custom sms

[msrnayeem]

i'm new in chatwoot, there is only two sms provider twillo and bandwidth, how do i add another custom sms service provider?

[CoderDeltaLAN]

Hi, I may be wrong, but I don’t think Chatwoot has a generic “custom SMS provider” option in the UI right now. For a provider other than Twilio/Bandwidth, the safest approach seems to be using an API inbox with a small bridge service: incoming SMS from your provider creates/updates the contact and conversation in Chatwoot, and outgoing agent replies are sent from Chatwoot to your bridge webhook, then your bridge calls the provider’s SMS API. If you want it to appear as a native SMS provider inside Chatwoot, I think that would require custom code or a fork

[MRXSIM]

Welcome to Chatwoot! Since Chatwoot natively hardcodes Twilio and Bandwidth into its channel adapters, adding a first-class custom provider requires digging into the Rails backend models (app/models/channel/) and extending the SMS integration pipeline.

However, if you want a clean, decoupled workaround without modifying Chatwoot's core source code (which makes future updates a nightmare), the best architectural approach is setting up a Lightweight Adapter/Proxy Middleware:

1. Configure Chatwoot to use the Twilio channel integration.
2. Point Chatwoot's webhook/request destination to your own custom proxy server (built with FastAPI, Node.js, etc.).
3. Have your middleware intercept the incoming Twilio-formatted payload, translate it, and forward it seamlessly to your preferred custom SMS gateway API.

This keeps your Chatwoot deployment pristine, avoids core code conflicts, and lets you plug in any SMS provider in under an hour. Good luck!

[sojan-official]

Thanks for sharing this approach! Chatwoot has a dedicated API Channel for custom integrations like this. You can connect it to a lightweight bridge that brings incoming SMS into Chatwoot and routes agent replies back through your preferred provider, without modifying Chatwoot’s core code or emulating Twilio.

Here’s the setup guide: How to create an API Channel inbox

[MRXSIM]

Spot-on! Using Chatwoot's native API Channel is definitely a much cleaner architecture than mimicking Twilio payloads, especially for bidirectional syncing. It completely avoids payload translation quirks and leverages the platform's intended extensibility for custom ingress/egress. Appreciate you sharing the API Channel approach!