Text/SMS to create a thing

[hi1]

Hi all,

Can a text message/sms be integrated into a workflow in order to create a thing in Bubble? Possible?

Thanks!
Jen

[keith]

Yep, it’s possible – I just did it using Clicksend SMS to see if it was possible! (Took me about 15 - 20 minutes. Gosh I love bubble!) Most other SMS services should be able to do it, too. Read on for some ideas and caveats:

Most of (all?) the SMS sending solutions also have a facility for handling inbound messages. Among the options is typically a hook/forward-to-url option.

Now, the various SMS sending solutions typically have several different levels of service. At a basic level, you might have SMS sending capabilities, but those messages will be sent from a rotating batch of shared numbers. You might also purchase a dedicated number so that your text messages always come from the same fixed number.

You can probably see where I’m going with this: IF you don’t have a dedicated number, your inbound text capabilities are strictly for handling replies to texts that your app has sent. However, if you have a dedicated number, then essentially your app now has a phone number. And any incoming SMS text to that number could be handled.

BUT, even on an el cheapo Clicksend SMS account, I was just now able to set up an API endpoint in my Bubble app to receive responses to texts that my app has sent.

I don’t a dedicated number. However, if someone responds, ClickSend forwards the response to my API endpoint as a POST. And then what I did in this quick ‘n’ dirty test, is just create a new thing called “Inbound SMS Text” that includes all the parameters that ClickSend passes to me.

The result is this: Here’s a repeating group that shows me inbound text messages to my app…

Sounds to me like maybe you are thinking of making your app kind of remote-controllable via SMS or something? (Like, if a certain text message is received, do some special thing.) You could totally do that with ClickSend as the options can filter for various conditions in the reply text, like so:

So, you could have like a secret string or something that will fire off the creation of some thing.

But, if you’re just asking, “Can my app receive inbound texts?” The answer is a resounding yes.

Thanks for inspiring me to try this! It had not occurred to me to do so.

[keith]

Addendum: in doing this I discovered that when someone replies to a text you’ve sent via CickSend, it emails you an email version of the inbound text. That’s pretty cool!

(Also, potentially annoying. I’m sure there’s some config option for that. But that was a neat discovery.)

[hi1]

Keith! Thank you!

What I was brainstorming was a way for a user to save a bit of copy via a text. Like, texting yourself a reminder or an idea that you can expand on later. (The main reason being that I love to test out browser-based apps before worrying about making it a native app.)

It looks like you’ve given me enough to get started!

I’m going to check out ClickSend and get playing.

Again… thank you!

[keith]

Yeah, you can totally do that. Interestingly, these inbound response features seem to have no cost impact on the ClickSend end, afaict.

And confirmed:

Opens up a ton of possibilities I hadn’t considered.