Methods are presented for classifying responses to communications. One method includes presenting, in a first user interface (UI), a message from a sender to a recipient requesting a response. The first UI includes response options of a first classification, a second classification, and an entry field for entering a free text message. Another operation is for receiving a recipient response with a selection of: (a) the first or the second button and (b) the free text message entered in the text entry field. The method further includes generating a featurized recipient response based on the free text message and the selection. An acceptance machine-learning (ML) model calculates a classification value of the recipient response from a set of possible classification values based on the featurized recipient response. The method further includes presenting, in a second UI for the sender, an indicator for the message and the calculated classification value.