Twillio phone number formatting

[bowker6789]

I was wondering if anyone could help, I am struggling to get the SMS Automation flow to work with the Custom Twillio account.

When I enter the SMSTo value as a string e.g. +447######### it works, however when I set it to look at the column that contains the Phone Number e.g. [Contact Number] I get the following error:

'SMSTo' contains invalid phone number '+447#########' (actual number removed).

I have tried formatting the column as both Phone and Text within Appsheet, I have also tried formatting it as Text in the Spreadsheet (with and without the + sign) and it still doesn't seem to work.

I have noticed that when I take the 0 out of the phone number (GB) it does not come up with any errors however I notice that it tries to send to a US number.

"To": [+17#########]

Any ideas thanks?

[1minManager]

So I'm UK based like you and I have a client in Australia I do Appsheet dev for.  In your Twilio account you have to specify in advance the country the SMS's are going to.  Then in Appsheet in your Send SMS task you have to add the 2 digit Country Codes the task can send to.  Austrialia is "AU", UK is "GB"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_3166_country_codes

Another good alternative to Twilio is SMSBroadcast.co.uk  With them you need to create a URL Webhook in Appsheet, but its fairly easy once you done it the first time.

As you're UK based I'll DM my details in case you need any direct help.

Simon@1minManager.com 

[1minManager]

You've not got DM allowed, so contact me if you wish...

[bowker6789 · Accepted solution]

Thanks Simon,

I think I have got to the bottom of it, I was setting Twillio up as an Outbound Channel and selecting this from the "Via Channel" list instead of using "_Custom_Twillio_SMS" and putting the details in manually.

It's working now but why would there be the option to add Twillio as an Outbound Channel if it doesn't work when selected in the "Via Channel" dropdown?

Or have I got it completely wrong?

Appreciate the help anyway 🙂

[1minManager]

Think I used this to set it up - https://support.google.com/appsheet/answer/11509435?hl=en

Copied from the above {my highlighting}:

Select one of the following values:

• _AppSheet_Default_SMS - Use AppSheet's Twilio account. (Supported only in the US and Canada.) This is the default.

• _Custom_Twilio_SMS - Use your own custom Twilio account. You will need to provide additional custom Twilio settings, as described in Use your personal Twilio account.

Note: To send the SMS message to contacts outside of the US and Canada, you must use your own custom Twilio account.

Is this what you mean?

[bowker6789]

Sort of, there seems to be another option which is adding Twillio as an outbound channel in the "My Account" section, you give this channel a name e.g. "My  Appshseet Twillio", once done you can then select "My Appsheet Twillio" from the dropdown menu that also contains _Appsheet_Default_SMS and _Custom_Twillio_SMS.

I thought this was intended as a shortcut so you don't have to manually enter your Twillio ID for each Automation however it doesn't seem to work.

[1minManager]

I didn't use that option