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Setting Up Twilio SMS

Connect a Twilio SMS number to your Intercom workspace so inbound texts land in your Intercom inbox and replies go out over Twilio.

Written by Tarek Khalil

Before you start

You need:

  • A Twilio account with an active SMS-capable phone number or alphanumeric sender.

  • Your Twilio Account SID and Auth Token (both found on the Twilio Console home page).

  • For numbers sending to the United States: a registered A2P 10DLC brand and campaign (covered below).

  • Admin access to the Octopods workspace.

Step 1: Start the Twilio channel setup

  1. Open the workspace you want to add Twilio to.

  2. Click the option to add a new channel and select Twilio under Popular Channels.

  3. The Twilio setup panel opens. The left side shows a “How it works” summary; the right side has the credentials form.

Step 2: Enter your Twilio credentials

In the form, fill in:

  • Twilio Account SID — starts with AC and is shown on the Twilio Console home page.

  • Twilio Auth Token — also on the Twilio Console home page. Click the eye icon in Twilio to reveal it, then copy it into Octopods.

Tip: Use the Live credentials, not the Test credentials — test credentials cannot send or receive real messages.

Step 3: Pick the sender

Choose how outbound messages will be sent:

  • Phone Number — pick from the list of phone numbers Octopods fetches from your Twilio account. Each entry is a real E.164-formatted number on the account (for example, +15551234567).

  • Add Alphanumeric Sender ID — a short alphanumeric string (up to 11 characters, letters and digits only). Alphanumeric senders can only send outbound messages; they cannot receive replies, so this option is not suitable if you need two-way conversations.

If a short code has been provisioned on your Twilio account, it appears in the same list as your phone numbers — Octopods does not have a separate short-code option in the form.

Step 4: Complete A2P 10DLC for US numbers

If your Twilio number is a US long code, US carriers require it to be registered under the A2P 10DLC framework (Application-to-Person messaging over 10-digit long code). Unregistered US traffic gets heavily filtered.

When you pick a US number, Octopods shows an A2P section with two options:

  • Register Brand in Twilio — takes you to Twilio’s brand and campaign registration. Brand approval typically takes 1–2 weeks, and campaign approval another few days.

  • I’ll do this later — you can start using the channel right away for testing, but deliverability to US recipients will be poor until registration completes.

Important: If you skip registration, your outbound US traffic will be throttled or blocked by carriers. Finish registration inside Twilio before using the channel for production traffic.

For numbers sending only to non-US countries, A2P 10DLC does not apply and this step does not appear.

Step 5: Save and activate

  1. Click Activate Twilio Channel at the bottom of the setup panel.

  2. Octopods verifies your credentials against Twilio’s API. If anything is wrong (typo in the SID, revoked Auth Token, number not on the account) you’ll see an error — correct it and try again.

  3. On success, Octopods automatically registers the webhook URL on your Twilio number. You do not need to configure anything in the Twilio Console yourself.

  4. The channel appears in the channel list with a Connected status.

Step 6: Send a test message

  1. From a personal phone, text a short message to the Twilio number you just connected.

  2. Open the Intercom Inbox for the connected workspace. A new conversation appears with your message.

  3. Reply to the conversation in Intercom.

  4. The reply arrives on your phone as an SMS from the Twilio number.

If either direction fails, open the channel’s detail page and use the reconnect action. See Channel Statuses and Troubleshooting for more diagnosis steps.

Keeping credentials up to date

  • Rotating your Twilio Auth Token inside the Twilio Console disconnects the Octopods channel. After rotating, return to the channel’s detail page and re-enter the new token to reconnect.

  • Reassigning a phone number to a different Twilio account breaks the webhook registration. Remove the channel from Octopods and add it again under the new account.

What’s next

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