How doesTWILIO SMS bot?

**Augusto_Vera1** · November 8, 2019, 3:29am

Hello, does the twilio channel work like all the other channels, the user has to first chat with the chatbot in order to receive messages? or can it be a list of phones to send unidirectional reminder messages for example?

**eric** · November 8, 2019, 5:04pm

Hi Augusto,

I have found the following entries in the Twilio - flowxo documentation, which I believe answers your query:

This is located under the Important Information section of the article:

The information writes and I quote: “By default, Twilio will automatically respond to keywords such as HELP, STOP (and certain others) for you. However, Twilio will disable this behaviour if you ask them to.”

and

" So the user will only see the welcome message and New Conversation will only trigger when the user types “hello”, “start” or other reserved keywords."

In short, The User needs to interact with flowxo’s bot first to trigger the Twilio integration.

In the 2nd part of your question: "can it be a list of phones to send unidirectional reminder messages "

Help us understand: Will you be the one to send the SMS message (sms broadcast) to a list of subscriber phone numbers?
and is it your intention to have the bot reply to the subscriber’s questions via SMS as well?

Looking forward to your reply so we can understand and be able to help you further.

Thanks,

Eric

**Augusto_Vera1** · November 8, 2019, 5:32pm

I ask this because I once did a broadcast service like a year ago in python for SMS vía Twilio, and Twilio could just send the messages as long as you had the phone list. No previous interaction was needed.

**Augusto_Vera1** · November 8, 2019, 5:33pm

But anyway it makes sense for a customer base of a financial institution to receive alerts of their account status subscribing first.

**eric** · November 8, 2019, 5:41pm

I absolutely agree with you, especially with financial services, these are very sensitive customers and looks into their security and any communication from their providers quite critically. If you can describe for us what you wish to achieve, or if you wish to migrate your previous product/solution developed using FlowXO, please feel free to let us know, we are always ready to help.