18 months ago I wrote this post that detailed integrating Push Notifications into your scripts. That still works great, but does require that you have the associated Push Bullet application installed in your browser or on your devices. More recently I wrote about using Burnt Toast for Progress Dialogs’ for long running scripts. That too is all great if you are present on the host running those scripts. But what if you want something a little more native and ubiquitous? Notifications for those autonomous or long running scripts where you aren’t active on the host running them, and you don’t want the hassle of another application specific for that purpose? How about SMS/Text notifications?
This post details how to use Twilio (a virtual telco) from your PowerShell scripts to send SMS/Text alerts from your scripts so you can receive notifications like this;
Twilio
Twilio is a virtual telco (amongst other products), that allows you to use services such as the mobile network via your application. For their SMS/TXT service they even give you a credit to get started with their service. To send SMS/TXT messages using their service from Australia each message is AU$0.0550.
Sign-up for a Twilio trial account, enable and verify your account. Take note of the following items as you will need them for your script;
- service mobile number (initially Trial Number)
- Account SID
- your Auth Token
Using these pieces of information via the Twilio API we can send SMS/Text Notifications from your PowerShell scripts (well any language, but I’m showing you how with PowerShell). You can get your Service Number, Account SID and Auth Token from the Dashboard after registering for a Trial Account.
To enable SMS/TXT go to the Twilio Programmable SMS Dashboard here and create a New Messaging Service.
For my use (notifications from scripts) I selected Notifications, Outbound Only.
Once created you will see the following on the Programmable SMS Dashboard. That’s it, you’ve activated SMS/TXT in Trial Mode.
The Script
Here is a Send-TextNotification PowerShell Function that takes;
- Mobile Number to send the notification to
- Mobile Number the message is coming from
- Message to send
- AuthN info (Account SID and Account Token)
- Account SID
Line 46 sends a SMS/TXT notification using my Send-TextNotification script. Update;
- Line 32 for your Twilio Account SID
- Line 34 for your Twilio Account Token
- Line 40 for the mobile number to send the message to
- Line 42 for the authorised number you verified to send from
- Line 44 for your notification message
Summary
Using the Twilio service, my small function and a few parameters you can quickly add SMS/TXT notifications to your PowerShell scripts. Once you have it up and running I encourage you to upgrade your account and pay the few dollars for use of the service which also removes the “Sent from your Twilio trial account” text from the messages. Twilio also has a WhatsApp Notification Service.
