Twilio SMS Integration
Bringing business SMS into the Tawk.to omni-channel inbox, so agents handle SMS alongside live chat, email and social, without leaving the dashboard.
Overview
SMS, handled in the same inbox as every other channel.
The Twilio SMS integration connects business SMS directly into the Tawk.to omni-channel dashboard. Agents manage inbound and outbound SMS next to live chat, email and social, with tagging, assignment and history built in.
- My roleFlows for setup, inbox and threading; research, prototyping, API collaboration
- ScopeSMS channel in omni-channel
The challenge
SMS lived outside the dashboard, so agents kept switching tools.
Many businesses rely on SMS for time-sensitive support, but handling it outside Tawk.to meant jumping between the Twilio console and the dashboard. That caused inefficiency, missed messages and no shared visibility across teams.
- 01Agents juggling the Twilio console and the Tawk.to dashboard
- 02Missed SMS updates with no unified notifications
- 03No conversation history across SMS and other channels
- 04Limited tagging and assignment, so accountability suffered
What users needed
- One inboxSend and receive SMS in the same place as chat, email and social.
- Easy setupConnect a Twilio account and provision numbers without friction.
- Right routingAssign SMS threads to the right agent or department.
- History and analyticsAccess past SMS and measure performance alongside other channels.
Discover → Research → Ideate → Validate
How I approached it
The solution
From connecting a Twilio account to threading, tagging and assigning SMS conversations, the integration keeps everything inside one familiar inbox.
Outcome
SMS became a first-class channel in Tawk.to, managed with the same tools teams already knew.
The design goal was to make a new channel feel unremarkable in the best way: SMS slots into the existing inbox with tagging, assignment and history, so agents never think about which tool they are in. It shipped into the live product.
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