Texting multiple contacts with Twilio SMS

In this guide, we'll show you how to leverage the Twilio SMS extension in Xano to send text messages to multiple contacts or users simultaneously. Xano's powerful data manipulation capabilities, combined with the Twilio integration, make it easy to iterate through a list of contacts and send personalized messages to each one.

Step 1: Get Your Contact Information

First, you need to retrieve the list of contacts or users you want to send messages to. In this example, we'll use a table called "users" that contains a "phone" field with the contact's phone number.

To retrieve the user data, create a new endpoint in Xano and add the following code:

This will return a list of user objects, each containing a "phone" field with the user's phone number.

Step 2: Iterate Through the List with a Loop

Since you want to send a message to multiple contacts, you'll need to iterate through the list of users. Xano provides a convenient "for each" loop for this purpose.

1. In your endpoint, add a "for each" loop from the "Data Manipulation" > "Loops" section.
2. Select the list of users (e.g., `users`) as the "Items to loop through".
3. Provide a variable name to represent each item in the loop (e.g., `user`).

Your code should now look something like this:

Step 3: Send SMS Using the Twilio Extension

Now that you have a loop iterating through each user, you can use the Twilio SMS extension to send a text message to each contact's phone number.

1. In the loop's function stack, locate the "Twilio" > "Send SMS" function.
2. For the "To" parameter, select the `user` variable from the loop, and use dot notation to access the "phone" field (e.g., `user.phone`).
3. For the "Body" parameter, enter the message you want to send (e.g., "Hi, what's up!").

Your final code should look similar to this:

Step 4: Test and Deploy

Once you've completed the above steps, save your changes and test your endpoint by running it. If everything is set up correctly, you should receive text messages on the phone numbers associated with each user in your list.

Remember, if you're using the Twilio free trial, you can only send messages to verified phone numbers. In a production environment, you would need to ensure that you're only sending messages to valid and consented recipients.

That's it! You've successfully learned how to send SMS messages to multiple contacts using Xano and the Twilio extension. This approach can be useful for various scenarios, such as sending notifications, alerts, or transactional messages to a group of users.