Multichannel prospecting: what you can automate
Email, SMS, letters, calls, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, X: what French rules and each platform allow, and where a person has to press send.
“Multichannel” tools often imply that every channel can be automated the same way. They can’t. Two different sets of rules apply: the law, which in France is mostly about the person you contact, and each platform’s terms, which are about your account. Here’s where each channel stands for prospecting professionals in France.
This post is general information as of November 2026, not legal advice. Rules change, and your case may differ.
The summary
| Channel | Between professionals (CNIL) | Can software send it alone? |
|---|---|---|
| Right to object | Yes, from your own mailbox | |
| SMS | Right to object | Yes, through an SMS provider |
| Letter | Right to object | Yes, through a print-and-post service |
| Call | Right to object | A person calls |
| Voicemail | See below | Only during a call a person placed, in our reading |
| No specific regime | No: its terms forbid it | |
| No specific regime | Only with opt-in, through the Business Platform | |
| Instagram, Messenger | No specific regime | No first message through their APIs |
| X | No specific regime | No unsolicited messages |
Email and SMS
The CNIL’s page on electronic prospecting treats them together. For a private individual, prior consent is the rule. For a professional, prospecting can rest on legitimate interest when the subject relates to their profession; the CNIL’s example is software presented to a company’s IT director. The person must have been informed and be able to object. Every message must identify the sender and offer a simple way to refuse further messages.
Addresses such as contact@ or info@, which concern a company rather than a person, aren’t subject to those principles, according to the same page. For the detail on email, see what the law allows for B2B cold email.
If you work out addresses from a name and a domain, read the CNIL’s page on reconstructed work addresses first: it’s possible in some cases and not in others. Coldlyne doesn’t do it, and only uses addresses it found published.
Letters
The CNIL’s page on postal prospecting rests on information and a free, simple right to object, and each letter must identify the sender and say how to refuse. Letters are underrated in B2B: the registered address of a French company is public, so you don’t need anything else to write to it.
Calls: the rules changed in August 2026
Since 11 August 2026, the CNIL explains that consumers can no longer be cold-called without prior consent, under article L. 223-1 of the French consumer code, with narrow exceptions such as an existing contract. Professionals, on the other hand, keep a right to object: the call can rest on legitimate interest if it relates to their profession, as long as they were informed and can refuse.
The practical trap is telling them apart. Write down why each number is a professional one and where it came from, and stop at the first request. Software can prepare the call, and a person places it.
Voicemail drops
This is where to be careful. Article L. 34-5 of the French postal and electronic communications code forbids direct prospecting through automated communication systems using a natural person’s details without prior consent. The CNIL’s page on electronic prospecting lists automated calling systems among the channels it covers, under the same right to object for professionals. We take the cautious reading: Coldlyne only leaves a recorded message during a call a member placed, never as an automatic drop.
The User Agreement tells you not to “use bots or other unauthorized automated methods to access the Services, add or download contacts, send or redirect messages”, and not to use crawlers, plugins or other technology to scrape profiles. The risk isn’t a fine, it’s the account your network lives on. So a person sends: software can find the profile and prepare the text, then open the conversation.
Meta’s documentation is plain: “Businesses are required to obtain opt-in before messaging people on WhatsApp.” The Business Platform can send on its own to people who agreed, and a first contact with someone who hasn’t goes out by hand from your own account.
Instagram and Messenger
Both APIs start from the other person. On Instagram, “conversations only begin when an Instagram user sends a message to your app user”, and the Messenger Platform requires that the person start the conversation too, with a standard 24-hour window to answer. There’s no official way to send a first message automatically, so a person writes it.
X
X’s automation rules allow automated replies to people who message you, and forbid spamming or sending unsolicited messages. A cold message written by hand and sent by you is a different thing from a script working through a list.
What this means for a sequence
Plan the sequence around these lines rather than pretending they aren’t there. In Coldlyne, email goes out from your mailbox, SMS and letters through the providers you connect, and WhatsApp through the Business Platform with people who agreed. Calls and the other messages land in your list for the day with the text ready, and the sequence carries on from what you report. An objection on any channel puts the person on one suppression list for all of them.