Twilio
Email to Twilio,
the easy way
ForwardThis is the simple tool that connects your email to Twilio. Forward any email along with some simple instructions, and it’s handled. Nothing to download, nothing to set up. Works with dozens of your other apps too.
Setup in 30 seconds.
How it works
Connect Twilio
Create a free account and connect Twilio. It takes about 30 seconds, and you only do it once.
Forward an email
Forward any email to your ForwardThis address along with your instructions. One email can ask for several things at once.
Done.
ForwardThis replies when it's done, with a short summary and links to what it made. Twilio has no way to take these back, so anything that cannot be reversed is shown to you first.
Just forward it
to do@forwardthis.io
Fwd: Engineer running late for the 2pm
Text the customer on 07700 900412 to say our engineer is running about 40 minutes late and will be with them by 2:40.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
The Wednesday job overran. Whoever's on the office phone, can you let the 2pm know we're going to be late? Their mobile is on the job sheet.
Text ready for +44 7700 900412
"Our engineer is running about 40 minutes late and will be with you by 2:40."
A text cannot be unsent, so ForwardThis checks with you before it sends.
Some other examples
- “Which of our numbers have we got on the account?”
- “Show me the texts we've sent and received in the last day.”
- “What did we text 07700 900412 about the Tuesday visit?”
Everything ForwardThis can do in Twilio
Send message
Send an SMS
Search messages
Read recent texts
Find pages
List the account's phone numbers
Try it with a real email.
Forward any work email to the address below and see what ForwardThis can do. No signup required.
Occasional product emails may follow.
Why you need ForwardThis
Email is messy, every message asking for something different. It means constantly leaving your inbox and juggling tabs. ForwardThis skips all of that: forward an email along with some simple instructions, and it’s handled. Compatible with every email provider, and it works across the apps you’re already using.
Questions
- How do I send an email to Twilio?
- Forward the email to your ForwardThis address with a line saying who to text and what to say, like "text 07700 900412 to say the engineer is 40 minutes late". ForwardThis writes it up, shows you the destination number and the exact message, and sends it only once you reply yes. The first time, you'll need a free account with Twilio connected, which takes about 30 seconds, and that's the entire Twilio email integration.
- Can I send an SMS by forwarding an email?
- Yes, one text to one number at a time. Nothing bulk. The number it sends from is one of your own Twilio numbers, matched against the account rather than taken from the message, and if you have several it asks which one you meant. The words that go out are the words you wrote.
- Can it be undone if the text is wrong?
- No. A sent SMS is on someone's phone within seconds and there is no taking it back, so ForwardThis does not offer an undo it could not honour. What it does instead is check with you first, every time, restating the full number and the full message so you are approving the actual thing rather than a summary of it.
- Can the forwarded email decide who gets texted?
- No, and this is deliberate. A phone number sitting inside a forwarded message is just text that somebody else wrote. The destination and the wording have to come from your own instruction line, so an email cannot talk ForwardThis into texting a stranger. Calls, WhatsApp, and buying or releasing numbers are all left out too.
- How is this different from Twilio's console or Zapier?
- The console is built for developers and is the right place to configure your numbers. Zapier can fire a text on a trigger, which suits an alert that repeats. ForwardThis is for the one-off you were about to type by hand: a thread lands, someone needs telling now, and you write the message in the same reply rather than opening another tool to send it.