SMS channel

What it is

The SMS card connects your chatbot to a phone number you own in Twilio, so customers can text a question and get an answer back as a text message. No app to install, no smartphone required — which is exactly why people still ask for it.

Twilio is the only supported provider on this card. You bring your own Twilio account, and Twilio bills you separately for the messages it sends and receives.

There are three values to paste, all from the Twilio Console:

• Account SID — your Twilio account identifier. It starts with AC and is followed by 32 hexadecimal characters. The form checks that shape before it will submit, so a mistyped value is caught immediately.
• Auth token — your Twilio auth token. This does double duty: Agentency uses it to send messages and to verify that each incoming text really came from Twilio.
• Sending number — the Twilio number customers will text, written in international format with a leading plus sign and no spaces, for example +14155551234.

SMS goes Connected as soon as those credentials check out, but no text will ever reach the chatbot until you paste Agentency's Callback URL into the number's inbound-message webhook in Twilio.

When you would use it

Use this when your audience texts rather than chats: field services, clinics, deliveries, logistics, older or low-bandwidth customer bases, or anyone who will not install an app to ask one question.

It is also the most expensive channel per conversation, because every message in both directions is a billable text on your Twilio account and answers are often split across several texts. Read the cost note below before you launch it broadly.

This is not phone verification

Worth stating plainly, because the two get confused: signing in to Agentency with a code sent to your own phone is Phone verification. It is about proving who you are. The SMS channel is about your customers texting your chatbot. They are unrelated features and neither one enables the other.

Where to find it

Open Dashboard → Chatbots → your chatbot → Integrations → Messaging and click the SMS card.

Before you start

You need a Twilio account with a number that can send and receive SMS. A voice-only number will not work. In some countries — the United States in particular — carriers also require the number and your business to be registered before texting works reliably; that registration happens with Twilio, not here. If your texts to and from a brand-new Twilio number vanish, that is the first thing to check with Twilio.

You also need the usual four gates: a plan with integrations, messaging enabled for this deployment, an Active chatbot, and a free slot under the connected-app cap. See Messaging channels availability.

Steps

1. In the Twilio Console, copy your Account SID and Auth Token.
2. Choose or buy an SMS-capable Twilio number and note it in international format, starting with a plus sign.
3. In Agentency, open Integrations → Messaging → SMS and enter all three values. The drawer's View official setup guide link goes to Twilio's webhook documentation.
4. Press Connect. Agentency checks the credentials against your Twilio account before saving anything, so a wrong SID or token fails here.
5. Copy the Callback URL from the panel titled One last step.
6. In Twilio, open the settings for that phone number and find the messaging section. Paste the URL into the A message comes in webhook and set the method to HTTP POST. Save.
7. Text a question to the number from your own phone and confirm the answer arrives.
8. Check the thread in Conversations.

What you will see

The connect form has four numbered steps, the official-guide link, a note that the sending number must be SMS-capable and in international format, and the three fields — the auth token masked, the SID and number in plain text.

Once connected, the badge reads Connected, the panel shows Connected as followed by your sending number, and the warning panel One last step displays the callback URL with a copy button. Lifetime message and user counts sit next to it. Test connection re-checks your Twilio credentials; it does not check the Twilio webhook, so a healthy test with silent texts always points at step 6.

How replies behave

• Long answers are split. A single text is capped, so a detailed answer arrives as several messages — each one billable on your Twilio account. This is the main reason SMS costs more per conversation than any other channel. A shorter-answer instruction pays for itself here; see Write instructions.
• Incoming text is trimmed after about 2,000 characters, which almost never matters over SMS.
• Picture messages get a short reply saying the chatbot reads text only.
• Each answer spends message credits on your Agentency plan at your chatbot's live model rate (1X = one credit; see Message credits) in addition to Twilio's carrier charges. Two meters, two bills.
• A paused chatbot is completely silent. No auto-reply, nothing. The customer's text is simply not answered.
• Out of credits produces a short message saying so rather than an answer — see Out of credits.

Limits and plan notes

SMS occupies one of your connected-app slots for this chatbot, exactly like WhatsApp or Telegram. Reconnecting replaces the stored credentials without using a second slot.

All three values are stored encrypted, and the auth token is never displayed again. Disconnecting stops replies immediately and clears them, but it does not remove the webhook from your Twilio number — clear that in Twilio, or the number will keep posting to an address that no longer answers.

Carrier fees, Twilio fees, number rental, and any registration costs are entirely outside Agentency billing.

Common problems

Connect works, texts do nothing.

The webhook in Twilio is missing, points somewhere else, or is set to GET instead of POST. Copy the callback URL from the drawer again and re-save it against the number as an HTTP POST. Then confirm the chatbot is Active.

The form rejects my Account SID.

It must be the account SID that starts with AC — not an API key SID, not a messaging service SID, not the phone number's SID.

The sending number is rejected.

Write it in international format with a leading plus and no spaces, brackets, or dashes: +14155551234. It must be a number your Twilio account actually owns.

It worked, then everything stopped at once.

Someone rotated the Twilio auth token. That breaks both directions here: outbound sends fail, and incoming texts fail their authenticity check and are refused. Open the card, press Reconnect, and paste the current token.

Some replies arrive, some do not.

Usually Twilio-side: an unregistered number, a carrier filter, or a spending limit. Check the message logs in the Twilio Console, which will show a per-message error where Agentency can only show that it handed the message over.

Can I use a different SMS provider?

Not on this card. The connector is Twilio.

Can two chatbots share one Twilio number?

No. A number posts to one address, so the most recent connection wins. Give each chatbot its own number.