Thoughts and questions on business spam protocols

Hey everyone! I’ve been doing some thinking on business spam and wanted to get your opinion on something.

Business messaging technology has witnessed very little change compared to software. While there has been changes in the interface layer of business messaging (e.g. better APIs or integrations into CRMs), the actual protocol mechanism is still mostly just SMS/RCS or email delivery.

There are three major problems with this. First, messaging is fragmented. Consumers have to subscribe to a separate 'spam' pipeline for every new business they encounter. Second, static promotional messages lack consumer context and don't know what the consumer actually wants. Finally, email and sms/rcs protocols just don’t work.

The entire exchange just feels very one-sided, like the business is trying to push something down the consumer and the consumer is rejecting it. There needs to be a better form of information exchange, and I don’t think only interface can fix this.

What if there could be a new protocol where all business messaging go through an intermediary that has context on both the consumer and the business? If a business wants to send promotional texts to a consumer, there will be an agent having context on the consumer that can decide whether the information is relevant and, if so, present it to the consumer in the best way specifically for them. Consumers should also get to choose what types of information they receive from the businesses and what interface they want to receive it in (e.g. iMessage, email, etc). This makes the exchange two-sided, where both sides are getting value and, therefore, visibility.

Would love to hear your opinions on whether you think this could work. What could be some potential problems with this thesis? Please let me know!

Comments (1)

GaryJun 27, 2026
Better version: Hey everyone, I’ve been thinking a lot about business messaging/spam and wanted to get some thoughts. Today, most business messaging feels very top-down. Every business pushes emails, SMS/RCS, app notifications, and promotions directly to consumers. This creates a few problems for the consumer: 1. It is fragmented. Consumers opt into a separate business messaging channel for every company they interact with. 2. It lacks consumer context. Most promotional messages don’t actually know what the consumer wants, so they feel static and transactional. 3. The channel is often wrong. Businesses mainly rely on email and SMS/RCS, but consumers often associate those channels with spam and rarely check them. Because of this, the entire exchange feels very one-sided, like the business is trying to push something to the consumer while the consumer is trying to filter it out. I’m wondering whether the future of business messaging could be more agent-mediated. Instead of every business messaging the consumer directly, businesses could send updates/offers/requests to an intermediary agent that has context on the consumer and can decide what is relevant, how to deliver and personalize it, and which interface to use (SMS, iMessage, email, RCS, etc). The consumer could also control what types of business messages they want to receive and how they want to receive them (e.g. iMessage, email, etc). They can also contact the business and get support in the interface they’re most comfortable in by texting the intermediary agent. This makes the exchange two-sided, where both sides get more value and control. I’d love to hear any opinions or pushback, especially from people who have experience in SMB/DTC/home services. Where do you think this breaks first? 1. Businesses won’t give up direct access to customers 2. Consumers won’t adopt a new intermediary Thank you!