Twilio for SMS
Scout has long offered email-to-SMS alert delivery for free. Free is good, but there are a couple downsides:
- email-to-SMS doesn't work some places outside the US. Some foreign carriers don't enable it by default, and in some countries email-to-SMS just doesn't work well.
- with email-to-SMS, texts don't always come from the same number. This depends on the carrier and/or phone. It's annoying because your alerts don't appear in a single thread.
Given how critical Scout's alerts are, it was time to level-up our SMS deliverability.
Today we're offering Twilio integration for text notifications as an alternative to email-to-SMS. The gist is:
- Twilio's super-reliable infrastructure delivers your texts
- if you don't have a Twilio account already, one will be created for you if you enable the integration
- Twilio bills you separately for texts sent from Scout
But, what about FREE?
Email-to-SMS is still available, and still free. Use whichever suits your needs - now you have the choice.