Is it possible to send an Twilio SMS with a custom "from" or "reply-to" number? - twilio

Question

I was tasked with writing a web app which would allow customers to type and send a message on their browser (mobile or desktop) to a business. I was able to achieve this using Twilio, however the business requested that they received the messages from the customer themselves and NOT the Twilio number.
Basically, they want to establish a connection between the customer and the client via SMS
This is the way I forwarded the message:
Customer Browser -> Twilio -> Business Phone
The SMS body would include customer message, name and phone number.
The problem with this approach is that the business employees want to be able to simply press "reply" on their phone messaging app and connect directly with the customer instead of receiving the text message from a Twilio number, and starting a new message to send to the customer (apparently this doesn't integrate properly with their database).
Is there a way to send an SMS from a Twilio number but appear as if it was sent from a customer number? Hence, change the "from" / "reply-to" number.
Thank you.
Edit: I think its possible that I request and authorize customer numbers to my Twilio account. However this would mean storing customer phone numbers and I'm not sure if I have the permission to do this.
This is how you send a message (NodeJS):
client.messages.create({
body: 'Hello from Node',
to: '[phone]', // Text this number
from: '[phone]' // From a valid Twilio number
})
The from attribute MUST be a valid (authorized) Twilio number. Hence why customers would need to give away their number in order to become valid.

Answer 1

In my opinion, this is not possible and that is very good so. Think about the implications if you could just send a message from a number that you don't own. Furthermore, it is not optimal if you would request access to your customer's phone numbers. However, you could use the Twilio proxy service in order to set up the conversation between the client and the customer. For more information please visit the proxy docs. It is still in Beta but works reliably IMO.

Answer 2

You cannot.
Even with the authorized numbers feature, it requires an opt-in via a phone call or SMS response which your customer would have to field.
Perhaps allow a customer to include their number in the message body, which with modern phone's is as simple as clicking the number to bring up the ability to message that number
For more info see here twilio docs