How do I set-up Twilio?

Setting up Twilio

1. Request Twilio through desk support at cru@ucalgary.ca

2. REDCap Administrators will enable Twilio. Please provide a Twilio Account SID, Twilio Auth Token, & Twilio phone number


3. You will receive a notification that Twilio is enabled.

4. Twilio SMS and Voice Call services box will appear in the Project Set-up Tab



5. Open the Configure Twilio Settings and complete the set-up page.



What We Need From the Client

1. Purchased phone number from Twilio (with country code/location)

2. Request inspector should be disabled by the client before we can use Twilio in REDCap

3. SID

4. Authorization token (a password that should not be shared) - we need it to setup

5. Ask the client to confirm 'Request Inspector' is disabled


Twilio configuration settings:

1. Language and gender used for voice calls (i.e. English male voice)

2. survey invitation types to use


3. Default invitation preference for new participants?


4. (Optional) Control each participant's invitation preference using a multiple choice field (**requires MC field to be already set up with the required choices added exactly as shown in blue)


5. (Optional) Designate a phone number field for survey invitations


6. Automatically append response instructions to questions


7. Behaviour for overlapping sms invitations?


IMPORTANT: If you want your participants to be able to take surveys via SMS messages or voice calls - the entire survey MUST be made up of numerical choices - REDCap will help analyze surveys for Twilio compatibility.


Manage survey participants options (can implement any of these):

  1. Public survey URL (one link for everyone, each answer that comes back will be an anonymous vector). The first form has to be a survey
  2. Invite participants via voice call and sms: sent in real-time (with phone numbers)
  3. Use participant list: invitation preference (email/text) can be set for each one (need at least their email or phone number to be able to put them on the participant list- can also put identifier if you want).


→ Can set default preference for groups of participants that want to be contacted by email or text (and then we can send invites to each group of people)

→ Can send survey as a webpage (email or sms that contains survey link), or mixed types depending on the participants' preference

→ Can have survey respondents select their invitation preference (Control each participant's invitation preference using a multiple-choice field)

→ Can automate surveys as well.