Twilio

Send SMS messages from your Glide app.

Twilio is a communications platform that enables businesses to send messages to their customers across multiple channels. With the Twilio integration, you can easily send SMS (text) messages from your app to keep your users engaged and informed.

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Adding and Configuring the Integration

  1. In Glide, click the Settings icon in the upper-right corner.

  2. In the Integrations menu, choose Twilio and select Add.

  3. Next, you will to set your Twillio Account SID, Auth token, and From number.

  4. To find this information, open your Twilio dashboard.

  5. Input the information into your Glide integration. You are now ready to start using Twilio with Glide.

Verified phone numbers on Twilio

Twilio allows messaging to different numbers depending on what level of account you have. In some cases, you can only text phone numbers that you’ve verified. Click here to learn more about verified phone numbers on Twilio.

Features

To send a text with Twilio, select which column the integration should pull phone numbers from, and then input the message text you'd like to send. You can choose to send messages either as SMS or through Whatsapp.

The actions can be added to a component that supports actions (e.g., a button), added to an action sequence in the Action Editor, or after a form is submitted.

You can create a dynamic message by creating a Template Column in the Data Editor and then setting that column as your Message field.

Send SMS message

  1. If you have not already, set up columns to the recipient phone numbers and the message text.

  2. Select the component you'd like to add the action to. Remember, this must be a component that supports actions.

  3. Search for the Send SMS message action or navigate to Integrations -> Twilio -> Send SMS message.

  4. Name the action.

  5. Choose an icon.

  6. Select the column that contains the Recipient phone numbers, or enter a manual value.

  7. Select the column that contains the Message, or enter custom text.

  8. Click away to exit the configuration.

Send WhatsApp message

  1. If you have not already, set up columns to the recipient phone numbers and the message text.

  2. Select the component you'd like to add the action to. Remember, this must be a component that supports actions.

  3. Search for the Send WhatsApp message action or navigate to Integrations -> Twilio -> Send WhatsApp message.

  4. Name the action.

  5. Choose an icon.

  6. Select the column that contains the Recipient phone numbers, or enter a manual value.

  7. Select the column that contains the Message, or enter custom text.

  8. Click away to exit the configuration.

Ready to automate?

You can use a Template Column to create customized messages for different users.

Optimizing Delivery Times with Twilio Text Notifications

SwiftCourier, a premier courier service, coordinates with a network of freelance couriers. They've encountered a bottleneck in getting couriers to pick up orders as soon as they become available for delivery.

SwiftCourier manages all order data in Glide. When a package is ready for delivery, they manually text the assigned courier to arrange pickup.

SwiftCourier app for managing new orders and deliveries.

This process, while functional, isn't scalable as the business grows. To automate this, they decide to utilize Glide's Twilio integration. This setup sends an automatic text to the assigned courier when a new order is marked ready for delivery.

Implementing the Twilio Notification

After integrating Twilio with their Glide app, they create a custom Twilio action. This action is added to the custom action that marks an order as ready for delivery.

Custom action workflow for sending Twilio SMS to couriers.

And that's it! Each time an order is marked ready for delivery in Glide, a text is instantly sent out to the assigned courier.

A text being sent to the courier.

Enhancing Twilio Notifications with Delivery Details

SwiftCourier takes this a step further by including pertinent delivery details in the text messages.

In the Orders table in Glide, they add a new template column. This column includes:

  • The pickup location

  • The delivery destination

  • Specific order details

Template column for SwiftCourier SMS.

They then modify the Twilio notification action to use this template column.

Adding the template column to the custom actions workflow.

Now, every time an order is ready, a detailed text is automatically dispatched to the assigned courier. This automation makes SwiftCourier's delivery process faster and eliminates manual text messaging, saving valuable hours.

Dynamic SwiftCourier SMS with Twilio.

To learn more generally about Integrations in Glide, including how they affect your app’s usage, check out our Introduction to Integrations.

Frequently Asked Questions

Have a question about Twilio? Ask the Glide community.

Updated more than a week ago
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