Send SMS and WhatsApp with your own Telnyx account

Connect your Telnyx account and Polzy sends this workspace's SMS and WhatsApp messages — campaign invitations and reminders, workflow messages and replies in a conversation — from your own Telnyx numbers. People can text back: replies arrive in the conversation in Polzy, and each message's log shows whether it was delivered.

Before you start

You need:

• A workspace on Business or higher, and the Admin role in it.
• A Telnyx account, with a phone number that can send messages, assigned to a messaging profile.
• For WhatsApp: a WhatsApp Business Account connected in Telnyx, on a Telnyx number (see WhatsApp).
• Your participants' mobile numbers on their records. Polzy stores them in international format, such as +31 6 1234 5678; a number typed without its country code is read in your organization's country, the one in Invoice details.

How Polzy uses Telnyx

• SMS and WhatsApp. Once you choose Telnyx for SMS, WhatsApp or both, every message the workspace sends on that channel goes through your account.
• Replies. When someone texts back, the reply is added to their open conversation in Polzy (see Conversations).
• Delivery. Each message's log in Messages shows Delivered or Failed, with Telnyx's reason.
• What it costs. Telnyx bills you for these messages. They do not count against your organization's monthly messages in Polzy, which cover only Polzy's own sender.

Step 1: Set up Telnyx

1. In the Telnyx portal, buy or port a number that can send messages, for each country you send to.
2. Under Messaging, create a messaging profile and assign your number to it. A profile handles number pooling and delivery settings.
3. Under API Keys, create a key and copy it. Telnyx shows it once.
4. Under Keys & Credentials, open Public Key and copy it. Polzy uses it to check that delivery receipts and replies really come from Telnyx.

To send with a name instead of a number, such as Acme, set an alphanumeric sender ID on the messaging profile. People cannot reply to it, it cannot reach the United States or Canada, and some countries require it to be registered first.

See Telnyx: Create and manage API keys, Telnyx: Messaging profiles and Telnyx: Alphanumeric sender ID.

Step 2: Connect Telnyx in Polzy

1. Open Integrations in the sidebar, the Available tab, and click Connect on Telnyx's row. Or open Messages, the Integrations tab, and click Set up on Telnyx.
2. In the Connect Telnyx panel, fill in the fields:

For SMS, enter a From number or an Alpha sender: Polzy needs one of them to send, even with a messaging profile. When both are filled in, the number is used, so people can reply.

1. Click Test connection. You should see Connected to Telnyx with the number of messaging profiles the key can see.
2. Click Connect.

Integration

Connect TelnyxKeys are encrypted and only used on your behalf.

1 of 1 required

Credentials

Webhook public keyOptional

API keyRequired

Messaging profile IDOptional

From numberOptional

Alpha senderOptional

WhatsApp numberOptional

Encrypted at restTest connectionConnect

Step 3: Choose Telnyx for SMS and WhatsApp

1. Open Settings, then the Notifications tab, and scroll to Channels.
2. On the SMS row, change Polzy · shared account to Telnyx, and make sure the switch is on.
3. To send WhatsApp too, do the same on the WhatsApp row.

Channels

Channels appear here once a provider is connected under Connect. Until then, Polzy sends on its own shared account with a lower daily cap.

EmailOnInvitations, reminders and conversation replies. · 1,240 sent · 30dPolzy · shared account

SMSOnShort invitations for people without a desk. · 312 sent · 30dTelnyx

WhatsAppOnTwo-way messages through a Business number. · 48 sent · 30dTelnyx

SlackOffChannel posts and direct messages to admins. · not sendingNo provider connected

TeamsOnPosts into a Teams channel your workspace watches. · not sendingNo provider connected

A campaign then sends through Telnyx when you choose SMS or WhatsApp as its channel on the Delivery tab. A campaign uses one channel.

Channel

One channel per campaign, through the provider this workspace set for it.

EmailUsing: Polzy (default)SMSUsing: TelnyxWhatsAppUsing: TelnyxSlackNot configured

Step 4: Receive replies

Delivery receipts need nothing more: Polzy asks Telnyx for a receipt with every message it sends. Replies need one setting in Telnyx.

1. In Polzy, open Telnyx's page from Integrations and find Receiving. Copy the address shown there.
2. In the Telnyx portal, open your messaging profile and paste the address as its inbound webhook URL. Save.

Receiving

Give this address to Telnyx so it can report what happened to your messages.

Delivery receipts

Replies

Copy

In Telnyx, open your messaging profile and paste this URL as the webhook URL. Copy the public key from Account → Keys & Credentials into the field above.

A reply from someone with an open conversation on that channel is added to it, and the person who opened the conversation is told. A message from anyone else is not shown in Polzy. See Telnyx: Receiving webhooks for messaging.

WhatsApp

WhatsApp messages go through a WhatsApp Business Account that you connect in Telnyx, under Messaging → WhatsApp, by signing in with your Meta business account and verifying your number. Enter that number as WhatsApp number in Polzy. See Telnyx: Send your first WhatsApp message.

WhatsApp only allows a business to write freely within 24 hours of the person's last message to it. Outside that window, it accepts only a template that Meta has approved. What that means in Polzy:

• Campaign invitations are sent as ordinary messages, so WhatsApp delivers them only to people who have written to your WhatsApp number in the last 24 hours. For everyone else, the message fails, and its log shows Telnyx's reason. For a first contact, send by SMS or email.
• Conversations. Within 24 hours of the person's last message, reply freely. After that, Polzy says WhatsApp only allows free replies within 24 hours of their last message. Send an approved template to reopen it. Choose a template under Choose an approved template and click Send template.
• Templates. Templates are created in Telnyx and approved by Meta, usually within a day or two. The list in Polzy shows the templates registered for your workspace; Polzy has no screen to add one, so when it says No approved templates yet, the conversation continues once the person writes again.

Amira Haddad

WhatsApp

Thanks for asking. I’ll write more about it next week.

3 days ago

WhatsApp only allows free replies within 24 hours of their last message. Send an approved template to reopen it.

Choose an approved templateSend template

Limits and costs

• SMS segments. An SMS holds up to 160 characters, or 70 when the text has a character outside the standard GSM alphabet — an emoji, or a script such as Arabic. A longer message is sent in parts, and Telnyx charges for each.
• Quiet hours. With Respect quiet hours on under Settings → Notifications, campaign messages wait until 08:00 in the recipient's time zone rather than going out between 20:00 and 08:00.
• Your account's limits. Telnyx's own sending limits and country rules apply.

Troubleshooting

Good to know

• Polzy's own sender. Without a provider of your own, SMS goes out one-way from Polzy's shared sender, counted against your organization's monthly messages, and people cannot text back to it. WhatsApp goes through your own Telnyx or Twilio account until Polzy's WhatsApp number is verified.
• If Telnyx stops working, Polzy keeps trying it and marks it Needs attention. If you disconnect it, SMS goes back to Polzy's shared sender.
• What Polzy keeps. The API key and the public key are stored encrypted and never shown again.

Useful links

• Telnyx: Create and manage API keys
• Telnyx: Messaging profiles
• Telnyx: Alphanumeric sender ID
• Telnyx: Receiving webhooks for messaging
• Telnyx: Send your first WhatsApp message