Alerting
When the water goes wrong, your phone buzzes with a text.
There is no wifi at the back pond. The app is three screens deep. The email is wherever email goes. But a text message lights up a phone in a pocket, on any carrier signal, with no app open and no dashboard checked. For a one-person operation or a crew spread across acres, SMS is still the most reliable interrupt there is.
The catch has always been plumbing: getting a farm system to send a compliant, deliverable text without you becoming a telecom hobbyist.
How it actually works
FarmHub sends alert texts through your own Twilio account, using a Twilio Messaging Service.
- Conditions checked every five minutes. FarmHub evaluates alert conditions on a five-minute cycle. When one trips, the SMS goes out through your Messaging Service to the verified phone number on the connection, for both the alert and its resolution.
- Your Twilio account, your number. You provide your Account SID, Auth Token, and a Messaging Service SID. The texts come from a number you control, on an account you can inspect, at Twilio’s rates.
- The Messaging Service carries your compliance registration. US carriers require application-to-person traffic to be registered under A2P 10DLC: a brand and a campaign, registered with Twilio once. Your Messaging Service groups the phone numbers you send from and links to that registration. Routing texts through it is what keeps them deliverable instead of carrier-filtered.
- STOP means stop, permanently. If a recipient texts STOP, Twilio refuses the message and FarmHub records the opt-out on the connection. FarmHub will not keep hammering an unsubscribed number, and it will not pretend those messages were delivered.
Email and push are already built into FarmHub. SMS is the channel for the alert that has to land on a phone in a pocket at the far end of the property.
WHAT YOU CAN COUNT ON
What you can count on
The parts you are relying on:
- Credentials encrypted per connection. Your Account SID, Auth Token, and Messaging Service SID are stored encrypted, scoped to this connection.
- Classified as a critical channel. FarmHub treats Twilio SMS as a critical integration, with delivery retries and backoff on transient failures.
- Verified destination. Texts go to the verified phone number configured on the connection, not to arbitrary numbers.
- Test message, kill switch, audit trail. Send a test text before trusting the channel, disable it instantly if needed, and every delivery attempt lands in hash-chained audit rows.
What we do not do
Straight about the boundaries:
- FarmHub does not provide the phone number or the SMS account. You bring your own Twilio account, and Twilio bills you for messages directly.
- FarmHub does not perform your A2P 10DLC registration. You register your brand and campaign with Twilio once; FarmHub rides on that registration.
- FarmHub does not send marketing texts. This channel exists for operational alerts, and STOP opt-outs are honored permanently.
Setup, honestly
You need a Twilio account with a Messaging Service, registered for A2P 10DLC if you are texting US numbers.
- In the Twilio console, create or locate a Messaging Service and complete A2P 10DLC registration for US traffic.
- In FarmHub, open Integrations, choose Twilio SMS, and paste your Account SID, Auth Token, and Messaging Service SID.
- Verify the destination phone number for the connection.
- Send the built-in test text and confirm it arrives before an emergency depends on it.
Questions farmers ask
Why does FarmHub require a Messaging Service instead of a bare Twilio number?
US carriers filter unregistered application-to-person SMS. A Messaging Service carries your A2P 10DLC registration, which is what keeps alert texts deliverable rather than silently dropped by carriers.
What happens if someone replies STOP?
Twilio blocks further messages to that number and FarmHub records the opt-out on the connection, treating subsequent sends as permanent failures instead of retrying forever. Alerts continue by email and push.
Who pays for the messages?
You do, directly to Twilio, at your account’s rates. FarmHub does not mark up or meter your SMS.
Which alerts get texted?
Alert raised and alert resolved events for the thresholds you configure. Conditions are checked every five minutes, and SMS is best reserved for the severities that justify interrupting someone.
How are my Twilio credentials protected?
The Account SID, Auth Token, and Messaging Service SID are stored encrypted per connection, with a kill switch to disable the integration instantly and hash-chained audit rows recording every delivery attempt.
READY FOR THE NEXT SHIFT
Get the alert to the pocket, not the inbox
Connect your Twilio account and the next critical threshold breach arrives as a text, on carrier signal, wherever on the property you happen to be standing.
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