Would you like to get SMS notifications when someone submits your contact form? Getting a quick notification on your phone means you’ll never miss out on submission!
In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to set up SMS notifications for WordPress forms.
How Do I Send SMS Notifications from WordPress?
It’s easy to send SMS notifications from your contact form entries with the WPForms plugin.
WPForms is the best form builder for WordPress. You can connect forms built with WPForms to a third-party SMS automation service. This is the easiest way to get SMS receipts whenever a user submits a form on your site.
We’re going to show you how to connect WPForms to a Twilio WordPress plugin so you get an SMS each time someone submits your form.
How to Get an SMS Notification From Your Contact Form
Our video guide explains how you can set up SMS notifications for your WordPress contact forms:
If you’d prefer written instructions, here are the steps for configuring text notifications for form submissions:
- Install WPForms
- Connect Your Form to Zapier
- Set Up Your Twilio Integration
- Configure Twilio in Zapier
OK, let’s make your contact form first.
Step 1: Install WPForms
The first thing you need to do is to install and activate the WPForms plugin. Here’s a step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Also, you’ll need to have a form created. See our tutorial on how to create a simple contact form as an example to get started.
Now that your form is created, we’ll need to connect this form to your Twilio account.
Step 2: Connect Your Contact Form to Zapier
To create an SMS notification from your WordPress contact form, you’ll need to install the WPForms Zapier addon.
The Zapier addon lets you connect your forms to over 2,000+ web apps, including things like Drip, Jira, and Twilio so that you get alerted when someone submits your form on your site.
We’re going to use Zapier as our Twilio WordPress plugin to get a WordPress contact form SMS notification.
When you’ve installed the WPForms Zapier addon, open a new tab and log in to your Zapier account. Then, begin to make a Zap. For a complete step-by-step guide to making a Zap, you can check out our tutorial on how to get started with Zapier.
When you get to the Edit Options screen, select the form you just created.
After this step, select Continue. Now you can test your form’s connection to Zapier. Be sure to have at least one test entry on your form before fetching existing entries.
After a moment, you should see a success confirmation message.
Step 3: Set Up Your Twilio SMS Integration
Now that you’ve connected Zapier to the WPForms plugin, the next step is to connect your form to Twilio. This will trigger your WordPress contact form SMS notification.
So as an Action app, you’ll need to choose Twilio.
As we’re looking to create an SMS alert when a form is being submitted on your site, you need to select Send SMS. Then, select Save + Continue.
Then, you’ll need to connect your Twilio account with Zapier.
Click Connect a New Account. If you do not have an account created, you’ll need to create a free account and then, allow Zapier to access your Twilio account by entering its Account SID and Auth Token.
To find Account SID and Auth Token, log in to your Twilio Console and navigate to Account » Account Settings.
Now scroll down your page until you find API Credentials. You can copy the required details into Zapier and click Yes, Continue.
After allowing access, select Save + Continue.
Now to continue setting up your WordPress contact form SMS notification, go back to your Twilio Console and click the # tab in the left panel. Then, click Active Numbers » Get Started.
Then, click Get your first Twilio phone number. Now you’ll be shown a Twilio phone number that you can use for your text notifications.
Click Choose this Number. Then, click Done.
That’s the basics of your Twilio WordPress plugin set up. Now we’ll need to tell Twilio how to send the SMS notification.
Step 4: Configure SMS Notification Settings in Zapier
Next up, switch back to your Zapier account. You’ll need to specify 3 settings:
- From Number: This is the number you’ve just created in your Twilio account. You can choose it from the dropdown menu.
- To Number: You may enter your phone number where the SMS should be sent. You can use an internet phone system like VoIP.
- Message: Here you can specify all the form fields and customize them the way you want. For example, you can look at the screenshot below.
You may leave the other optional fields blank and click Continue. You’ve almost set up your SMS notifications for your WordPress contact forms!
Now you can test Twilio by clicking Create & Continue. If everything is done right, you’ll now receive an SMS to your mobile number.
In the final step, you’ll need to name your Zap and turn it on, so you’ll be notified through SMS when you get a form submission.
Next Step: Set Up More Form Integrations
We hope this guide helped show you how easy it is to get WordPress contact form SMS notifications. You can easily get an email notification for entries too.
Now you’ve integrated a Twilio WordPress plugin, you can easily use WPForms to:
- Add users to an automated email marketing campaign in Mautic
- Send contact form entries to Zoho CRM
- Make a Facebook chatbot and add visitors with a ManyChat sequence
- Send contact form entries to Toggl
- Easily make your contact forms GDPR compliant
- And more.
If you’re considering WPForms vs Contact Form 7, WPForms is worth it because it makes integrations super easy. You don’t need to download unsupported addons to get everything set up the way you want it.
What are you waiting for? Get started with the most powerful WordPress forms plugin today!
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This is ridiculous. Why do I need 3 applications just to send a text message.
Hi Justin,
I’m apologize for the frustration but since we currently don’t have a built-in feature for to send out text messages, this is a workaround we have for the time being.
Thanks!
How can I make clients who fill my form also receive SMS confirmation that their form have been submitted
Hi Kalu,
We don’t have a way to do this right now, but I’ve made a note on our feature request list so we can keep it on our radar! Thanks for the suggestion 🙂
Is there a way to connect the “to number” to the telephone value inserted in the form? This way I could send SMS to the users that have submitted a form.
Hi Laurent,
We don’t have a way to do this right now, but I’ve made a note on our feature request list so we can keep it on our radar! Thanks for the suggestion 🙂
first i have to purchase wpforms license, then install zapier and then twilio,
and i can add my mobile number where i will get message when someone submit wpform. right?
Hey Umar – Yes, you are absolutely correct! You will need our Pro License for Zapier addon. In Twilio settings, you can set up any of your numbers where you want to get the messages from Twilio when someone fills the form.
For more help, please feel welcome to reach out to the support team. If you have a WPForms license, you have access to our email support, so please submit a support ticket.
Otherwise, we provide limited complimentary support in the WPForms Lite WordPress.org support forum.
Thanks 🙂
When someone fills a contact form with a message or subscribes where does the message or subscription notification go?
I just created a contact form for my blog and tried sending a message through that form just to test it. But I haven’t received any email for that message.
Hey Jui – Could you please go through this tutorial on how to set up form notification? Once this is done, your notifications will go to the email address which you have set in the Send To field.
For further help on this, please drop us a line in support so we can assist.If you have a WPForms license, you have access to our email support, so please submit a support ticket. Otherwise, we provide limited complimentary support in the WPForms Lite WordPress.org support forum.
Thanks 🙂
there is any system for whatsapp message?
Hey Pradipkumar – I’m afraid we don’t have an integration with WhatsApp, though I do agree it would be super helpful. I’ve added a vote to the feature request list and we’ll keep it on our radar as we continue to plan out our future roadmap.
I apologize for the inconvenience.
text message goes to user also?
Hi there! Whether or not the SMS goes to the user depends on how your SMS plugin has been configured. As it is not default functionality of WPForms, please refer to the team that supports your SMS plugin on if and how this can be done.
I hope this helps to clarify 🙂 If you have any further questions about this, please contact us if you have an active subscription. If you do not, don’t hesitate to drop us some questions in our support forums.
Hard coding the from and to numbers won’t work. In a scenario where random members are trying to connect via a directory the from and to numbers are both variable. Am surprised nobody thought of this.
Hi there,
In order to make sure we answer your question as thoroughly as possible, could you please contact our team with some additional details about what you’re looking to do?
Thanks! 🙂