Twilio Acquired Phone Numbers

Click on any of the following questions to jump to the answer:

1. My Twilio account includes phone numbers I acquired directly from Twilio, but they don’t appear in the Caller IDs list.
   
2. I obtained a Twilio phone number using the Twilio website but I need it to ring a phone somewhere so I can validate it as a Caller ID.
   
3. I obtained a Twilio phone number using the Twilio website and I need it to forward to another number so I can answer inbound calls.

Questions & Answers

My Twilio account includes phone numbers I acquired directly from Twilio, but they don’t appear in the Caller IDs list.

You must validate them through turboDial before they will appear.

turboDial operates in a sub-account of your Twilio account and does not have access to numbers you acquire in your main Twilio account. If you need to add a number you should add it within turboDial – use the ‘+’ button in the Inbound & SMS section of your turboDial panel. Numbers added that way are available as Caller IDs without further action.

For any number that you have not acquired using turboDial, including numbers acquired directly from Twilio, you will need to use the Caller ID validation steps to add it as a Caller ID. Those steps are accessed by clicking the ‘+’ button in the Caller ID section of turboDial.

I obtained a Twilio phone number using the Twilio website but I need it to ring a phone somewhere so I can validate it as a Caller ID.

In Twilio, you must set up the “Request URL” for Voice for the number to direct an incoming call to forward to a phone you can answer. A good solution is to use a “Twimlet” from Twilio Labs. With the Twimlet approach you can put the following into the Request URL and then calls will forward to your number:

http://twimlets.com/forward?PhoneNumber=415-555-1212

And, of course, you will replace the phone number in that string with your forward-to number.

Click here to learn more about “Twimlets”. They can be very powerful and handy for use with numbers you’ve acquired directly in Twilio. However, Twimlets are not applicable to your turboDial numbers.

I obtained a Twilio phone number using the Twilio website and I need it to forward to another number so I can answer inbound calls.

See the previous FAQ and use the same solution provided there.

There is no solution for forwarding an SMS text message from your Twilio number to another. That’s another reason to acquire your numbers directly in turboDial.