The two switches: what an opt-out covers and what it cannot

There are two switches worth knowing: one stops marketing, and one changes the channel everything else travels on. Neither reaches a receipt, and knowing which is which is the difference between a quieter inbox and a missing notice.

Desk spec

stoppable: 12 of 50
continues: 38 of 50
switch one: marketing
switch two: channel

the five kindsA receipt records something that already happened, marketing promotes something, a service note explains a state of the account, a security alert says something changed, and a legal notice is the message whose arrival is itself a step.

the two switchesOne stops marketing and nothing else - 12 of 50 messages on the samples. The other does not stop anything: it changes the channel the remaining 38 travel on, which changes how they arrive and what they prove.

the three countsSent is what the operator's log holds (50 of 50), arrived is what a delivery receipt shows (48 of 50), and read is what a read receipt shows (21 of 50). Three counts, routinely called one.

Direct answer

Two switches exist. The first stops marketing and nothing else: on the samples it removes twelve of fifty messages, or 24.0%. The second changes the channel the other kinds travel on, which reduces the inbox without stopping anything - and it can move a notice onto a channel that arrives more slowly.

The switch on the message

Every marketing message carries a way to stop marketing. It is narrow on purpose: the terms attach the account's operation to the other four kinds, so a single instruction to stop everything cannot be honoured in full even when it is offered.

sample A and B - what one instruction does messages in the month = 50 stopped by the marketing switch = 12 -> 24.0% still arriving = 38 -> 76.0% of the 38: receipts 30, service notes 4, alerts 2, notices 2 average per day before = 50 / 30 = 1.67 average per day after = 38 / 30 = 1.27 so the instruction removes 0.4 messages a day and the account is still spoken to about once a day.

The switch that is not about stopping

The second switch does not reduce how much arrives, it changes where it arrives. Moving alerts and notices off one channel and onto another is the setting that most often goes wrong, because the channel a reader prefers is not always the channel that carries the evidence.

Sample C and D - the same message on four channels, and what each channel costs in time
Channel	Sent	Arrival	Arrival evidence	Good for a notice
email	33	0.9 s	yes	yes
in-app inbox	9	0.0 s	yes	no - needs a sign-in
push	4	1.2 s	yes	no - can be dismissed unseen
SMS	2	3.4 s	yes	partly - short text only
post	2	2 d 6 h	no	partly - but slower than most windows
five channels	50	0.9 s to 2 d 6 h	48 of 50	one channel is quick and provable

sample D - why the channel switch is not a neutral choice email arrival 0.9 s = 0.0000025 days post arrival 2 d 6 h = 2.25 days = 194,400 s ratio 194,400 / 0.9 = 216,000 a notice window measured in days can survive the difference; a two-day window posted on the day it is written arrives after the day it was about - the switch chose the timing.

What neither switch reaches

Both switches leave the same thirty-eight messages in place, and two of them are the messages a reader least wants to miss.

Use the marketing switch on the message itself; expect about a quarter of the monthly volume to stop, not all of it.
Check whether the operator offers a channel preference, and read it as a routing choice rather than a filter.
Keep at least one channel open that carries arrival evidence, because that is the channel a notice can be proved on.
Do not move notices to a channel with no arrival evidence if the terms measure anything in days.
Re-check the preference after any change of device or number: a routing setting outlives the address it was set for.

The two switches: what an opt-out covers and what it cannot

The switch on the message

The switch that is not about stopping

What neither switch reaches

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