This post is an attempt to save someone from wasting a lot of time setting up a Twilio trial account in hopes of using it for development or low-volume personal reasons. With the restrictions on different number types, and the requirements for different registrations or verifications, the trial account, at least for use in the US, is little more than a bait and switch to a paid account. So, IMO, just save yourself the hassle and leave Twilio for the SMS spammers and big corporations.
There are numerous tutorials, youtube videos, and forum posts that suggest you should be able to register a trial account and use it for development / hobbyist purposes. Those are apparently mostly obsolete.
Currently you can:
- Register a login
- Create a trial "account" within that login.
- "Purchase" a phone number with the trial account.
- Get the credentials (API Key or Auth Token), and
- Call the API to (try to) send an SMS message.
Then (eventually) find out that the SMS message cannot be delivered, even to a "verified" number, if...
- The phone number you "purchased" wasn't a toll free number. Non-toll-free numbers require an A2P 10DLC "campaign" before sending SMS messages is possible.
- You can't set up an A2P 10DLC without upgrading from the trial account.
- You "purchased" a toll-free number but you don't have some kind of business set up already for verification of the toll-free number.
- That's probably not the case for a hobby/personal/"see how it works" scenario.
I spent several hours trying to navigate Twilio's vague, confusing, incoherent documentation before giving up and opening a ticket with their technical support. The answer I got from tech support confirmed that there basically isn't a way to use Twilio without upgrading and/or linking it to an established business.
The "trial" account is effectively a "bait and switch."
Hope this saves someone the hours of time they would waste trying to see how Twilio works. Hope Twilio realizes that when someone like me, a professional software engineer, has this kind of experience with their (lack of) service, the net result is an ongoing strong recommendations AGAINST using Twilio.
IMO, the tactic of suggesting that something would be free for personal / hobbyist use, even for a limited time, when that is absolutely false, is misleading and dishonest. If there is ANY alternative, I refuse to engage with such a company. I plan to enthusiastically steer any project I'm working on far away from Twilio.
