Twilio is one of the two carriers SmartTile can hand its SMS alerts to. Your contacts choose text alerts in SmartTile; SmartChoice's Twilio account delivers them, and Twilio reports back whether each text arrived. There is nothing for you to sign up for, and no Twilio account of your own is involved.
twilio Node library, messages.create), on SmartChoice's own Twilio account configured per SmartTile server — not a customer connection.An e-mail about a dead circuit is read when someone next opens a laptop. A text is read in the parking lot. SmartTile's Instant Alert™ puts the outage — site, device, how many devices at the site are down, since when, and the ticket number when there is one — on the phone of the people you choose. Twilio is the plumbing, not a feature you configure: SmartChoice holds the Twilio account, and each SmartTile server is set to send through Twilio or through Bandwidth. The SmartChoice main server sends through Bandwidth today; Twilio is the code's default carrier. Alerts, escalations, Workflows and the Send test button all go through whichever carrier the server uses.
Client Contacts → a contact's SMS switch and mobile number. SMS is independent of e-mail: a contact can be text-only. Contacts are assigned to locations, so a text goes only to the people for that site.
Each contact has an escalation delay (15 min by default) — their first text goes out once the outage is that old. Time-of-day boxes (overnight, morning, afternoon, evening, weekend) hold texts outside the hours a contact wants them.
An outage text repeats no more than once per repeat window (60 min by default). A recovery text is sent only to contacts who received the outage text, so nobody gets an "it's back" for an outage they never heard about.
Texts draw on the company's SMS credit balance (1 credit per SMS). A contact must be SMS-authorised; a send that fails at the carrier is refunded. Customers are e-mailed at 80 %, 90 % and depleted.
The outage engine, escalation workflows (SMS or MMS steps) and ServiceAutomate Workflow Notify actions all send through the one SmartTile sender, so the same credit, authorisation and suppression rules apply to each.
Every text asks Twilio for a delivery receipt. Client Contacts → SMS delivery shows each one as Delivered, Failed (with Twilio's reason) or Pending, with 30-day totals. On by default; one switch turns receipts off.
🚨 SMARTTILE DOWN ALERT
Acme Dental · 📍 Location: Head Office
🔴 2/3 Devices Down
Device: FG-60F Head Office · IP: 203.0.113.10
⏱ Down Since: 06:14
twilio messages.create {from, to, body, statusCallback}Every outage, recovery, escalation, Workflow and Send test text (when the server's carrier is Twilio)/api/webhooks/sms/twilioInbound: Twilio delivery receipts (queued → sent → delivered / undelivered / failed), signature-checked with X-Twilio-SignatureThe Twilio account SID, auth token and sending number are SmartChoice's, set on the server, never entered or shown in the SmartTile UI. There is no per-company Twilio credential.
Delivery receipts are verified against Twilio's request signature before anything is written; a wrong signature is refused with 403. A receipt only updates the message it names, and status only moves forward.
A server-wide suppression list blocks chosen numbers on every path — outage engine, escalations, Workflows and tests.
Texts go only to a company's own contacts for the affected location. The delivery list shows a company only its own messages, with numbers masked to the last four digits.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Do we need a Twilio account? | No. SmartChoice sends on your behalf. You choose who gets texts and when, in Client Contacts. |
| Twilio or Bandwidth — which carrier sends ours? | It is set per SmartTile server, not per company. The SmartChoice main server uses Bandwidth today; the alert content and rules are identical either way. |
| Will we see whether a text was delivered? | Yes. Client Contacts → SMS delivery lists each text as Delivered, Failed (with the reason) or Pending. Twilio receipts arrive automatically. |
| Can we test it? | Yes. Test Alert on a contact, or Send test under SMS credits, sends a real text through the server's carrier (admins; up to 10 an hour, 1 credit) and shows its delivery status. |
| Can we get the picture version? | Yes, on a server that sends through Bandwidth. On Twilio, MMS contacts get the text version. |