ManyChat and Twilio integrate through ManyChat's External Request action and Zapier to extend ManyChat chatbot sequences beyond Facebook Messenger and Instagram into Twilio SMS, enabling your bot flows to follow up with leads by text when the messaging window closes or when a customer opts in to receive SMS. This integration is used by digital marketers, course creators, and e-commerce businesses who run ManyChat automation for lead nurturing on Messenger and Instagram and want to add SMS as a persistent follow-up channel that reaches contacts even after the 24-hour or 7-day social messaging window expires. The connection sends the subscriber's phone number collected within a ManyChat flow to your middleware or Zapier, which then dispatches the Twilio SMS using the Twilio Messages API.
What You Need Before You Start
Confirm your ManyChat account is on the Pro plan or higher, as the External Request action that calls external APIs including Twilio is available only on paid plans, and the free ManyChat plan does not support HTTP requests to third-party services. Add a Phone Number collection step to your ManyChat flow by inserting a User Input action set to collect the Phone data type, which validates the format and stores the subscriber's phone in a ManyChat Custom User Field named phone_number or a similar label you define. From Twilio, collect your Account SID, Auth Token, and an SMS-capable phone number registered under an A2P 10DLC campaign for US-bound SMS, and create a Twilio Messaging Service in the Console under Messaging, then Services to pool multiple Twilio numbers for high-volume sends and improve deliverability. For the Zapier path, create a Zapier account on a plan that supports webhooks and the Twilio app, and authorize both the ManyChat Zapier app and the Twilio Zapier app in your Zapier account.
Step-by-Step Integration Guide
For the External Request path in ManyChat, add an External Request action to your flow at the point where you want to trigger the Twilio SMS, set the URL to https://api.twilio.com/2010-04-01/Accounts/{AccountSid}/Messages.json, the HTTP method to POST, the Content-Type to application/x-www-form-urlencoded, and add a Basic Authorization header with the value Base64-encoded as Basic {base64(accountSid:authToken)}. In the External Request body, add the parameters To mapped to the ManyChat Custom User Field containing the subscriber's phone such as {{phone_number}}, From set to your Twilio number as a static value, and Body set to your SMS text using ManyChat's dynamic field syntax such as Hi {{first name}}, your discount code is SAVE20 and expires in 24 hours. For the Zapier path, create a Zap triggered by the ManyChat Send to Zapier action in your ManyChat flow, which delivers the subscriber's custom fields including phone_number to the Zap, then add the Twilio Send SMS action and map the phone_number field to the To parameter and compose the Body text using ManyChat fields from the Zap data. Test the integration by running through the ManyChat flow as a subscriber, confirming the External Request or Zap fires correctly, and checking the Twilio Console message log to verify the SMS was dispatched with the correct phone and body.
Common Issues and How to Fix Them
The ManyChat External Request action returns a 401 Unauthorized error when the Authorization header is not correctly Base64-encoded, which happens when the encoding includes special characters from the Account SID or Auth Token that are not URL-safe. Generate the Base64 value outside ManyChat using a reliable encoder, paste the result directly into the ManyChat Authorization header value field as Basic {encodedString}, and test the request using ManyChat's built-in Test Request button to confirm Twilio returns a 201 Created response before activating the flow. ManyChat phone fields store the number as entered by the subscriber without E.164 normalization, and subscribers entering local format numbers without the country code cause the Twilio API to return a 21211 error. Add a middleware step between ManyChat and Twilio that normalizes the phone using the Twilio Lookup API before dispatching the SMS, or add a ManyChat Condition action before the External Request that checks whether the phone_number field value starts with a plus sign and routes non-compliant numbers to a re-collection flow. ManyChat's Send to Zapier action fires once per subscriber at the point in the flow where it is placed but does not automatically resend on subsequent flow runs for the same subscriber, which means recurring SMS reminders require multiple Zapier trigger points or a scheduled re-entry mechanism in ManyChat. Use ManyChat's Sequence feature to schedule follow-up messages at specific intervals and add a Send to Zapier action in each sequence step so Zapier dispatches a new Twilio SMS for each scheduled interval independently.
How to Get More from This Integration
Build a social-to-SMS lead capture funnel by running a ManyChat comment growth tool on a Facebook post that adds commenters to a ManyChat flow, collecting their phone number via the User Input action, and dispatching a Twilio SMS with a lead magnet download link using the External Request action, creating a high-conversion two-channel lead capture sequence that works even after Messenger engagement stops. Add a reactivation SMS campaign by exporting ManyChat subscribers who have not engaged with a flow in 30 days, importing their phone numbers into a Twilio Notify audience or a direct Twilio Messages API batch send, and reactivating them with an SMS that drives them back to a ManyChat Messenger flow via a m.me shortlink, combining Twilio's reach with ManyChat's bot re-engagement. Create a purchase notification SMS by connecting ManyChat to your e-commerce platform via Zapier, triggering an SMS confirmation through Twilio when a subscriber completes a purchase, and including a deep link to a ManyChat post-purchase follow-up flow that collects product feedback and offers upsell recommendations via Messenger. Integrate Twilio two-way SMS replies back into ManyChat by configuring your Twilio inbound webhook to call the ManyChat Sending API at POST https://api.manychat.com/fb/sending/sendContent?subscriber_id={manychatSubscriberId} with the appropriate content block when an SMS reply arrives, re-entering the ManyChat subscriber into a flow based on their SMS reply keyword.
Conclusion
ManyChat and Twilio together extend your chatbot automation beyond social platforms into SMS, ensuring every lead in your ManyChat funnel can be followed up by text even after the Messenger or Instagram messaging window closes. Contact Telphi Consulting to configure the ManyChat Twilio SMS integration for your lead generation and follow-up workflows.
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