens are single-use: once a partner submits the form, the token cannot be reused.
  • Cloudflare Turnstile guards the submit endpoint to prevent automated submissions.
  • Per-IP rate limits on the consent endpoint.
  • Per-device rate limits on invite generation.

Data retention

Partner records are retained only while the relationship is active. On opt-out (STOP) or removal by the inviter, the record and its consent audit row are deleted. Unconfirmed invites auto-expire after seven days and become unrecoverable.

Compliance contact

For SMS compliance inquiries: hello@focusoperator.com.