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EyeOnTask Knowledge Base

SMS gateway

EyeOnTask writes the text messages; a gateway delivers them. The gateway is an account you hold with an SMS provider, and this page is where you hand EyeOnTask the credentials that let it send on your behalf.

Until one is connected, the SMS templates and the SMS reminders exist but nothing goes out.

Settings → Integrations → SMS.

The SMS Gateway Configuration screen: a Not configured badge, Select Provider set to Vonage, API key and API Secret, From Number and Sender ID, Update, and a Send Test SMS panel

Settings → Integrations → SMS

The state at the top

Section titled “The state at the top”

The corner of the screen says where the connection stands, and the banner underneath says what that means for your messages.

  • Not configured — no credentials saved, and SMS is switched off everywhere in the app.
  • Saved · not verified — credentials are stored, but no test has succeeded. Nothing is sent in this state. It is the one to watch for, because a half-finished connection looks connected at a glance.

A connection is only finished when a test message has gone through.

Choosing a provider

Section titled “Choosing a provider”

Select Provider is the first field and it decides the rest of the form, because each provider names its credentials differently. Vonage and Twilio are the two on the list.

Pick the one you already hold an account with. If you hold neither, either will do — this is a decision about billing and coverage in your countries, not about EyeOnTask.

Credentials

Section titled “Credentials”

Two fields, both required, and both come from the provider rather than from anywhere in EyeOnTask. Which two depends on the provider you picked.

Copy each one across rather than retyping it. A mistyped secret fails as a wrong credential with nothing to say which of the two was wrong.

The second half of the pair is a password: anyone holding it can send messages billed to your account. Don’t mail it around, and if it has been somewhere it should not, generate a new one at the provider and paste the new one here.

Vonage: API key and API Secret

Section titled “Vonage: API key and API Secret”
  1. Sign in to the Vonage API Dashboard.
  2. The home page you land on shows both in a summary box near the top of the welcome screen.
  3. Each has a copy icon beside it.

Vonage used to trade as Nexmo, which is why its dashboard is still at dashboard.nexmo.com.

Twilio: Account SID and Auth Token

Section titled “Twilio: Account SID and Auth Token”
  1. Sign in to the Twilio Console.
  2. Make sure you are on the Develop tab — it is in the top navigation bar, and in the left sidebar.
  3. Scroll down the homepage to Account Info. Both credentials are there.
  4. Account SID is an alphanumeric string beginning AC, with a copy icon beside it. Auth Token is hidden until you click Show, and has its own copy icon — which is the safer of the two, since it never puts the token on screen.

Sender details

Section titled “Sender details”
  • From Number — the number your messages arrive from, and required. It must be in E.164 format: a plus, the country code, then the number, with no spaces or brackets — +13072425300. It has to be a number the provider has actually given you; a landline you own elsewhere will not send.
  • Sender ID — optional, and at most eleven characters. Where the destination country allows it, this replaces the number with a name, so the message arrives from AeroCool rather than from a string of digits. Some countries ignore it and some require it to be registered in advance, which is a question for your provider rather than for EyeOnTask.

Update saves what you have entered.

Verify with a test message

Section titled “Verify with a test message”

Saving is not proof. The panel at the bottom sends one SMS to a number you type — your own phone is the sensible choice — and Send Test SMS does it.

That test is what moves the connection out of Saved · not verified. Do it before you rely on a reminder going out, because a wrong secret, a From Number the provider has not issued you, or a Sender ID a country rejects all look identical on this screen until a message is actually attempted.

If the test does not arrive, the fault is nearly always one of three things: the credentials belong to a different account at the provider, the From Number is not one they have issued you, or the provider account has no balance.

Section titled “Related”