Using Twilio Conversations with Studio

Conversations provides the ability to add or remove Participants that are interacting with a Flow's Execution, creating the opportunity to add support agents at any point to assist users with your Studio application. Additionally, the Conversations integration enables collaborative capabilities within your application as multiple Participants can provide input and move the same Flow Execution forward.

To connect a Twilio Conversation to your Studio Flow, check out the following tutorials:

• Using Twilio Studio and Conversations with SMS (Low-code approach)
• Connecting Twilio Studio to Conversations (Code approach)

A Studio Flow's Execution will start when a message is created in the Conversation that is connected to the Flow. Use the Incoming Conversation transition within the Trigger (Start) Widget. Once a message is sent in a Conversation, the Widget connected to the Incoming Conversation transition will be run.

You can modify Conversations Participants using the Run Function Widget along with a Twilio Function. A Twilio Function will run code that makes a request to the Conversations API to add or remove Participants.

In this example, customers will send the keyword "support" as a Conversation message. The Studio Flow will detect that the keyword was sent and add a Participant to the Conversation. The Participant will be the support agent in this case.

• Sign up for a Twilio account — you can create a free account if you don't have one already.
• Purchase a Twilio phone number. Learn how to purchase a phone number . Please note that the number purchasing process varies by region.
• Familiarity with Twilio Conversations.
• You have attached your Studio Flow to a Conversation. Use this guide to automatically attach a Studio Flow to a Conversation when a Conversation is auto-created.
• Familiarity with the Split Based On… , Run Function , and Send Message Widgets.

The Incoming Conversation transition from the Trigger (Start) Widget is used to detect and start the Studio Flow when a new message is sent in the Conversation the Studio Flow is connected to. All messages sent within the Studio Flow will be delivered to all Participants in the Conversation.

Add a Split Based On… Widget to the Canvas to check if the keyword "support" is sent within the Conversation. Rename the Widget to check-support. Liquid variables are values stored within a Studio Flow that can be used by your Widgets. When checking for the "support" keyword, the Split Based On… Widget evaluates the {{trigger.conversation.Body}} variable. This variable holds the message that was sent in the Conversation. In the Variable to Test field, enter {{trigger.conversation.Body}}.

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exports.handler = function(context, event, callback) {

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// get the Twilio client

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const client = context.getTwilioClient();

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// store the Conversation ID passed in from the Studio Flow

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const conversationsSid = event.conversationID;

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// add a participant to the Conversation

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client.conversations

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.conversations(conversationsSid)

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.participants

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.create({

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'messagingBinding.address': 'enter-support-agent-phone-number',

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'messagingBinding.proxyAddress': 'enter-twilio-phone-number'

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})

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.then(participant => {

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console.log(participant.sid);

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return callback(null, "Success");

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})

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.catch(err => {

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console.log(err);

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callback(err)

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})

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};

Add a Run Function Widget, which runs code you write in a Twilio Function, to the Canvas. Rename the Run Function Widget to add-support-agent. Connect the Support transition you created in the check-support Widget to this Widget by clicking the dangling dot under the Support transition and dragging it to the Run Function Widget before letting go.

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