For those that have ever tried out or wondered about the Twilio SMS integration, I can tell you it just got a major boost! Previously the fields were quite static, limiting the functionality - but in the past few weeks the Asana Product Team released support for variables across a number of integrations. Including sending GMAIL.
Today though, lets jump into the world of text messaging!
Before you start you will need to have a valid Twilio Account and purchase a Twilio Phone Number. You will also need to submit regulatory / compliance documentation (such as a copy of your Driver’s License, and a Utility Statement) to get a valid phone number via Twilio. This can take a few days to sort out.
While you wait for this, it’s good to think about the use cases appropriate for sending SMS from Asana. There’s not currently any “reply-to” method. (see bottom of this post for more on reply-to scenarios) So the messages should be information or transaction related, and not require a response.
Tip: Make sure you understand the difference between marketing/promotional and transactional messages to avoid running afoul of anti-spam laws!
Check out this great post over at Twilio to make sure you know the difference!
A few suitable use cases that spring to mind:
- Informing an employee / contractor about assignments
- Letting customers know important updates to projects
- Sending Reminders about overdue tasks
- Time Critical updates (such as security) to internal stakeholders
In the below example a project manager wants to assign a contractor to a location.
First up you will need to connect your Twilio Account SID and Auth Token to Asana. Head to the Customise section in Asana and add the Twilio App. The integration is 1:1 between Twilio and Asana, meaning that only the user that set up the integration will be able to edit / configure the content of the message. So it’s a good idea to factor that into your offboarding process now. (Asana is a great tool for Onboarding and Offboarding employees! I’ll write a post on that in the coming weeks.)
You can create your tasks either manually or via a form. Here’s the custom fields I have set up:
- Contractor Name (Drop Down)
- SMS Number (Free Text)
- Location (Drop Down)
If you know the numbers you would commonly use then you could make the phone numbers a drop down also. For simplicity of using your Twilio phone number (or if you have multiple numbers) you could also create a drop down with your own phone number, I did find myself copy + pasting the number into different rules a few times!
Here’s my Form. I included conditional logic for the SMS Free Text. Even though this is just a test space, it’s a good habit to include something to alert the person completing the form an SMS will be sent.
I then set up a simple rule in my workflow to action sending an SMS when the conditions are met.
Here’s the variables and the text template I set up.
And here’s what the SMS looks like when received!
Voila!
Tip: Add into your rule something like “add comment - SMS Sent” to make sure you know the rule ran. You can also explore Asana’s new Manual Triggers in rules to give even more control!
Notes on Replies: Twilio has a really great API, so I can certainly see the opportunity in future to use a simple link and web page to be able to post a reply as a comment. You could use a variable to build a link that includes the task ID.
Let me know in the comments other use cases you can think of for this feature! Happy Texting!
