twilio-send-message

Overview

A single messages.create() call sends on any messaging channel — SMS, MMS, RCS, or WhatsApp. The channel is determined by the sender address and the recipient's capabilities. For channel selection guidance and the full onboarding sequence, see twilio-messaging-overview and twilio-messaging-channel-advisor.

Channel	to format	Notes	Template required?
SMS/MMS	+15551234567	MMS: US/CA/AU only	No
RCS (with SMS fallback)	+15551234567	Send via Messaging Service that has both an RCS sender and an SMS sender — Twilio attempts RCS first, falls back to SMS on failure	No
RCS (no fallback)	rcs:+15551234567	Forces RCS only — fails if recipient isn't RCS-capable	No
WhatsApp	whatsapp:+15551234567	Send via whatsapp:-prefixed from	Outside 24-hr window: yes

For production: Send via messagingServiceSid instead of from. This enables sender pool management, RCS→SMS fallback, SMS pumping protection, link shortening, compliance toolkit, and scheduling. See twilio-messaging-services.

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Prerequisites

• Twilio account — New to Twilio? See twilio-account-setup
• Environment variables: TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID, TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN — see twilio-iam-auth-setup
• SDK: pip install twilio / npm install twilio
• Channel-specific senders:
  • SMS/MMS: a Twilio phone number (see twilio-account-setup)
  • RCS: an RCS sender added to a Messaging Service (see twilio-rcs-messaging)
  • WhatsApp: an active WhatsApp sender (see twilio-whatsapp-send-message for sandbox, twilio-whatsapp-manage-senders for production)

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Quickstart

Python

import os
from twilio.rest import Client

client = Client(os.environ["TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID"], os.environ["TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN"])

# SMS
sms = client.messages.create(
    from_="+15017122661",
    to="+15558675310",
    body="Your order has shipped."
)

# RCS — forces RCS only, no fallback
rcs = client.messages.create(
    messaging_service_sid="MGxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
    to="rcs:+15558675310",
    body="Your order has shipped."
)

# WhatsApp
whatsapp = client.messages.create(
    from_="whatsapp:+15017122661",
    to="whatsapp:+15558675310",
    body="Your order has shipped."
)

# Via Messaging Service (recommended — attempts RCS first, falls back to SMS)
msg = client.messages.create(
    messaging_service_sid="MGxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
    to="+15558675310",
    body="Your order has shipped."
)