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Transform your SMS customer support with an intelligent AI chatbot that answers questions from your knowledge base automatically, 24/7.
The SMS channel is available on all plans, including Free. Human takeover in the unified inbox requires a Pro plan.

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Why Connect SMS?

Instant AI Responses

Customers get immediate answers based on your website’s knowledge base

24/7 Availability

AI responds day and night, even when your team is offline

Human Takeover

Support agents can jump into any conversation from the dashboard (Pro)

Reach Every Phone

SMS works on any phone. No app or internet connection is needed

Multi-Language

AI supports 100+ languages for international customers

Knowledge-Powered

Answers based on your website’s content and documentation

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What Can the SMS Bot Do?

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Answer Customer Questions Instantly

Your customers can text questions about your products, services, or content: Example Questions:

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Provide 24/7 Support

  • Responds instantly to common questions
  • No waiting for business hours
  • Reduces support ticket volume
  • Consistent, accurate answers

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Human Agent Handoff & Unified Inbox

SMS conversations appear in your Live Support unified inbox alongside website widget and other platform conversations. Each conversation shows an SMS badge so you always know the source platform. How agent replies work:
  1. Go to Live Support in your dashboard
  2. Find the SMS conversation (look for the SMS badge)
  3. Click to open and type your reply
  4. Your message is sent directly to the customer’s phone
  5. The AI remains paused while you’re active in the conversation
The AI resumes automatically when you leave the conversation.
Agent replies are limited to 1600 characters. Longer replies are rejected with a clear error message. Keep SMS replies short.

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How AI Replies Work on SMS

SMS is a short, plain-text channel. AI replies follow these rules:
  • Short and plain: The AI writes short, plain-text replies. There is no formatting, no buttons, and no images in AI replies.
  • 4-segment cap: Each AI reply is at most 4 SMS segments (see Costs below). Longer answers are cut to fit.
  • Daily cap: Each sender gets at most 20 AI replies in any rolling 24-hour window. Once a sender reaches the cap, the AI stays quiet for that sender until older replies fall out of the 24-hour window. Human agents can still reply from the inbox.
  • Media-only messages: If a customer sends only photos or videos with no text, the AI does not run. When no agent is active, the sender has not opted out, and the sender is within the daily cap, BubblaV sends one fixed reply: “Sorry, I can only read text messages.” When an agent is active, the message goes to the inbox and the agent answers.

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Prerequisites

  • A Twilio account (sign up free)
  • A phone number with SMS capability, or a Messaging Service with at least one number
  • For US traffic: A2P 10DLC campaign registration for local numbers, or toll-free number verification
  • Active BubblaV account with a website
  • Website with knowledge base content (crawled pages)
Trial accounts: Twilio trial accounts can only send messages to phone numbers you have verified in your Twilio account, and trial messages start with a trial notice. Trial accounts must also send Twilio template bodies, so AI replies (which use custom text) fail until you upgrade your Twilio account. Upgrade to message all customers and to send AI replies.

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Setup Steps

1

Get your Twilio credentials

In the Twilio Console, copy your Account SID and Auth Token from the account dashboard.
2

Navigate to Integrations

Go to Dashboard → Your Website → Integrations and find the SMS (Twilio) card.
3

Click Connect

Click Connect to open the SMS connect dialog.
4

Paste your credentials

Paste the Account SID and Auth Token. BubblaV validates them and loads the phone numbers and Messaging Services on your Twilio account.
5

Choose a number or Messaging Service

Select one phone number, or one Messaging Service. If the number or service already has a webhook set by another app, BubblaV asks you to confirm the overwrite before it continues.
6

Verify Connection

The SMS integration should now show Connected. Open the configuration page to view the connected number or service.
7

Test the Bot

Send an SMS to your Twilio number to verify the AI responds correctly.

