Twilio SMS

DRUID authors can integrate chatbots with Twillio SMS allowing their customers to start conversations with their chatbot in the Twilio app.

Note:  Twillio SMS channel integration is not available in Druid on premise deployments; you cannot activate the channel.
Important!  The Welcome flow will be triggered at the user's first conversation with the bot; the predict with the initial "user says" is dropped.

Prerequisites

To integrate DRUID in Twillio SMS, follow these steps:

Step 1. Configure Twilio’s Programmable SMS

Log into the Twilio Console and configure a Twilio SMS-enabled phone number for the chatbot to use.

If you are using a free trial account, click the Get a Twillio phone number button.

A phone number becomes automatically active for the chatbot to use.

If you have a paid Twilio account, you can purchase a phone number . To do so, on the Phone Numbers menu, click Manage > Buy a number. In the Buy a Number screen you can select your country and check SMS in the capabilities field. If you’d like to request a number from your region, you can enter your area code in the Number field. Click the Search button to see what numbers are available, and then click Buy for the number that you like from the results.

After you confirm your purchase, click the Close button.

Step 2. Get Twillio SMS account info

In the Twillio Console homepage, scroll-sown to the Account Info section.

Copy the account info details: Account SID, Auth Token and My Twillio phone number and save their values as you need them to configure the channel in the DRUID Portal.

Step 3. Activate Twillio SMS channel in DRUID

Log in the DRUID Chatbot Portal and from the main menu, select your bot. The bot configuration page appears by default on the Details tab.

Click the Channels tab, and then click SMS (by Twillio). The channel section expands.

Fill in the fields with the account information you copied from the Twillio Console.

Click the Publish button to publish the channel.

Step 4. Configure your Twillio number's SMS URL

Go back to the Twilio Console and on the main menu, click on Phone Numbers > Manage > TwiML apps, and then click the Create new TwiML App button at the top-right corner of the page. The Create new TwiML App pop-up appears. Enter a friendly name and in the Messaging Configuration section, enter the following URL in the Request URL field: https://sms.botframework.com/api/sms.

Click the Create button.

On the Phone Numbers menu, click Manage > Active numbers, click on the desired number. Scroll down to the Messaging Configuration section. From the Configure with field, select TwiML app and from the TwiML App field, select the app you created above.

Click the Save configuration button at the bottom of the page to save the changes.

Note:  In DRUID 7.5 and higher, when a user initiates a conversation with the bot, the Welcome flow will be automatically triggered. Regardless of the user's subscription status to the bot channel, the welcome message will be promptly sent to the user, ensuring a seamless and engaging interaction experience.