[00:00] Twilio WhatsApp notifications provide another direct and customizable method for communicating alarms, leveraging several different parts of the Twilio toolset from what we've already explored. This lesson provides a basic overview of the Twilio Console configurations needed to set up WhatsApp notification successfully. For more detailed WhatsApp setup guides, please refer to the Twilio documentation links provided below. In a later lesson, we'll cover how to configure Twilio WhatsApp notifications within Ignition using much of what we'll touch on in this video, so you may want to collect certain pieces of information from your Twilio Console and store them securely as we go along. Let's take a look at the Twilio Console information and user-created Twilio elements necessary to make our WhatsApp notifications work seamlessly with Ignition. The Twilio documentation linked below is a great resource for any questions you might have about how to create the elements we'll discuss. First, I'll need to collect my Twilio account information from the Twilio Account Dashboard.

[01:05] I'll need this information in the next video when I'm ready to configure a connection to Twilio inside Ignition. It's available right at the bottom of the homepage. I've deliberately blocked out my values for the Account SID, Auth Token, and Twilio phone number, since they represent sensitive account information I want to keep private and secure. If you haven't already, you may want to pin certain navigation items to the sidebar like I have here. To do that, you can go to Explore Products in the side menu and hit the pin icon for any sections you'll want at your fingertips. Next, we'll look at Elastic SIP Trunking. If you already have a SIP set up and don't need to create one from scratch, please feel free to skip to the next chapter in this video. For our WhatsApp configuration example, SIP Trunking offers a cloud-based solution that connects IP-based communication infrastructure to the Public Switch Telephone Network, the PSTN. This enables Twilio calls using any broadband internet connection.

[02:03] The service automatically adjusts to call volume -- adding or reducing capacity as needed to manage communications -- so it doesn't require a significant hardware investment to use WhatsApp messaging features. There are some basic requirements for using SIP Trunking to be aware of: You'll need a SIP-enabled network element with access to the internet and enough bandwidth to support peak call traffic. To create an Elastic SIP Trunk in the Twilio Console, all you'll need to do is go to Elastic SIP Trunking, Manage, and Trunks in the side menu, click on Create New SIP Trunk, and follow the workflow. If we take a look at the existing SIP Trunk example here, we'll see the SIP Trunk has an ID automatically assigned at setup, but we can give the trunk a friendly name that we'll use later in the configuration process for easier identification. You also have the options to set up a recording, enhance security, manage transfers, and configure the SIP Trunk so that Twilio automatically detects the source of the remote RTP stream and directs its own RTP transmissions to that same destination.

[03:07] There are even more customization options available under the additional features. If you already have an active number set up and want to connect it to your SIP Trunk, you can pop over to numbers in the side menu and use the Add A Number workflow in that window. If not, we'll talk about active numbers in a bit more detail later. For now, let's tackle messaging integration in the Twilio Console. We can hop out of the SIP Trunk workspace and go to Messaging and Services in the side navigation. Here, we'll need to collect the information for the Twilio Messaging Service that's configured to send WhatsApp messages. The one we want in this case is Twilio WhatsApp. We'll use this messaging service info in the next lesson when we create our WhatsApp alarm notification profile, so when your messaging service is configured, be sure to keep this information handy for your Ignition implementation. In this same page, if we go into our Low Volume Mixed A2P Messaging Service 2 and select Integration in the side menu, we see some options for how we can manage the messaging service integration.

[04:11] Low Volume Mixed A2P Messaging Service 2 is a specific messaging service we have configured on our account, so you may be configuring a different A2P depending on your specific needs or factors like the volume of alarms. Here, under Incoming Messages, we should defer to the sender's webhook in order to ensure Twilio will use the public host Ignition sends in the initial message to avoid throwing an error. To use WhatsApp with Ignition, we also need to have an active Twilio phone number in the Console. To get to my Active Numbers screen, I can go to Phone Numbers, then Manage. You may have already entered the number for your SIP Trunk when we covered that setup above. If not, and you don't already have an Active Number, you can buy one and set it up with your voice, messaging, and application preferences using the Buy A Number workflow. After buying a number, you'll need to navigate to the Messaging Service WhatsApp Sender pool page to link the number to the service.

[05:07] We'll talk more about that process in the next section. If you want to send messages within the US, your active number also needs to be tied to an A2P. In the United States, A2P, or Application to Person, 10 DLC, 10 digit long code, is the established standard telecommunication carriers use to verify and ensure consent for SMS messages sent to US users via long code phone numbers. If you don't send messages to US numbers, then us A2P 10 DLC registration is not required. I've included several links below this video that'll help you decide what A2P options fit your specific needs best and guide you through the provisioning process. To make the registration easier, you'll need to have your tax ID and business information handy, an idea of the call volume you'll need to cover, and a defined use case. If you need to register for A2P, we recommend completing that process and then continuing with the rest of this lesson once it's complete. We have two numbers already set up in the Active Numbers section here, and we'll be using the second example since it's already set up with the SIP trunk and messaging service that we need for our application.

[06:17] Whichever number we use must also be registered as a WhatsApp sender. For this, we can go to the sidebar menu and select Messaging, Senders, and WhatsApp Senders. We've already registered our number as a WhatsApp sender. You can do the same using the Create New Sender window. The process will allow you to register your number, manage voice and messaging endpoints to match your preferences, and create or link to a WhatsApp profile as needed. Now, it's time to explore our options for message types with WhatsApp. Ignition supports two message types, template and freeform. We'll focus on the template messages for this example, since those are configured on Twilio. Freeform messages can later be configured on the Gateway after initial communications are completed.

[07:03] To streamline this process as much as possible, Twilio offers a user-friendly Content Template Builder in the Messaging menu. We've created several templates already -- some that use parameters to fill out the message with dynamic information and some that use a standard script without any customization. The template builder guides you through the steps to create your template and offers many different content types to help you design the most effective messaging for your needs. When creating these templates, it's best to set the WhatsApp category to Utility. Marketing messages are rejected by Meta for US numbers at the time of recording. Once your template is created, you'll need to submit the template to Meta for approval before it can be used for notifications. The approval process typically takes 48 hours, although your wait times may vary. It's a good idea to recheck the message categories for templates if they are approved, since Meta sometimes recategorizes Utility templates as Marketing templates at their discretion after the approval process is completed.

[08:08] Lastly, to make sure the service knows how to handle incoming calls and messages, you'll need to have a Twiml app set up with the correct endpoints to return Twiml instructions to Twilio. You can access that workspace under Phone Numbers, Manage, and Twiml Apps. With this quick tour of the Twilio Console, we've covered most of the essential elements you'll need to get WhatsApp working smoothly with Ignition. For some excellent tutorials that can help you customize your Twilio-side configurations related to WhatsApp, check out the links to the Twilio documentation below this video. Next time, we'll use the information we've gathered in the Twilio Console and dive into WhatsApp Notification setup on the Ignition Gateway.