SMS support, as conversations
Kommio handles two-way SMS customer support through your own Twilio number: customers text one of your numbers and the conversation lands in your shared inbox, answered by SMS with delivery reports and the opt-outs the law expects. Twilio first, with a provider layer underneath.
One conversation model, whatever the channel.
SMS conversations sit in the same list as every other channel, with one owner and one history, so nobody asks the customer to repeat themselves.
What your agent sees
A text arrives as a conversation on the customer's contact, by phone number. The composer counts SMS segments as you type and disables pictures for a number without MMS, and each reply shows sent, delivered or failed with the carrier's reason.
What your customer sees
They text your number and get the reply from it. Up to 1,600 characters arrive as one message, pictures by MMS where the number supports it, and STOP is honoured at once.
Assignment and automation apply
Rules, SLA policies, assignment, agent bots and the AI agent apply. A chatbot flow's choices arrive as numbered text. Satisfaction surveys are not sent by SMS: a survey would be an unrequested message the customer may pay for.
Reports count it
SMS conversations count like every other channel's, with SMS as its own slice of the channel mix and the inbox as a filter.
The facts that matter for SMS.
Twilio first, a provider layer underneath
SMS is one channel with a provider behind each inbox. Contacts by phone number, segments, keywords and opt-outs, delivery reports and MMS limits belong to the channel; Twilio is the first provider.
Conversations only
Kommio sends no campaigns or bulk messages from an SMS inbox, never messages someone who opted out, and never texts a customer twice for one reply: when Twilio's answer never comes, the message is marked failed and the agent decides.
STOP, START and HELP
STOP and its variants opt a number out of that sender and the customer sees a line saying so; START opts them back in. Anything that would send to an opted-out number fails before it reaches Twilio, and opt-outs survive deleting the inbox or erasing the contact.
Segments
One SMS carries 160 GSM-7 characters, or 70 once a message holds an emoji, a curly quote or a non-Latin script. The composer shows the count and the encoding as you type, by the same rules the server uses.
US numbers
US carriers deliver application-to-person SMS from ordinary ten-digit numbers only after A2P 10DLC registration in the Twilio Console; toll-free numbers need toll-free verification. Until then messages fail with the reason shown in the conversation.
One contact across SMS and WhatsApp
The customer is identified by their number, the same phone identity contacts already use, so a customer who texts and messages on WhatsApp is one contact.
Not yet. Vonage and Infobip plug in behind the same provider layer and follow; more SMS providers are on the roadmap.
What you need to connect SMS.
An administrator does this from Settings. Nothing to install on your side beyond what the channel's own platform asks for.
Copy your Twilio credentials
In the Twilio Console, the Account SID and the auth token from the account dashboard. Optionally a standard API key, which Kommio then uses for API calls; the auth token is still needed because Twilio signs its webhooks with it.
Pick the number
Settings › Marketplace › Twilio SMS › Install in this workspace. Paste both and press Test connection: Kommio lists your numbers and Messaging Services with their MMS support. Pick one, and Kommio points its incoming messages at the inbox, remembering where they went before.
Text it
Name the inbox and choose its agents. Text the number from a phone: the message arrives in the inbox and your reply comes back by SMS.
Step by step, with the exact fields and what to do when something does not arrive: SMS: Twilio setup, segments and MMS, opt-outs, US numbers.
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Other channels
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