Electronics
Fashion & Apparel
Furniture
Jewelry and Watches
Afterschool Activities
Sport & Fitness
Beauty Center
Dental Clinic
Medical Clinic
Home Cleaning & Maid Services
Photography & Videography
Car Dealership
Travel Agency & Tour Operator
SMS for Reliable B2C Messaging on Any Phone
Connect a supported SMS partner — Twilio, Bird, Vonage or Telnyx — to text customers and run campaigns from respond.io's shared inbox.
Respond.io SMS Capabilities
- Connect a supported SMS partner — Twilio, Bird, Vonage or Telnyx — and manage every text conversation in the same inbox as WhatsApp, Messenger and your other channels
- Route inbound texts to the right agent or department, or send an away message when no one's available
- Set up AI Agents to answer FAQs, qualify leads or escalate SMS conversations to a human agent when needed
- Automate transactional alerts like OTPs, appointment reminders, payment receipts and delivery updates the moment a status changes
- Send SMS broadcasts to promote offers, nurture leads or share newsletters, with no restriction on message volume
- Supervise every SMS conversation alongside your other channels, with full visibility into agent performance and response times
Why use respond.io for SMS
Respond.io treats SMS as a first-class channel, not a bolt-on — it runs on the same shared inbox, Workflows and reporting as WhatsApp, Messenger and every other channel you connect. If every contact you message is reachable and responsive on WhatsApp, a single richer channel may be enough. But the moment a contact doesn't have a smartphone, isn't on WhatsApp, or needs an alert that can't wait for an app to sync, SMS is the one channel guaranteed to land — skip it, and that segment of your audience goes dark.
- Choice of four supported SMS partners — Twilio, Bird, Vonage or Telnyx — so you're not locked into one carrier's rates or coverage
- Your SMS partner bills you directly per message; that cost sits outside your respond.io subscription
- Full visibility into every SMS conversation and agent's performance, reported alongside your other channels
- Enterprise-grade infrastructure with 99.999% uptime, ISO 27001 and GDPR compliance, and role-based access controls
FAQs about SMS integration
Which SMS providers can I connect to respond.io?
Twilio, Bird, Vonage and Telnyx are respond.io's four supported SMS partners. Connect any of them directly from your workspace's channel settings; Twilio also passes richer contact metadata — city, state, postal code and country — while the other three share only the phone number.
Can I connect an SMS provider that isn't on that list?
Yes. Connect it through respond.io's Custom Channel using its API and webhooks. If you already have a number with a different carrier, you'll typically need to port it to one of the four supported partners first, since respond.io connects to the provider account rather than the phone number itself.
Can I send bulk SMS broadcasts, or only one-to-one messages?
Bulk broadcasts are fully supported. There's no restriction on the content or number of messages in an SMS broadcast — run promotions, newsletters or reminders to your full list, billed at your partner's standard per-message rate.
Who bills me for SMS messages — respond.io or my provider?
Your SMS partner bills you directly. Twilio, MessageBird, Vonage or Telnyx charges per message sent or received; that's separate from the respond.io subscription you still need to use the SMS channel.
