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Overview

SMS notifications provide critical alerts directly to mobile phones, perfect for on-call rotations and urgent incidents.

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Setup Guide

1

Sign Up for Twilio

  1. Create account at https://twilio.com
  2. Purchase phone number
  3. Get Account SID and Auth Token
2

Configure Twilio in StatusStack

Settings → Integrations → Twilio
Account SID: AC...
Auth Token: ***
From Number: +1-555-123-4567
3

Add to Notification Rule

  1. Create notification rule
  2. Select SMS channel
  3. Enter phone numbers (with country code)
  4. Set character limit
4

Test

Send test SMS

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Phone Number Format

Include country code: 
US: +1-555-123-4567
UK: +44-20-1234-5678
International: +[country]-[number]

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Message Format

SMS messages are concise: 
StatusStack Alert:
Production API is DOWN
Status: Critical
View: https://stst.co/p/abc123
Character limit: 160 characters (standard SMS)

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Cost Considerations

SMS charges apply via Twilio
  • ~0.0075−0.0075 - 0.02 per SMS (US)
  • Higher rates internationally
  • Check Twilio pricing
Best practices:
  • Use SMS for critical alerts only
  • Don’t send info/degraded alerts via SMS
  • Consider per-alert cost in high-traffic scenarios

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Best Practices

  • Critical only: Reserve for production outages
  • On-call rotation: Integrate with PagerDuty
  • Multiple recipients: Use escalation policies
  • Test regularly: Verify phone numbers are current

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Next Steps

Webhooks

PagerDuty integration

Email Integration

Email notifications