There is growing recognition of the role of the mCessation service (MCS) in promoting tobacco cessation in India.

To examine the potential for expanding the utilization of the MCS for tobacco cessation in India after assessing the dimensions related to literacy, mobile phone access, intention to quit, and advice to quit from the second round of the Global Adult Tobacco Survey.

A cross-sectional analysis of the data collected during the second round of the nationally-representative Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) (2016–17) was conducted.

Current tobacco smokers, smokeless tobacco, and dual users compromised 10.7%, 21.4%, and 3.4% of the survey participants, respectively. Quit attempts were reported by 36.3% of the existing tobacco smokers, of whom nearly 72% tried to quit without any assistance, while only 0.3% used the MCS. However, the potential expansion of the MCS was likely among 11.2% tobacco users with an existing intention to quit, being literate, Hindi-speakers and having cell-phone access.

The utilization of the MCS can be considerably expanded among tobacco users in India by enabling multilingual usage and incorporation as standard care practice to allow the opportunistic promotion of tobacco cessation by healthcare providers at their health clinics.

Studies have shown that Text2Quit and other mobile cessation programs increase quit rates in adult smokers, but the mechanism of effects and user experiences are not well understood.

This study reports on participants' experiences with the program and explores aspects of the program that they liked and disliked.

Self-reported experiences of the program were collected through a follow-up survey conducted 1 month after enrollment (n = 185). Participant responses to open-ended items were dual coded by independent coders.

Overall participants agreed that they liked the program (4.2/5), that the program was helpful (4.1/5) and that they would recommend the program to a friend (4.3/5). Top reasons for liking the program included that it served as a constant reminder of quitting (17.8%), the content (16.7%), the encouragement provided (13.3%), and the on-demand tools (12.2%). Top reasons for disliking the program were message frequency (20.5%), content (7.0%), and the lack of personal interaction (7.0%).

The constancy of messaging was both liked as a reminder and disliked as an annoyance. Future programs might be improved by pre-testing and customizing the content based on user preferences, and by adding in human interactions, while keeping a supportive tone and offering on-demand tools.