SMS sharing with Twilio

Q-Booth can text guests a link to their photo. The texts go out through your own Twilio account: the booth talks to Twilio directly, and Twilio bills you per message. Twilio sends to most countries, but each country has its own rules for who may text its phones — Step 4 covers that. This page walks you through getting the account ready and connecting it to Q-Booth.

What you need

• A Twilio account that has been upgraded (paid). A trial account can't send Q-Booth's message — see Step 2.
• The Account SID and Auth Token of that account.
• A sender that works in your guests' country: usually a Twilio phone number from that country, or in some countries a sender name such as MYBOOTH (Step 4).
• In many countries, that sender registered with Twilio first. Start early — it can take days to weeks.

Step 1 — Create a Twilio account

1. Go to twilio.com/try-twilio and sign up with your email and a password.
2. Verify your email, then your own mobile number (Twilio texts or calls you a code).
3. Answer the short questions about your project. Choose SMS when asked what you want to use.
4. You land on the Twilio Console home page: console.twilio.com.

Step 2 — Upgrade the account

A new account starts as a trial. A trial can only send Twilio's own sample messages, so it refuses Q-Booth's text: Q-Booth's Test Send fails with "Twilio 572006: Invalid template name. Trial accounts can only use predefined SMS templates." A trial also gets only one shared test number.

1. On the Console home page, click Upgrade (top right).
2. Add your business details and a payment method, and add some balance. Twilio takes the cost of each text and each phone number from this balance.

Step 3 — Copy the Account SID and Auth Token

Both are on the Console home page, in the Account Info box.

• Account SID — starts with AC. Click the copy icon next to it.
• Auth Token — hidden by default. Click the eye icon to show it, then copy it.

Step 4 — Get a sender for your guests' country

Every country decides who may text its phones. Look yours up first on Twilio's country page: twilio.com/en-us/guidelines/us/sms — replace us with your country's two-letter code (gb, au, id, ph…). It tells you which sender to use and whether it must be registered. There are two kinds:

• A phone number from your guests' country — works in most countries, including Canada, the UK and Australia. Some countries ask for business documents before you can buy one.
• A sender name — your brand as the sender, for example MYBOOTH (up to 11 letters, digits or spaces). Many countries in Europe and Asia allow it; the US and Canada don't. Guests can't reply to it.

A number from another country (for example a US number texting abroad) may reach a test phone, but many carriers change or block these texts. Don't rely on it for an event.

Buy a number

1. In the Console, open Communications → Numbers & senders and click the Phone Numbers tab. (Or type Numbers in the Search box.)
2. Click Set up a new phone number, choose your guests' country and SMS. If Twilio asks for business details or documents for that country, fill them in.
3. Pick a number, click Next, then Purchase. Write it down with the country code, for example +447700900123.

Using a sender name instead? Skip buying a number; the country page says whether you must register the name first.

Register the sender, if your country requires it

Many countries only deliver texts from a registered sender — the country page says whether yours does and where to do it in Twilio. Until it's approved, texts can vanish silently. The review asks how you use texts; these answers help it go through:

• Use case: the texts deliver photos that guests asked for at an event photo booth. Each guest types their own number on the booth screen to receive their own photo.
• Sample message: Your photos from Sarah & Mike's Wedding are ready: https://cloud.lumaqube.com/view/abc123 — or your own text, if you wrote one.
• Opt-in: the guest enters their number themselves and presses Send, one text per request. Nothing is sent to anyone who didn't ask.
• Volume: estimate your monthly guests (a few hundred to a few thousand texts).

Allow the guests' country

Twilio only sends to countries you have switched on. In the Console, open Messaging → Settings → Geo permissions and tick the country your guests' phones are from. If you skip this, sends fail with Twilio 21408.

Step 5 — Connect Twilio in Q-Booth

1. Open the App Settings window and go to QR Share. If you don't see the SMS Share (Twilio) card, turn on Show all settings at the bottom left.
2. Fill in the card:
   • Account SID and Auth Token — from Step 3.
   • From — your sender from Step 4: your Twilio number with the + (for example +18885551234), or your sender name (for example MYBOOTH) where your country allows one. If you send through a Twilio Messaging Service, its SID (starts with MG) works here too.
   • Country code — the country your guests' phones are from: 1 for Canada, 44 for the UK, 61 for Australia, 62 for Indonesia, and so on.
3. Type your own mobile number in the test box and click Test Send. A number without + gets the country code in front; type the full +44… form to test a phone from another country. A text should arrive within seconds — if your country needs the sender registered, only once it's approved. If it fails, the message shows Twilio's error code — see If texts don't arrive.
4. Click Save Settings.

Step 6 — Turn it on for guests

Choose one or both:

• Send it after the photo is made. In the event editor, open GENERAL → Settings → RESULT DELIVERY and turn on Text a link. The guest types their number after their shots and can walk away; the text arrives when the photo is ready. With more than one delivery way on, the guest picks Text it to me.
• A button on the Result page. In the Result page designer, add a Button with the action Share: SMS, or tick SMS on a Share button.

The guest sees a number pad with the country code already filled in — +1 in the US — and types the rest of their number. For +1 that is exactly 10 digits. Elsewhere a leading 0 is fine (0812…); Q-Booth drops it. Send stays greyed out until the number is complete. The text they get is the event's own SMS text — see Write your own text.

Write your own text

Each event has its own SMS text. In the event editor, open OTHERS → Sharing and click Edit SMS... on the SMS Composer card.

• Variables — click Event name or Photo link to put {event} or {link} in the text. If the text has no {link}, Q-Booth adds the link at the end, so the guest always gets it.
• Length — under the box you see the characters and how many SMS the text takes. One SMS holds 160 characters, or only 70 when the text has an emoji or a letter outside the basic set (Chinese, Thai, many accented letters). Longer texts are split, and Twilio bills every part. The photo link counts too (about 80 characters).
• Preview shows the text the way a guest sees it. Send Test SMS sends it to your own number through the Twilio account in Settings, with a sample link.
• Reset to Example puts back the starter text. Click Save, then save the event.

New events start with "Your photos from {event} are ready: {link}". Events made before this version keep the old built-in text until you edit and save it.

Run one full guest session yourself before the event, on the venue's internet, and check the text arrives.

If texts don't arrive