Use this app to broadcast SMS messages to large numbers of people.
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
TTK_BROADCAST_NOTIFY_SERVICE_SID |
The Notify service you wish to use to send outbound SMS - must have a Messaging Service associated with it (see docs below) |
TTK_BROADCAST_ADMIN_NUMBERS |
A comma separated list of E.164 formatted phone numbers for people that can use the broadcast command. e.g. +16512225555,+14156667777 |
None - only built-in twilio module is used.
Before using this Function, you will need to create (or use an existing) Notify service and Messaging service. The Notify service will use the Messaging service to send out SMS messages. The Messaging service will be configured to send incoming messages to your Subscribe/Broadcast function.
Go to the console and create a messaging service. Choose the "Notifications, Two-way" use case to preset some options on the service.
Once created, click on the left nav link for "Numbers" and add (or buy) a phone number to use with this service. This will be the phone number(s) your end users will interact with.
We'll need to come back here later - consider leaving this page open in a tab while you proceed to the next step in the console.
In the console, create a Notify service. Our function code uses Notify to store our subscriber list and to send out notifications. After your service is created, locate the Dropdown in your Notify service config labeled "Messaging Service SID". You should be able to choose the Messaging Service we created in the last step.
You will need the generated SID for this service to configure your environment in the next step.
Don't forget to save your changes!
In the console, navigate to the Runtime config page for Functions. Click the red "add" button to create a new Function, and choose the "SMS Broadcast" template.
Populate the required environment variables, as documented above. Use the Notify Service SID from the Notify service you created during the setup steps. Add "admin" phone numbers for folks you'd like to be able to broadcast messages.
In a few moments your Function should be deployed! Grab its URL from the configuration screen, as we will now need to configure it for incoming SMS messages to our Messaging service.
Go back to the messaging service you created earlier. In its configuration, you'll see a checkbox for "Handle Incoming Messages". Click this box to enable the feature. In the text box that appears, paste in the URL to the Function we just deployed. Click "Save".
Now if all went well, you'll be able to start using your phone number for managing broadcasts and subscriptions!
Once your phone number is set up, folks can text anything to it to receive a brief informational message about what commands are available.
subscribe- subscribes the current number for updates from the servicestop- uses Twilio's built-in stop handling to prevent a user from receiving messagesstart- uses Twilio's built-in features to opt a user back in to receiving messagesbroadcast <message content>- Administrators can use the broadcast command to send a message out to all subscribed users. Not included in help text.
To edit the copy for any of the messages, open the function code and look for the text strings at the top of the file.