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Testing on a Trial Account

A trial account’s “Try out SMS” sender is not listed by Twilio’s API, so the connect dialog cannot show it. You can still test incoming messages:
  1. In the connect dialog, choose A phone number. The list is empty on a trial — type the trial sender number (the “From” number on Twilio’s Try out SMS page) in the Trial sender number field.
  2. Connect. The configure page shows a webhook URL.
  3. In the Twilio console, open Messaging → Try out SMS → Receive an SMS, set Auto-Reply settings to Custom, and paste the webhook URL.
  4. Text your Twilio number from a verified phone. The message lands in your inbox and the AI turn runs. The reply itself fails with a Twilio error until you upgrade, because trial accounts can only send Twilio template bodies.
Switching between a number and a Messaging Service (or the other way) starts new conversation threads. Old conversations keep their history but no longer match the new channel.

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Managing Your Integration

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View Connection Details

From the SMS configuration page, you can see:
  • Connected phone number or Messaging Service
  • Twilio account name
  • Connection status

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Disconnect

To remove the SMS integration:
  1. Go to Dashboard → Your Website → Integrations
  2. Find the SMS (Twilio) card and disconnect it
Note: Disconnecting stops the AI from responding. BubblaV restores the webhook URL that was set on the number or service before you connected. Your Twilio configuration returns to its previous state.

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STOP, START, and HELP

SMS customers control their own consent:
  • STOP (or STOPALL, STOP ALL, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, QUIT, REVOKE, OPTOUT): the customer is unsubscribed. The AI and human agents cannot send messages to an opted-out customer. The conversation shows an “Opted out of SMS” badge. STOP-class keywords always count, whether or not the customer is already opted out.
  • START (or YES, UNSTOP): the customer is subscribed again. START, YES, and INFO count as keywords only while the customer is opted out. For a customer who is not opted out, a message like “YES” or “INFO” is a normal question and the AI answers it.
  • HELP: the customer gets standard help text. HELP always counts as a keyword, whether or not the customer is opted out.
BubblaV records the opt-out in the conversation, on every Live Support ticket for that phone number, and on the customer’s visitor profile. The opt-out therefore holds in both conversation and ticket views, and it stays in place if you change the connected number or Messaging Service. If BubblaV cannot read the opt-out state, it does not send. Twilio handles these keywords automatically for +1 (US/Canada) numbers. For other numbers and Messaging Services, enable Advanced Opt-Out on the Messaging Service in the Twilio Console. We recommend Advanced Opt-Out for all Messaging Services, because it handles opt-out consistently across countries.

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Costs

You pay Twilio for every SMS you send. Twilio bills per segment:
  • A segment is up to 160 characters in GSM-7 encoding (plain Latin text, single SMS).
  • If the message contains characters outside GSM-7 (for example Vietnamese text or emoji), the message is sent as UCS-2. Then each segment holds only 70 characters, and every character costs about 2.3× more.
  • Long messages are split into multiple segments and billed as such.
Tips to save money:
  • Enable Smart Encoding on your Messaging Service in the Twilio Console. It replaces characters like curly quotes with GSM-7 equivalents when possible. BubblaV warns you at connect time when Smart Encoding is off.
  • Keep AI replies short. The 4-segment cap also caps the cost per AI reply.

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Troubleshooting

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FAQ

No. Copy your Account SID and Auth Token from the Twilio Console, choose a number or Messaging Service, and BubblaV sets up the webhook automatically — no code required.
Yes. Choose the Messaging Service at connect time. Note that switching between a number and a Messaging Service later starts new conversation threads.
Check the daily cap (20 AI replies per sender in a rolling 24-hour window), the opt-out badge on the conversation, or whether the customer sent only media. All of these pause AI replies. Human agents can still reply (unless the customer opted out). On a Twilio trial account, AI replies also fail because trial accounts can only send Twilio template bodies.
Yes. The customer texts START to your number. For +1 numbers, Twilio processes the keyword. For Messaging Services, enable Advanced Opt-Out in the Twilio Console.
Yes. The SMS channel works on all plans, including Free. Human takeover in the unified inbox requires a Pro plan.

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Next Steps