Twilio is the leading SMS provider. Period. They not only provide the best service, but they are also one of the least expensive options available. Again, we don’t have a relationship with this organization, but we do know a good thing when we see it! Below are instructions on setting up this service for Rock.

1. From the Twilio website click the sign-up link, then provide your account information. You'll then need to verify that you have a pulse by typing in a verification code they text to you. Finally, select a phone number to tie to your account and proceed to your account information.
2. On your account page note your Account SID and Auth Token. You'll need this for Step 5 below.
3. In order to receive replies from your SMS messages you'll need to provide a 'callback' (aka webhook) address for your SMS number. This tells Twilio how to tell Rock when this event occurs. You can set this by clicking 'Numbers' from the main menu, selecting the SMS number you wish to configure, then adding the URL format below to the 'Messaging Request URL'. https://-yourserver-/Webhooks/Twilio.ashx

4. Before you can actually use Twilio for real communications, you'll need to upgrade from the free trial.
5. From Rock navigate to
Admin Tools > Settings > Communication Transports > Twilio. Enter in your Account SID and Auth Token and activate the transport. Click Save when done.
6. Next set the Twilio transport as the default transport for the SMS medium under
Admin Tools > Settings > Communication Mediums > SMS.
7. Finally, add your Twilio phone number under
Admin Tools > Settings > System Phone Numbers. You can add as many Twilio numbers here as you wish. Be sure that the phone number is in the Phone Number field and that it is in the format of “+15555555555” (or similar for international numbers). If you select an Assigned to Person, be sure the individual you select has a valid SMS phone number on their record.

Twilio Signature Validation

When you’re setting up your Twilio transport as described above (step 5), you’ll have an option to Enable Signature Validation. You’ll want to enable this if you're concerned that a system other than Twilio might try to send incoming SMS responses to your Rock server. Enabling this is a small step you can take to possibly avoid a lot of unwanted messages, and it helps keep your data secure.

In short, Signature Validation compares your Public Application Root (this is a Global Attribute in Rock) to the webhook that’s set in Twilio. If they match, the validation is successful, and the message will come through as usual. If they don’t match, then the message won’t reach Rock. There’s a bit more to it than that, and it gets a little technical, but we strongly recommend checking out the details on Twilio’s site so you can get this set up.

That's it! Now you’re set to send SMS messages from the Rock communications features.