SMS (Twilio)

What it does

SMS runs through your own Twilio account: you paste its Account SID and Auth Token and pick one of its numbers. Sellio checks the credentials, confirms the number is yours and can text, and points the number's incoming messages at Sellio itself. Texts become conversations; your team's replies go out from that number.

Before you start

• A Twilio account, upgraded from trial if you want to text numbers you have not verified in Twilio.
• A Twilio phone number with SMS capability, bought in the Twilio Console under Phone Numbers.
• From the Twilio Console home page: the Account SID (it starts with AC) and the Auth Token.
• For a US number: A2P 10DLC registration (a brand and a campaign) completed in the Twilio Console, with the number added to the campaign's Messaging Service. US carriers block unregistered texts from 10-digit numbers.

Connect it

1. 1
   In Sellio, open Settings, then Integrations, and choose Twilio SMS.
2. 2
   Enter a channel name, the Account SID, the Auth Token and the number in international format, such as +14155550123.
3. 3
   Save. Sellio checks the credentials with Twilio, confirms the account owns the number and that it can text, and sets the number's incoming message webhook itself; there is no URL to paste anywhere.
4. 4
   Text the number from a phone. It appears in the inbox within a few seconds; reply from there.

Once connected

• Each phone number that texts in is one conversation, reopened when it texts again.
• Replies leave from the channel's number as ordinary texts. A reply longer than 1,600 characters is sent as several texts.
• Pictures and files a customer sends by MMS arrive as attachments, up to 5 MB each. Files your team attaches follow the text as MMS, which Twilio carries on US and Canadian numbers; elsewhere the text still arrives and the file does not.
• Twilio handles opt-out keywords itself: a customer who texts STOP receives no more texts from the number until they text START, and a reply to them is marked Not delivered.
• Twilio bills every text, in and out, to your Twilio account at its own rates; Sellio charges nothing per message.
• The AI agent and customer-message automations do not run on SMS; they work on website chat only.

Connected channels count against the plan’s channel limit (one on Free, three on Mini, five on Essentials, twenty-five on Plus); see Plans and billing. Disconnecting a channel keeps its past conversations in the inbox.