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Important for Twilio users: You manage carrier registration through your Twilio account before connecting to MessageDesk. By the time you connect your numbers to our inbox, registration is already complete. No additional registration is required through MessageDesk.

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How to Connect Phone Numbers to MessageDesk

What’s Required:
  1. Twilio Account SID
  2. Twilio Auth Token
  3. 10 Digit Phone Number(s) for Twilio Account

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1. Navigate to Settings

  • Click your profile image in the top right of MessageDesk
  • Click “Settings” from the dropdown menu
Settings Phone Management Pn

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2. Click Phone Management

  • From the left-hand navigation, select “Phone Management” under Workspace Settings,
    • If you don’t see Phone Management you may not have access. Speak with your account administrator for more details.

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3. Click Add Phone Number

  • Click Add Phone Number button in the top right corner of the Phone Management screen
  • Select Connect Twilio
Add Phone Dialog Pn

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4. Input your Twilio credentials

Add your Twilio account SID and auth token, as well as every Twilio-connected phone number you’d like to add to MessageDesk. Twilio Integration Pn

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How MessageDesk Syncs Messages with Your Twilio Numbers

When you connect Twilio numbers to MessageDesk, we use Twilio’s Event Streams to sync messages without affecting your existing Twilio setup. This means you can continue using your current workflows, webhooks, and integrations exactly as before. Twilio Events Pn

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Event Streams integration

MessageDesk uses Twilio’s Event Streams to listen for message events. This approach:
  • Doesn’t interfere with your existing setup - Your current webhooks, integrations, and workflows remain unchanged
  • Works alongside other systems - You can use MessageDesk while maintaining other Twilio integrations
  • Syncs all message activity - Both inbound and outbound messages are captured natively
You don’t need to configure anything manually. Add your Twilio credentials and numbers, and we handle the Event Streams setup automatically.

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Message syncing behavior

Inbound messages:
  • All inbound SMS and MMS messages are synced to MessageDesk in real-time
  • Your existing Twilio webhooks and integrations continue to receive messages as normal
Outbound messages:
  • Messages sent from MessageDesk are synced automatically
  • Messages sent through external systems (like your API or other platforms) using your Twilio number are also synced to MessageDesk
  • This is especially useful for broadcast users who want to send high-volume messages via API while maintaining visibility in MessageDesk

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Delivery status tracking

Messages sent from MessageDesk:
  • Full delivery status tracking (sent, delivered, failed, etc.)
Messages sent from external systems:
  • Messages appear in MessageDesk with a “Sent” status
  • Delivery status updates from external sends don’t sync currently
  • For complete delivery tracking, send messages directly from MessageDesk
For existing Twilio users: If you added your Twilio numbers to MessageDesk before this update, your numbers are still using the previous webhook pattern and will continue to work normally. If you need to migrate to the new event-based system, contact support@messagedesk.com for assistance.

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Troubleshooting

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Default webhook URL causing issues

When you add a new number in Twilio, it automatically configures a default webhook URL. If you’re experiencing issues sending messages from MessageDesk, this default configuration may be the cause. To resolve this:
  1. Log in to your Twilio Console
  2. Navigate to your phone number’s configuration
  3. Clear the webhook URL field (leave it blank)
  4. Save your changes
This is safe to do because MessageDesk uses Event Streams, not webhooks, to sync messages. Clearing the default webhook URL won’t affect MessageDesk functionality.

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Using multiple services with your Twilio number

Since MessageDesk uses Event Streams, your Twilio number can work with multiple services simultaneously. If you need other applications to receive message webhooks: MessageDesk won’t interfere with any of these configurations.

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Disconnect or remove a Twilio number

MessageDesk connects to your Twilio numbers by listening to Twilio’s Event Streams. It doesn’t take over your number or its webhooks, so there’s no disconnect button inside MessageDesk. What to do depends on your goal. The sections below cover each case.
Twilio offers two ways to integrate with other tools. The older method takes over a number’s webhooks, which blocks other services from using that number. MessageDesk doesn’t do this. Our current integration only listens to Twilio’s built-in Event Streams, so your number keeps working with any other Twilio services at the same time. In most cases you don’t need to disconnect anything.

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Use your number with other tools while keeping MessageDesk

You don’t need to disconnect from MessageDesk to use or test your Twilio number in another application. MessageDesk only listens to the Event Stream and doesn’t touch the number’s webhooks. Your number can work with MessageDesk and other services at the same time. See Using multiple services with your Twilio number.

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Temporarily stop messages from reaching MessageDesk

Twilio doesn’t have a simple pause switch for an Event Streams subscription. To stop messages from reaching MessageDesk while keeping your number and Conversations history, edit the MessageDesk Event Streams subscription in your Twilio account and remove the two event types it subscribes to: To resume, edit the subscription again and add those two event types back using the same schema versions shown above. The schema version matters: adding a different version means MessageDesk won’t receive the events correctly. For how to edit a subscription and its event types, see Twilio’s Event Streams documentation.
Any messages that arrive while these event types are removed won’t appear in MessageDesk. There’s no backfill for messages received during that gap.

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Stop MessageDesk from receiving your Twilio messages entirely

If you’re moving off MessageDesk and want it to stop receiving your messages and events, delete the Event Streams subscription in your Twilio account rather than only removing its event types. Once it’s deleted, messages and events stop flowing to MessageDesk. For the steps, see Twilio’s Event Streams documentation. After you delete the subscription, the number still appears in your MessageDesk workspace but no longer sends or receives messages there. MessageDesk has no way to know you deleted the subscription in Twilio, so the number stays visible until you ask us to remove it.
If you connected your Twilio numbers before MessageDesk moved to the Event Streams system, your connection uses the older webhook pattern rather than an Event Streams subscription. If that applies to you, or you’re not sure, contact support@messagedesk.com and we’ll help.

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Remove a number from MessageDesk

To take a Twilio number out of your MessageDesk workspace, contact support@messagedesk.com and we’ll remove it. Removing a number is the equivalent of deleting it, and it’s separate from your Twilio Event Streams subscription. Removing the number from MessageDesk doesn’t delete the subscription in Twilio. If you also want to stop the flow of events, delete the subscription using the section above.
Removing a number from MessageDesk permanently deletes all messages, Conversations, comments, and history tied to that number. This can’t be undone.

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Learn more

For advanced Twilio configuration, refer to Twilio’s official documentation: