Docs/iMessageiMessageBest practices
Understanding iMessage line health
Most alarming looking numbers are normal. This page shows you how to tell the difference between ordinary delivery noise and a line that actually needs attention.
Three states of a line
| State | What you see | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Healthy | Messages send normally and your response rate is in a good range | Nothing. Keep volume and pacing where they are |
| Potential issue | Some messages fail but most traffic is still delivering | Check lead list quality and number validity, keep monitoring |
| Likely restricted | Most or essentially all outbound messages fail | Pause new outreach on that line and contact our team |
Partial failures are not a burned line
The 20% benchmark
We recommend keeping total response rate above roughly 20%. Below that, the traffic starts to look less like conversation and more like outreach nobody wants, and the risk of delivery restrictions or being flagged goes up.
Treat it as a warning indicator, not a rule. Nobody publishes a hard cutoff, and a line does not flip off the moment you dip under it. What matters is the direction you are heading and what is causing it.
Keeping a line healthy
Do
- Use fresh, relevant leads
- Keep opening messages short
- Use message variation on initial messages
- Keep targeting tight
- Monitor response rate weekly
- Watch daily line usage and failure counts
Avoid
- Old or purchased lists
- Repeating the same outreach to unresponsive leads
- Long paragraphs and back to back sends
- Running a line permanently at its limit
- Ignoring a rising failure rate
The copy and pacing rules that keep a line healthy live in the complete iMessage guide. Metric by metric definitions live in Sendify analytics.
FAQ
Does my line get banned if response rate drops under 20%?
No. There is no published threshold that guarantees anything. We treat roughly 20% as a health benchmark: below it, risk of delivery restrictions goes up and it is worth fixing your targeting and copy.
A few messages failed. Is my line burned?
Almost certainly not. Individual failures usually mean an invalid or disconnected number, a temporary delivery problem, or a device working through a lot of messages at once.
What does a genuinely restricted line look like?
Essentially everything going out starts failing, not a handful of messages. That is the pattern worth escalating.
Does message variation protect me from restrictions?
Nothing guarantees protection. Variation reduces repetitive patterns and lets you test hooks. It works alongside lead quality, targeting, pacing, volume, and reply rate.
Still need a hand?
If your volume is going to run past the daily or hourly limits, or something is not behaving the way these docs describe, talk to our team.