How to Work with your Free Twilio Trial Account (outside of US & CA)
So you want to give Twilio a spin, or you've already signed up for your trial account and want to understand what you can and can't do? You're in the right place!
- First, sign up for your free Twilio trial account . The signup process includes verifying your personal mobile phone number, i.e. entering a security code that you've been sent to a mobile number you've designated. This is a security measure that is mandatory before you can try Twilio.
- Once you finish signup, you should see your Console Dashboard . This is your home for finding your Twilio credentials, checking your usage, procuring a phone number and generally beginning your exploration of Twilio messaging technology.
- We give you a small preloaded balance to test out Twilio's functionality. You will not be charged for Twilio phone numbers or usage until you upgrade.
If you've indicated an interest in Twilio Messaging products during your Free Trial sign-up, upon completion of signup you'll land on a page like the one shown in the screenshots below. Please note that this guide assumes you've signed up with a personal mobile number that indicates you reside outside of the United States. If you've instead used a U.S. mobile phone to sign up, you'll be shown a somewhat different landing page and should refer to this guide instead.
We've broken up this initial landing screen into three separate shots to emphasize three key features of this page:
sender in your Twilio code, however, you would use the full number without punctuation: +12059461241. We will start using this number shortly to send SMS messages programmatically.But where are we sending these messages, and where are they actually being sent from? Using this new free Twilio number, you can send SMS messages to anywhere you want, at least outside of the United States (please see this guidefor the regulatory guidelines on the use of Twilio phone numbers in various countries outside the US). As the Console text suggests, sending an SMS from a US-based 10DLC number to another number in the US first requires that the sending number be registered for A2P 10DLC. Such registration might eventually be necessary for a non-US company wishing to do messaging business in the United States, but it certainly shouldn't be a barrier to a developer outside the US who simply wishes to begin exploring Twilio Messaging technology. Most users who are just beginning their exploration of Twilio Messaging want to begin with the simplest thing: sending a message via Twilio Messaging API to their own mobile phone. Since we've indicated on signup that we reside outside the US (and also outside of Canada and the UK), we have been given a US-based Twilio 10DLC number (in this case+12059461241) which will be used to send text messages to our own mobile phone located, for example, in Europe or Asia. (If you'd like to be able to message additional recipients beyond your own mobile number, see Appendix One below for how to add more verified numbers or Caller IDs to your account.)
The final area on this first landing page to note here is the panel at the bottom left, which tells you some crucial information about your new Free Trial account: