Freshchat allows you to use SMS/MMS to send and receive messages for business communications using Twilio. You can add new phone numbers or import your existing numbers from Twilio within Freshchat. For a general overview of SMS, check Getting Started with SMS.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Prerequisites
• Connecting your Twilio account with Chat
• Sending and Receiving Messages on Twilio
• SMS restrictions
• MMS restrictions
• Assigning conversations from Twilio to your agents 
• Creating bots on SMS channel from Chat
• Message types supported in SMS
• Troubleshooting Twilio Errors

Prerequisites

1. Make sure you have an active Twilio account.
2. Ensure that you have phone numbers in your Twilio account.
3. If you do not have a Twilio account, you can sign up for one easily here. 

Connecting your Twilio account with Chat

To add numbers from Twilio:

• Log in to your Chat account as Admin.
• Go to Admin Settings > Channels > SMS > Twilio

• Enter the following details: Account name, Account SID, and Auth Token

• Click Next.

• Once the authentication is successful, you can proceed to the next steps. Check the FAQs below to troubleshoot authentication errors.

• Select the phone numbers from your Twilio account to enable SMS. You can choose to add multiple numbers.
  

• If you do not have any numbers, you can buy new numbers directly from Twilo.

• Finally, click Complete Setup. You can now use the added phone numbers to send and receive text messages.

• After adding the numbers to the Freshchat account, the page will resemble the following (sample screen), which also indicates whether the number is enabled for MMS or solely for SMS.
  
  

Sending and Receiving Messages on Twilio

• Once you add phone numbers to your Twilio account, you can send and receive text messages to and from your customers.
• Twilio supports phone numbers from many countries around the world. You can check their website for details.
• Agents can view the conversations in the team inbox and easily respond to customer queries.
• Agents will possess the capability to send media messages from the agent inbox when using an MMS-enabled Twilio number. However, they will only be able to send text messages for numbers that are SMS-enabled.

If your messages are not getting delivered inspite of the twilio numbers connected, we need to check the geo-permissions for that twilio account. In your twilio console, you can control the geo locations to which messages can be sent to/ from your Twilio SMS number.

Steps for enabling Geo Location:

Step 1: Login to your Twilio Console and navigate to the following page :

https://www.twilio.com/console/sms/settings/geo-permissions

Step 2: Mark the checkboxes for the region you wish to send to / receive SMS from and click on .
Note : Most of the countries are already enabled by default.

SMS restrictions

• Each text message can have 160 characters. The message will be split and sent if you enter a longer message. For example, if you type a 161-character message, it will be split into two messages; one of 153 and one of 8.
• Twilio Numbers with only SMS Enabled does not have the capability to send MMS messages

MMS restrictions

• For MMS, Maximum size limit is 5 MB
• Character Limit for an MMS Message is 1600 characters beyond which message will not be sent to end customer
• Accepted content types for Media is available here

Assigning conversations from Twilio to your agents 

• Twilio also gets its own Topic in Admin > Topics.
• You can use it to further enhance your customer service experience by having a specialized agent group handle these questions by assigning the Topic (all the questions from the SMS) to the group. 

Creating bots on SMS channel from Chat

• When creating the bot, you can select SMS in the first step right after naming the bot. 
  
  

Please be aware that for end customers to access MMS bot features in Freshchat, their phone numbers must possess MMS capabilities. Activating an MMS bot for an SMS-only number is not a viable option.

Message types supported in SMS

Yes - Supported, No - Not supported, NA - Not supported by SMS.

Note:

SMS Messages sent from International Long codes to UK Mobile Numbers have been blocked from June 1,2023

• Effective July 3, 2023, all messaging traffic from International Long Codes to British Telecom (BT) in the U.K. has been blocked.
• Effective August 1, 2023, all traffic from International Long Codes to SKY in the U.K. will be charged at a new rate of £0.07 per message segment. 
• Effective September 1, 2023, all traffic from International Long Codes to SKY in the U.K. will be blocked.
  
  Reason of blocking - U.K. network operators consider the use of International Long Codes for Application-To-Person (A2P) SMS as an abuse of Person-To-Person (P2P) routes. SMS messages to the U.K. must be sent with an Alphanumeric Sender ID, a domestic Long Code, or a Short Code.
  
  

For Guidelines, Please refer here

How to register a 10 DLC twilio number?

• You can register it directly from your twilio console. Check this article for more details. 
• We intend to receive '30034' error code which arises when the messages are sent from an unregistered 10 DLC number to a US end customer. If you are looking to send messages to US customers, it's advised to use registered 10 DLC numbers. 
• It's also recommended to use toll free numbers to send messages as it doesn't have any restrictions. For any queries around registering a twilio number, Please reach out to twilio support.

Troubleshooting Twilio Errors

1. I am unable to send/receive SMS.

• Check if the Twilio account is connected.
• Check if the added phone number status is active.
• Check if you have enough credit in your Twilio account.
• Check if the destination country where SMS is sent is supported for SMS via Twilio and Global SMS is available on the phone number. For more details, check this article.

2. My messages are undelivered.

    Check this article to troubleshoot and fix Twilio undelivered messages.

3. How do I find my SID and auth token to connect to my Twilio account? 

    Check the section above.

4. I do not have a Twilio account. How can I create one? 

    It's easy to sign up for Twilio. Please check their Sign up page. 

5. What are the limitations of Twilio Free Trial accounts? 

     Twilio free accounts have some restrictions. Check this article to know the limitations.

6. Can I use phone numbers from my Freshcaller account? 

     Currently, this is not possible, but will be available soon.

7. Can I send global SMS on Twilio Trial accounts?  

    Twilio sets no additional restriction for Global SMS on trial accounts. Check this article for more details.