Connect Twilio to Bookmops
Send booking confirmations, reminders and replies from your own Twilio phone number, and see every customer text in Bookmops. Setup takes about ten minutes, and anything already using your number, such as HubSpot, can keep receiving texts.
Before you start
- Owner or admin access to your company’s Bookmops workspace.
- A Twilio account with at least one phone number that can send and receive SMS.
- Your sender registration, if Twilio requires one for your number (for example A2P 10DLC for texting US customers). It stays in your Twilio account; Bookmops doesn’t change it.
- If another system uses the number today (HubSpot, a CRM, a helpdesk), read Keeping HubSpot or another system first.
How texting works
There are two directions, and they are set up in different places.
- Sending works as soon as you connect your account and choose a number. Bookmops asks Twilio to send each text from your number.
- Receiving needs one setting in Twilio. When a customer texts your number, Twilio delivers the message to a single web address, its webhook. Until that address is Bookmops’, replies go wherever it points today.
Bookmops never changes your Twilio settings by itself. You decide when incoming texts move, which is what keeps an existing system from going quiet without warning.
Setup, step by step
Do the steps in this order. The order is what keeps every text arriving somewhere.
Step 1: Save the address your number uses today
Skip this step if your Twilio number is brand new or isn’t used by any other system.
In the Twilio Console, go to Phone Numbers → Manage → Active numbers and click your number. Under Messaging Configuration, find A message comes in. The web address in that box is where your texts go today, for example HubSpot. Copy it and keep it somewhere safe. Don’t change anything yet.
If the page says the number belongs to a Messaging Service, the address is kept there instead. See Numbers in a Messaging Service.
Step 2: Find your Account SID and Auth Token
On the Twilio Console home page, look for Account Info. Copy the Account SID (it starts with AC) and the Auth Token (click Show to reveal it). Treat the Auth Token like a password: paste it only into Bookmops, never into an email or chat.
Step 3: Connect Twilio in Bookmops
Sign in to Bookmops as an owner or admin and open Settings → Connectors. On the Texting card, paste the Account SID and Auth Token and click Connect Twilio. Bookmops checks them with Twilio before saving anything. The Auth Token is stored encrypted and is never shown again.
Step 4: Choose your texting number
Under Choose your texting number, Bookmops lists the numbers in your Twilio account. Click Use this number next to the one your customers know. From now on, texts Bookmops sends (booking confirmations, reminders, “on my way” messages) come from this number.
Step 5: Keep your other system receiving texts
Skip this step if you didn’t save an address in step 1.
Paste the address from step 1 into Also send incoming texts to and click Save. Every text a customer sends will then be stored in Bookmops and passed on to that address, so your other system keeps receiving them. Why this is needed is explained in Keeping HubSpot or another system.
Step 6: Point your Twilio number at Bookmops
On the Texting card, under In Twilio, point incoming texts here, click Copy. The address looks like https://yourcompany.bookmops.com/api/twilio/inbound, with your company’s own name in it.
Back in Twilio, open the same setting as in step 1 (Active numbers → your number → Messaging Configuration). Under A message comes in, choose Webhook, paste the Bookmops address in place of the old one, set the method to HTTP POST, and click Save configuration.
Step 7: Test the connection
Click Test connection on the Texting card. It checks your account, your number, and where Twilio is really sending incoming texts, and tells you what to fix if anything is wrong. Then text your number from your own phone. The message should appear in Bookmops and, if you did step 5, in your other system too.
Keeping HubSpot or another system
Twilio sends each incoming text to only one address. If your number is connected to HubSpot today, pointing it at Bookmops would normally mean HubSpot stops receiving replies that same day.
The Also send incoming texts to setting prevents that. Bookmops receives each text, saves it, and passes an identical copy to HubSpot, signed with your own Twilio credentials so HubSpot accepts it exactly as if Twilio had sent it.
| After setup | What happens |
|---|---|
| Sending from HubSpot | Unchanged. HubSpot sends through Twilio directly. |
| Replies in HubSpot | Still arrive, as copies passed on by Bookmops. |
| Sending from Bookmops | Works, from the same number. |
| Replies in Bookmops | Arrive and are matched to the customer. |
Do step 5 before step 6. A text that arrives between the two reaches Bookmops only. Automatic replies set up in the other system are not sent back to the customer; Bookmops answers instead. When you no longer need the copy, clear the field and click Save.
Numbers in a Messaging Service
If your number is part of a Twilio Messaging Service, the service usually decides where incoming texts go, not the number. In that case, do steps 1 and 6 in Messaging → Services → your service → Integration, under Incoming Messages: choose Send a webhook and use the Request URL box.
A service can also be set to Defer to sender’s webhook, and then the number’s own setting is the one used. Only one of the two is ever read, so don’t guess: Test connection names the setting Twilio is actually using.
Masked numbers
Some companies let cleaners and customers text and call each other without either seeing the other’s real number. This uses a separate group of Twilio numbers, set up further down the Connectors page. Each number in that group needs two settings in Twilio, both HTTP POST, using the addresses shown on that card:
- A call comes in: the voice address.
- A message comes in: the texting address.
A number with only one of the two passes on half a conversation.
Disconnecting
Click Disconnect on the Texting card. Bookmops forgets your credentials and goes back to sending from its own shared account. Your Twilio number still points at Bookmops, so if another system should get incoming texts again, put its address back under A message comes in in Twilio.
Common problems
Do I have to connect Twilio at all?
No. If you leave the Texting card alone, Bookmops sends your texts from its own shared account. Connecting your own Twilio account is for companies that want to keep their own number, their own bill and their own sender registration.
Texts send, but customer replies don't show up in Bookmops
Twilio is still sending incoming texts somewhere else. Redo step 6, then click Test connection: it names the setting Twilio is actually using. If your number is in a Messaging Service, see Numbers in a Messaging Service.
HubSpot stopped receiving replies after I switched
Check that HubSpot’s old address is saved in Also send incoming texts to (step 5). If it is, the copy may be failing on HubSpot’s side: Bookmops records every copy that couldn’t be delivered in its activity log, with the reason. The text itself is always kept in Bookmops.
Replies stopped arriving in Bookmops after I reconnected Twilio in HubSpot
Reconnecting Twilio inside HubSpot can point your number back at HubSpot. Redo step 6 and run Test connection.
I changed my Auth Token in Twilio and texting stopped
Bookmops still has the old one. Paste the new Auth Token on the Texting card and click Connect Twilio again. Until you do, Bookmops can’t send texts or pass copies on to your other system.
My number isn't in the list
The list shows numbers in the Twilio account you connected that can receive texts. Voice only numbers can’t be used for texting. If you have more than one Twilio account, check you connected the one that owns the number.
Still stuck?
See our Support page for how to reach us, or browse the other connector guides.