I'm new to Twilio - can you send SMS messages to just anyone? It seems like it requires me to verify each and every single phone number I'd like to send messages to rather than letting me send to any one of my users.
Is this true? Is there a way I can send messages to any of my ITSM users without having to preverify their phone number?
Twilio employee here. This is a restriction for trial accounts only. Once you add a credit card to your account, you will be able to send messages to any number you would like (based on the international permissions in your account, etc).
Related
Can I directly send message to recipient using Twilio WhatsApp api without using join [key-word].
Is it because of Twilio Sandbox?
If I send request to enable my Twilio number of WhatsApp, issue will get resolved and I can send messages directly?
The join [key-word] system is just for the Twilio Sandbox for WhatsApp. It allows Twilio to use one WhatsApp number for all accounts that are testing with the Sandbox.
Once you have connected your Twilio number to your WhatsApp business profile you will be able to send messages to your users without requiring them to message you first. Note that WhatsApp does still require an explicit opt-in from your users before you can send to them. Also, for initiating conversations you will need to get template messages approved and then use the template as the first message. But the technical barrier of the join message will not be in your way.
I am using the Verification service and all working fine. My Service Name appears in the body of the Verification message correctly but how can I change the SMS From label?
In my SMS app I see a list of messages from various contacts and companies, the message from Twilio Verification Service shows as a 5 digit code e.g 12345. How can I change that from 12345 to "MyService"?
I get messages from other companies and a short company name appears as a contact name, how can I do the same with my twilio verification service?
Thanks
Twilio developer evangelist here.
Twilio Verify uses a variety of short codes, alphanumeric sender IDs and other phone numbers in order to send the verification messages around the world. The Verify team work on ensuring the numbers/sender IDs have the best possible delivery by pre-registering them in various countries. This gives you the highest possible chances of getting authentication messages delivered swiftly. You can't customise the number by default.
If you are looking to customise the number that is used, I would recommend you talk to the Twilio sales team to see what you can arrange.
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: '+12345678901', // Text this number
from: '+12345678901' // 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.
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.
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
I am working on an Opt-In /Opt-Out api that integrates with Twilio. The way our Opt-In/Opt-Out works is each company (our customer) signs up for one or more Twilio phone numbers and their customers can opt-in/opt-out into these numbers.
When Twilio receives these opt-in/opt-outs we want Twilio to call us into a webhook URL.
So my question is: how do we register these callback URLs? Do these have to be defined at the time when each company signs up for a phone number? If so whats the API end point for that?
These numbers can be added by different companies at any time. Please advise how to do that. We already have URLs defined for sending and receiving SMS messages with Twilio. In this case we first send the message to Twilio and we specify a callback url in that. Can the Opt-In/Opt-outs work with these already registered end points?
All the phone numbers these companies sing up for are created as a subaccount under us. So is that fine with Twilio and can Twilio call us back on the already registered end points (URLs).
If you have any documentation on how to set up an Opt-In/Opt-Out,please include that. I couldn't find one anywhere. The API method we use for creating subaccounts when companies sign up for a phone number is CreateSubAccount and there is no parameter to specify an call back endpoint URL. I tried contacting their support but they haven't gotten back to us yet.
Twilio developer evangelist here.
I'm not sure exactly what you mean when you say "When Twilio receives these opt-in/opt-outs" as the only thing you will get webhooks for is when a number receives an incoming SMS (or phone call, but we're talking SMS right now).
You can set a different SMS webhook URL per each phone number using the API when you buy the phone number. As part of the POST request to the Incoming Phone Numbers resource you can add the optional parameters SmsUrl and SmsMethod.
Once you have purchased the number, you can also update the webhook URLs for it, by POSTing or PUTing to the instance resource, using the same parameters.
Let me know if this helps at all.
I have an existing web app built using Ruby on Rails. It already has a built-in email messages feature. Our users have requested for a functionality which is able to do the following (for US users only):
Get a unique and new US phone number which is tied to their registered email address (user ID in our web app
For others (users or non-users) to be able to send our registered SMS messages to this new number. The registered user will get a notification that he has received an SMS and will then go to Messages module to retrieve the SMS
The registered user should also be able to send an SMS message from his Message module to other users and their mobile numbers. These users will not be receiving the content of the SMS but rather be getting a notification that they have receved a SMS from our registered user and now they need to either creae a new ID or login using existing credentials and authenticate phone number in order to retrieve SMS from our user.
Question: What Ruby Gem could be used for such functionality?
Also, are there APIs and open source code available for such functionality?
I would also like to kee my costs low for all the above as we are still a start-up company.
Thanks in advance.
You might consider checking out Twilio (disclosure: I work for Twilio).
Twilio has a Ruby gem that provides a high-level API for sending SMS messages and buying phone numbers. You can also receive incoming SMS messages to a number by specifying "webhook" URLs that will receive an HTTP request when a message is received. You can sign up for a free trial account here.
Some relevant bits of documentation:
Sending an SMS
Find an available number (note: you can also do this through the GUI)
Buy the number you found (note: you can also do this through the UI on the site)
Responding to incoming messages