Create a group text messaging channel in under a minute with Joule using Twilio and AWS Lambda
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Text messaging has become one of the most common and easiest way to communicate with a group of people. Anyone with a phone can participate without having to install any apps or have an account with a messaging service.
Create your Joule
Joule lets you create an application without having to think about servers or deployments. This Joule is an out of the box application that let’s you turn any Twilio number into a group text channel.
The Joule supports commands like join, leave and ban. This means anyone with your Twilio number can come and go as they please and you’ll be able to ban someone if needed.
Create this Joule then head over to Twilio. There you’ll associate this Joule with a phone number and get your account SID and auth token. Afterwards you’ll come back to your Joule page. The final step is to fill in the environment variables section for your Joule.
Create a Twilio Account
Twilio lets you add programatic smarts to a phone number. This includes answering phone calls or responding to text messages. The possibilities are endless.
After you sign into your Twilio account you can buy a new phone number or use an existing one.
Clicking on your phone number brings up a dialog with a Messaging tab. Within that tab you’ll need to paste the URL provided to you on your Joule page.
Add your Twilio credentials to your Joule
Go back to your Twilio account and create a new API key. Copy and paste the account SID and secret (called a token in your Joule). You’ll need to enter your Twilio phone number into your Joule’s environment variables section.
Press Save on your Joule’s page and you should be able to start using your new group text message channel. Simply send the message join to your Twilio phone number and the rest should be self explanatory. Give the phone number to anyone else you’d like to join in.
Voila!
Learn more by reading the Joule quickstart guide and see how Joule makes writing apps easy and fun.
