# Opt-outs

An address stops receiving your WhatsApp messages in one of two ways: a suppression scoped to a business account, or a person-level opt-out preference that covers every business account in your workspace. Both live on **WhatsApp** > **Suppressions**, on separate tabs, and either one blocks a send.

## Suppressing a business account

From the **Suppressions** tab, create a suppression for a phone number and pick the business account it applies to. Only messages from that account are blocked; the address still hears from every other account in your workspace. The list's **Business account** column names the account a suppression is scoped to, or reads **All accounts** for one that covers your whole workspace.

## Opting out of every business account

Some recipients want out of every business account in the workspace at once rather than one at a time. That's a stated preference, not a suppression, and it lives on the **Preferences** tab instead of the list above. Record it there with **Every business account in the workspace**: the address stops receiving WhatsApp messages from every account in your workspace, including accounts you connect later. An opt-out recorded on this tab covers all messages; to record one that stops only marketing, use the workspace-wide **Contacts** > **Preferences** page, whose dialog offers the coverage choice.

## Ending a suppression

Ending a suppression, rather than deleting it, is what the **Delete** action on a suppression row does: the block stops, but the record is kept and stays readable, with when it ended and who ended it.

A preference on the **Preferences** tab follows who stated it. One you recorded yourself, you can remove there once the recipient asks you to resume sending. One the recipient stated themselves is theirs to reverse: Bird refuses a workspace's attempt to end it.

## Suppressed addresses at send time

Both stores are checked before a WhatsApp send goes out. A suppression blocks every message to the address. An opt-out preference blocks what its recorded coverage says: **All messages** stops everything, while **Marketing only** keeps transactional messages such as verification codes flowing. Since sending and delivery are separate stages, the block does not surface as an immediate error: the send is still accepted, then fails asynchronously with a [`whatsapp.rejected`](/docs/guides/whatsapp/events) event carrying `error.code: "recipient_suppressed"`.

## Next steps

- [WhatsApp events](/docs/guides/whatsapp/events): the full `whatsapp.rejected` payload and every other outbound event.
- [Sending WhatsApp messages](/docs/guides/whatsapp/sending-whatsapp): the send API and its async delivery model.
- [WhatsApp overview](/docs/guides/whatsapp/overview): business accounts, templates, and the dashboard app.