Twilio

Explore 2 actions and their permissionsExact inputs, sign-in scopes, access limits and approval rules.

With Twilio connected, a hire can:

• send a text (SMS) to a customer from your business's number,
• read the texts with one customer, both ways, or the latest texts people sent you,
• be woken when a customer texts your number.

Texts go out from your Twilio number (or Messaging Service), in your business's name.

1. Get what Roster needs from TwilioCopy Anchor Link

Open API keys & auth tokens in the Twilio console (the form in Roster links there too) and copy:

• the Account SID (starts with AC),
• the Auth token.

You also need a Twilio phone number that can send texts, or a Messaging Service (its SID starts with MG).

Prefer not to give Roster the Auth token for sending? Make an API key instead: on the same page, Create API key, type Standard, and copy its SID (starts with SK) and secret. Roster still needs the Auth token to check that replies really come from Twilio, so give it too if hires should receive texts.

2. Connect it in RosterCopy Anchor Link

1. Open Integrations → Tools → Add a tool, search for Twilio and choose it.
2. How Roster signs in: Account SID and Auth Token, or An API key (then paste the key's SID and secret).
3. Fill in:
   • Account SID and Auth token.
   • Send from: your Twilio number with + and the country code, like +97145550100, or the Messaging Service SID.
   • Business name: your business's name, like Bayt Studio.
4. Click Connect. Roster tells you at once if a SID doesn't look right (AC…, SK…), then checks the credentials with Twilio, and the connection shows Connected as your Twilio account. If Twilio refuses them, Roster says so and saves nothing.

3. Let customers' texts reach RosterCopy Anchor Link

When you send from a phone number and gave the Auth token, Roster points the number's incoming texts at itself when you connect: there's nothing to paste. Removing the connection points them away from Roster again.

For a Messaging Service, or to do it by hand, the connection shows the address Twilio should send texts to, with a Copy address button:

1. In Twilio, open Phone Numbers → Manage → Active numbers and choose your number (or open your Messaging Service's Integration page).
2. Under Messaging, A message comes in: choose Webhook, paste the address, and keep HTTP POST.
3. Save.

Roster checks every text really comes from Twilio, using the Auth token, and ignores anything else. Until Twilio has sent something, a watching hire checks your number for new texts every so often instead.

4. Give hires accessCopy Anchor Link

On the hire's Tools tab, click Give access on Twilio:

• Read only: it can read texts, and nothing else.
• Read and write: it can also send texts.
• Who it may text: full numbers like +971501234567, or country codes like +971. Leave it empty to let it text anyone.

If someone replies STOP, Twilio stops texts to them until they reply START. A hire that tries is told so, and doesn't keep trying.

First texts wait for approvalCopy Anchor Link

A hire's first text to a number with no texts either way (none sent to it, none received from it, in Roster or in your Twilio account) waits for a person's approval. The hire asks in the thread with the number and the text, and when the approver says yes, Roster sends exactly that text, once. After that, texts to that number go out without asking.

Numbers your team already texts from its own phones can be added under Settings → Workspace → People you're already in touch with (more), so first texts to them don't ask. Approving a first text adds the number there too.

Saying it's an AI assistantCopy Anchor Link

A hire never pretends to be a person, and always says it's AI when asked. If you also want it to say so up front, turn on Say it's an AI assistant in first messages to outsiders under Settings → Workspace (more). Then the first text a hire sends to a number starts with "This is the AI assistant for" and your business name.

Texting customers is regulated in many countries (consent, quiet hours, registering your number). Twilio's console tells you what your number needs.

{
  "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#",
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "to": {
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 5,
      "description": "the customer's number with country code, like +971501234567"
    },
    "text": {
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 1,
      "maxLength": 1540
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "to",
    "text"
  ]
}

{
  "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#",
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "number": {
      "description": "the customer's number; leave out for the latest",
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 5
    },
    "limit": {
      "default": 30,
      "type": "integer",
      "minimum": 1,
      "maximum": 100
    }
  }
}