Need to automatically send SMS when order is ready

[Richard_Mast]

I have started a Twilio account and have their Send SMS app API. I have also created an Automation with a trigger of once per hour and a view that only lists the items that are ready but not notified. I have the Send SMS App set to send a text to only the records in that view. I would like my automation to “call” the Send SMS App and mark all of those records as notified. Is that possible/practical?

[Justin_Barrett]

Richard_Mast:

I would like my automation to “call” the Send SMS App and mark all of those records as notified. Is that possible/practical?

At this time, that’s not possible. It would be nice to connect automations to apps, but it’s uncertain if Airtable has plans in that direction. What you could do, though, is have the automation run a script to call the Twilio API directly to send a message. If you’re not comfortable with the scripting side of things, message me directly and we can discuss how I might be able to help.

[kuovonne]

You could also use an integration with Zapier and Twilio to send the SMS.

[Richard_Mast]

Hi Justin,
Yes, that is what I was wondering if it was possible. I don’t know much about scripting. What do you have in mind and any idea of cost?

[Michaela_Staff1]

Heya @Richard_Mast, Michaela from Integromat here :wave:

Since this is not currently possible natively, I thought I’d jump in to say that you could totally make this work with Integromat. It’s a no-code platform that lets you connect Airtable to any API and automate all kinds of processes.

To get an idea of what the scenario could look like, you can check out this pre-made template since it does something similar (sending new Airtable records as Twilio messages).

To make this tiny repository of resources complete :grinning_face_with_sweat: , I’m also gonna share the link to Integromat’s Airtable integration so that you can check out its features and functionality.

You can also have a look at all the integrations of SMS apps on Integromat to see what the options beside Twilio are :slightly_smiling_face:

[Richard_Mast]

Ok, thank you! I will check it out.

[Richard_Mast]

Hi Michaela,
This looks really good. I was able to set up a free account, created a scenario, linked to an airtable base, and retrieved the recordset I needed. Now I’m having trouble figuring out how to:
1 - Choose an app(s) to do the following.
1 - send an SMS to each person in the recordset with info from key fields.
2 - Verify that the message went through?
3 - Change a “notified” flag to “yes” in Airtable
Do you know of anyone who does this kind of thing or can advise as I go through? My needs are pretty minimal at this point, but I can see where this could be very useful for other things.
Thanks,
Richard

[Michaela_Staff1]

Hi @Richard_Mast great to hear that you like what you’re seeing :slightly_smiling_face:

So we took a look at what you need to do and we created this scenario to illustrate how this could be done.

The scenario watches for new records, creates a message, retrieves the message status in the third ‘Make an API Call’ module and updates the record in Airtable.

The third module is the crucial one since it returns the status of the message.

As you can see, in our case the message failed to be sent.

You can then set up a filter between the third and fourth module to only update Airtable records if the sending of the message was a success.

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Anyway, if you ever need help when building your scenarios, you can always open a ticket with our super helpful Support Team.

Also, if you’re interested in getting more advanced workflows automated, you can check out the list of our Integration Partners who will be more than happy to help with any custom automations :slightly_smiling_face: