A TXT record, as the abbreviation indicates, is a record, which holds data in human-readable form and not code. It could be set up for a domain or a subdomain for a number of purposes. Search engines like Google, for example, have different ways of making sure that you are the owner of a given domain and one of them is actually by creating a TXT record with specific text which they provide and that you need to use as the record value. The exact same verification method is employed by some analytics platforms that check the traffic to your web sites as well. Needless to say, in such a case the content of the record will be read by a robot, but it will still be in human-readable form. A TXT record is furthermore employed in case you activated the so-called SPF protection for your email addresses in order to protect them from being forged. In cases like this, the record contains info showing that a given electronic message is sent from a trusted and authorized mail server. You could use a TXT record for any other information as well, like your business details, for instance.
