Church Admin Plugin

SMS Settings

⭐ Premium

Church Admin sends SMS messages through Twilio — a dedicated SMS delivery service. Other less popular providers are available, but you can only process SMS replies with Twilio. The SMS Settings screen is where you connect your Twilio account to Church Admin by entering your account credentials and default sender number.

Go to Church Admin → Communications → SMS settings.

Before you start — set up a Twilio account

You need a Twilio account with a purchased phone number before you can use SMS in Church Admin. If you haven’t done this yet:

  1. Go to twilio.com and create an account
  2. Purchase a phone number with SMS capability from the Twilio console
  3. Note your Account SID and Auth Token from the Twilio dashboard — you’ll need both for the next step

See Twilio incoming numbers for further guidance on setting up Twilio.

Fields

Twilio Account SID

Your Twilio Account SID — a long string beginning with AC. Found at the top of your Twilio console dashboard under Account Info.

Twilio Auth Token

Your Twilio Auth Token — shown alongside the Account SID in the Twilio console. Treat this like a password — don’t share it or commit it to version control. Click the eye icon in the Twilio console to reveal the full token.

Twilio phone number

The Twilio phone number that SMS messages will be sent from, entered in e164 international format — for example +441234567890 for a UK number or +12025551234 for a US number. This must be a number you have purchased in your Twilio account with SMS capability enabled.

See e164 phone number format for guidance on formatting numbers correctly.

Default country code

The international dialling code for your country — for example 44 for the UK or 1 for the US. Enter the digits only without the leading +. This is used when converting mobile numbers stored in the directory to e164 format for SMS delivery — Church Admin will automatically prepend this code to any numbers that are stored without an international prefix. See the directory issues checker for bulk e164 conversion. See Check for directory issues.

Saving and testing

Click Save. A test SMS button appears after saving — click it to send a test message to your own number and confirm the connection is working before sending to your congregation.

Twilio pricing

Twilio charges per message sent and per message received, with rates varying by country. Check current rates at twilio.com/en-us/sms/pricing. Twilio provides a small amount of free credit when you create an account to test with — you’ll need to add a payment method and top up your balance before sending to a large group.

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