This section is a step-by-step guide to select Twilio as your SMS service provider.


Pre-Requisites

You'll need Twilio account to complete this tutorial. You can use your existing Twilio account to integrate, or

Create a Twilio account

Twilio integration on SuprSend account

On the SuprSend dashboard, follow the steps as below:

  1. Select Vendors from the left panel
  2. Select 'SMS' as the channel from the list
  3. Select the communication type from the list - System, Transactional, Promotional
  4. Select 'Twilio' from the list of Vendors



Form FieldDescription
NicknameYou can give any name which may help you to identify this account easily
Account SIDYou will get this API key from your Twilio dashboard (keys and tokens section). SuprSend uses this information to send SMS on your behalf via your registered Twilio account.
Auth TokenYou will get the token from your Twilio dashboard (keys and tokens section). SuprSend uses this information to send SMS on your behalf via your registered Twilio account.
Messaging service SIDMessaging Service is the container for multiple Twilio message senders (e.g. phone numbers, WhatsApp senders). You'll have to create a messaging service and add your from: twilio number as the sender. Refer section to get your messaging service SID.
Price per notificationThis is the amount you pay per SMS notification to Twilio. It helps us to calculate, estimate and optimise your cost spent on notifications.

How to get Account SID and Auth token from your Twilio account

Login to Twilio account and follow the below steps:

  1. Open "Account" menu from your top right side panel
  2. Click on "API keys & tokens" button.


  1. You'll find the "Account SID" and "Auth token" in the Auth Tokens section.


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Verify phone numbers for sending through test credentials

Please note that you can only send to verified mobile numbers (referred as verified caller IDs) using Twilio account test credentials. You can add verified caller IDs from here


How to get Messaging service SID from your Twilio account

To send messages through Twilio acccount, we need a Twilio messaging service with phone number attached to it. Twilio Messaging service is a pool of sender phone numbers having the same features and configurations. It helps in 2 major use cases,

  1. Sending to candidate's around different geographical regions. For example - if you want to send to both US and Indian numbers, you can add one sender number for US and one sender mobile number for India in the same messaging service and twilio will automatically choose the number belonging to the nearest region to send to your end users
  2. Managing the scale of your notifications. In case of high message volumes, twilio distributes your outbound messaging traffic evenly across the phone numbers in your Messaging Service so that the delivery doesn't get affected

You can refer to Twilio's excellent documentation on messaging service to know more about it

To get a messaging service SID, you'll have to purchase a twilio phone number and add it to a messaging service

How to purchase a twilio phone number

Navigate to the "Phone Numbers" page of the Twilio console. Then, click on "Buy a Number" from left side # Phone Numbers menu.


On "Buy a Number" page:

  1. Select the relevant country
  2. Check the "SMS" box in capabilities section to filter for numbers with SMS capability
  3. Click on "Search". This will load the list of available numbers with SMS capability in your region and the price of each number listed in a table.
  4. Select whichever available number appeals to you. Click on "Buy" button next to the mobile number to buy that number.
  5. This will open a modal, scroll down and click on "Buy +1 xxx ..." button and then select, "Setup number." This will load a phone number configuration page. We don't need to change anything for this tutorial.

If you are new to Twilio, your trial account is initially funded with enough money to purchase a phone number, so you won't have any expenses while completing this guide.

You may be asked to comply with the regulatory requirements associated with the number — thorough regulatory documentation is provided by Twilio. Be sure to use your number responsibly and comply with any requirements.

Twilio messaging service

Now that we have a phone number, we need to create a Twilio Messaging Service that uses this number. Navigate to the "Messaging -> "Services"" section on explore products page.

On "Messaging Services" page:

  1. Click on "Create Messaging Service" button


  1. This will open "Messaging Service Setup". Enter the value of two fields: "Friendly Name," and "Use Case".
    1. Let's use "SuprSend SMS service" for "Friendly name"
    2. There are several "Use Case" options. For this tutorial, we can select "Notify my users". Next, click "Create Messaging Service"


  1. The next step is to add the number that we have bought to this messaging service
  2. Once the number is added, Click on "Set up integration"


  1. On "Integration" page, scroll down to add "Callback URL". Add SuprSend webhook URL here to track delivery reports on SuprSend dashboard:
    1. Webhook URL - https://hub.suprsend.com/webhook/twilio/sms


  1. Then Click on "Complete Messaging Service Setup" to complete the setup
  2. Copy the SID value and add it in Twilio Vendor page


Setting Callback URL in Twilio Account

One of the platform advantage of using SuprSend as a central communication system is that it shows notification analytics for all channels in your SuprSend account together.

By default SuprSend Webhook URL is configured in Twilio. This will help you to track the message delivery status and failure logs on SuprSend dashboard. If you have a requirement where you would want to get the DLR reports in your backend, contact us at [email protected]


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Vendor switching not supported

Vendor switching from Twilio to any Indian vendor is currenly not supported due to DLT restrictions. So, if you are using twilio as your default vendor for any of the communication type, you'll not be able to choose a different vendor in other communication type. Though choosing a different vendor in other workspace will still be supported


What’s Next

Create SMS template and add a workflow to start sending your SMS notifications