SMS Notifications

Send SMS notifications to your team when new feedback arrives. UserHero supports a Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) model — you connect your existing Twilio or Bird account.

Supported Providers

Prerequisites

Before setting up SMS notifications, you need:

• A Pro or Pro Max plan
• An active account with Twilio or Bird
• An SMS-enabled phone number from your provider
• API credentials (see provider-specific sections below)

Getting Twilio Credentials

1. Sign in to your Twilio Console
2. Your Account SID and Auth Token are on the dashboard homepage
3. Purchase or use an existing SMS-enabled phone number under Phone Numbers > Manage > Active Numbers

Getting Bird Credentials

1. Sign in to your Bird Dashboard
2. Go to Settings > API Access to find or create an Access Key
3. Find your Workspace ID in the Bird dashboard URL or settings
4. Go to Channels and create or select an SMS channel — copy the Channel ID

Setup

Step 1: Enable SMS at Workspace Level

1. Go to Workspace Settings > Integrations
2. Find SMS Notifications and toggle it on
3. This makes SMS available to all projects in the workspace

Step 2: Configure SMS in a Project

1. Go to your project Settings > Integrations
2. Find the SMS card
3. Toggle it on
4. Select your provider (Twilio or Bird)

Step 3: Enter Credentials

For Twilio:

• Account SID — Your Twilio Account SID (starts with AC)
• Auth Token — Your Twilio Auth Token

For Bird:

• Access Key — Your Bird access key
• Workspace ID — Your Bird workspace UUID
• Channel ID — Your SMS channel UUID from the Bird dashboard

Step 4: Configure Phone Numbers

• From Number — Your SMS-enabled phone number (E.164 format, e.g. +15551234567)
• Recipient Phone Numbers — Comma-separated list of numbers to notify (E.164 format)

Step 5: Save and Test

1. Click Save Integration
2. Click Send Test SMS to verify the configuration
3. Each recipient should receive a test message within seconds

SMS Format

Each notification is a compact single SMS (~160 characters):

ProjectName: "First 100 characters of the feedback message..." View: https://userhero.co/dashboard/feedback/abc123

This keeps messages within the standard single-SMS limit to minimize costs.

Routing Rules

You can route different feedback to different phone numbers using routing rules:

To set up routing:

1. Scroll to the Routing Rules section below the SMS card
2. Click Add Routing Rule
3. Define conditions (categories, rating, widgets, text match)
4. Set Phone Numbers as the destination override
5. Save the rule

See Routing Rules for full documentation.

Phone Number Format

All phone numbers must use E.164 format:

The + prefix and country code are required. No spaces, dashes, or parentheses.

Security

• Encryption at rest: API keys and auth tokens are encrypted using AES-256-GCM before storage in Firestore
• No credential exposure: After saving, credentials are displayed as masked values (••••••••). They cannot be retrieved.
• Server-side decryption: Credentials are only decrypted within Cloud Functions at send time
• No logging: Credentials are never written to application logs

Costs

UserHero does not charge for SMS messages separately — you pay your SMS provider directly at their standard rates:

Costs vary by destination country. Check your provider's pricing page for details.

Troubleshooting

Test SMS not received

• Verify the phone number is in E.164 format (e.g. +15551234567)
• Check that the From Number is an SMS-enabled number in your provider account
• For Twilio: Verify the Account SID starts with AC and the Auth Token is correct
• For Bird: Verify the access key, workspace ID, and channel ID are correct
• Check your provider's dashboard for delivery logs and error details

"Save failed" error

• Ensure all required fields are filled in (provider, credentials, from number, at least one recipient)
• Check that your workspace is on a Pro or Pro Max plan

SMS not triggered on new feedback

• Verify the integration is enabled (toggle is on) at both workspace and project level
• Check that the project has at least one recipient configured
• If using routing rules, ensure the feedback matches at least one rule condition

Wrong provider selected

If you need to switch providers (e.g. from Twilio to Bird):

1. Select the new provider from the dropdown
2. Enter the new provider's credentials
3. Update the From Number to one from the new provider
4. Save — the old credentials are replaced

Plan Requirements