How to Send Messages with Twilio

To win a battle for customer satisfaction and loyalty, Twilio makes it super easy to interact with and reach your customers.

IndicaOnline customers who are on Delivery or Elite plan are now able to send outgoing SMS messages to mobile phones across the country via Twilio service.

In order for your marketing newsletter to work through the Twilio service, please contact IndicaOnline technical support to activate this new feature.

Make sure to check our SMS Guidelines article, to learn how to avoid being suspended from Twilio.

To complete the system integration process, you need to fill in three fields in your IndicaOnline account with the corresponding values which you can find in your Twilio account:

• Account SID

• Auth Token

• SID

1. Go to your existing Twilio account https://www.twilio.com/console or create a new account and copy Account SID and Auth Token under the Dashboard section; 

2. Next, in your IndicaOnline account go to Config → Email & SMS Settings → SMS Settings and paste these values into the two fields (fig. 4 and 5);

3. Next, in the Twilio console click on the three dots sign and choose the Programmable Messaging menu;

4. Choose "Messaging Services" and click on the "Create New Messaging Service" tab;

5. Then, in the "Create a New Messaging Service" popup window, put the "New Messaging Service" name and click the Create button;

 

6. Next, if you have already bought a Twilio number, navigate to the Phone Numbers menu to see your active numbers. 

Select your phone number, scroll to the bottom of the page, choose the Messaging Service you have created to go with your number, and click Save;

7. If you do not have a Twilio number yet, under the "Active Numbers" menu click on "Buy a Number" to be able to send outbound SMS;

Please note that the amount of added numbers depends on how many text messages you can send each day.

Twilio allows you to send short message service (SMS) for 500 messages per day. The 500 message limit is the maximum limit you are allowed to use to prevent your phone number from being blocked.

For instance, if you send 10,000 text messages per day, then you need to add at least 20 numbers. 

8. Enter the desired area code for the Outbound Number and click on Search to list the available options;

9. Proceed by going back to the Messaging Service you have created and copy the contents of the "SID" field;

10. Go to your IndicaOnline account now and paste the copied "SID" value into the Messaging Service ID field and click Save;

11. Once this has been done, the next step is to send a message to the test phone number from your IndicaOnline account. Simply enter a phone number in the Test Phone Number field and click the Send Test SMS button. Twilio will let you know that you've established a connection once you get a response. 

 Please refer to our article for more information on how to create campaign text messages and set up your own SMS templates.

Your feedback is important to us. If you have questions or concerns regarding this article, feel free to reach out to our tech support team.