Would you like to get SMS notifications when someone submits your contact form?
Setting up SMS text messages is an excellent way to make sure you never miss out on form new submissions!
In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to set up SMS notifications for WordPress forms.
Create a Form With SMS Notifications Now
Does WordPress Support SMS Notifications?
By default, WordPress only sends you email notifications, and it lacks built-in SMS functionality.
However, it’s possible to use certain plugins that integrate with SMS gateways like Twilio to receive texts from your WordPress website.
You only need to spend a few minutes to make this integration, and then WordPress will send you SMS alerts every time a new form is submitted by visitors from your site.
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.
In This Article
Step 1: Install WPForms
The first thing you need to do is to install and activate the WPForms plugin. WPForms is the best WordPress plugin for building contact forms. What’s more, its versatility makes it a handy WordPress SMS plugin as well.
We recommend getting WPForms Pro because it comes with the Zapier addon. We’ll need Zapier to integrate WPForms with a text messaging service like Twilio. Plus, the Pro license offers a wide range of advanced features at affordable pricing.
If you don’t know how to install a plugin on your WordPress site, check out this 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 for an example to get started.
Once your form is created, we’ll need to connect it to your Twilio account to set up send messages from WordPress.
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. Go to WPForms » Addons and click on the Install Addon button.
The Zapier addon lets you connect your forms to over 5,000+ web apps, including Drip, Jira, and Twilio, so that you can be alerted when someone submits your form on your site.
In the next step, we’ll show you how to use Zapier to set up SMS notifications for WordPress contact forms.
Step 3: Create Your New Zap
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.
For the trigger, select WPForms from the available apps.
Then choose New Form Entry as the event.
After this step, select Continue. You’ll then need to connect your Zapier account to WPForms. Click Sign In.
This will open a popup window asking for your API key and site URL.
Next, go back to the tab where you installed the WPForms Zapier addon. Go to WPForms » Settings » Integrations and look for the Zapier section. Expand it and copy your API key.
Paste your API key into the Zapier popup window, enter your website’s URL, and click Yes, Continue.
Now select the form you want to receive SMS notifications for from the dropdown.
Finally, you can test your form’s connection to Zapier. Be sure to have at least one test entry for your form before you click Test trigger.
After a moment, you should see a success confirmation message and some entry data from your form.
Click Continue to proceed to setting up your action.
Step 4: Set Up Your Twilio SMS Integration
Now that you’ve connected Zapier to the WPForms plugin, the next step is to create an SMS integration in WordPress using Twilio. This will trigger a WordPress contact form SMS notification every time you get a new submission.
So as the Action app for your zap, you’ll need to choose Twilio.
From the Choose an Event dropdown, select Send SMS. Then click Continue.
Next, you’ll need to connect your Twilio account with Zapier. Click Sign In.
In a new browser tab, log in to your Twilio account (or create one for free if you don’t have one yet). Look in the Account Info section of your console for your Account SID and Auth Token.
Then copy and paste these into the popup window from Zapier and click Yes, Continue.
Step 5: Configure SMS Notification Settings in Zapier
Now fill out the rest of the fields for your Twilio account in Zapier, starting with the From Number. This is the mobile number where Twilio will send SMS on form submit.
If you don’t already have a Twilio phone number, go back to your Twilio console and click the Get a Twilio phone number button to generate one.
Then fill out the following in Zapier:
- Alphanumberic Sender ID: Enter a sender ID that will appear in your SMS notification. This ID must be verified in your Twilio account.
- To Number (required): The number you want to send SMS notifications to. This phone number must be verified in your Twilio account.
- Message (required): The message for your SMS notification. Enter custom text and/or pull content from a form field.
- Media URL: If you’d like to include an image in your SMS notification, you can add the URL for it here. For details on how to use this option, see Twilio’s tutorial on using media resources.
- Send Large Messages? Limit your notification to 160 characters, or allow multiple messages of up to 1,600 characters.
You may leave any of the optional fields blank and click Continue. You’ve almost set up your SMS notifications for your WordPress contact forms!
Now you can test your Twilio connection by clicking Test & continue.
If everything is filled out right, you’ll see a success message.
You’ll also receive an SMS notification at the To Number you entered.
To finish, just click Publish Zap.
And that’s it! You’ve successfully set up SMS messages for WordPress that will send every time a user submits your contact form.
If you’re looking for a way to make your form notifications even smarter, check out our detailed guide on using ChatGPT to send AI generated notifications.
Next, 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 that 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
- Send contact form entries to Toggl
- Easily make your contact forms GDPR compliant
- And more
Create a Form With SMS Notifications Now
We also recommend checking out our comparison of WPForms vs Contact Form 7 to learn about the advanced capabilities of WPForms.
And if you’re wondering if WPForms is worth it, you can see our review of WPForms to get your answer.
What are you waiting for? Get started with the most powerful WordPress forms plugin today!
If you like this article, then please follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more free WordPress tutorials.
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 🙂
Hello,
I was wondering whether this has become possible now?
Hey Sebastian, I apologize that we don’t have this feature ready yet. Giving an estimated time when the feature may be released is not possible at the moment but I will share this feedback with our team. I apologize for the same.
I’ve noted your interest in this feature and added your email to our list to receive updates about this feature.
Thanks!
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! 🙂