The moment it happens

Get texts to your Twilio number by email

Every SMS sent to your number arrives in your inbox with the sender.

Runs: The moment it happens
Apps: Twilio
AI: Not needed
Access: read (+write to set the webhook URL)

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: whenever someone texts my Twilio number, email office@example.com the sender's number and the message.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

Add to ChatGPT Add to Claude

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

A Twilio number is easy to set up and awkward to read. Texts sent to it sit in the console, where only someone who logs in to the Twilio dashboard will ever see them. A freelancer using a business number, or a team with a shared support line, can miss a customer's reply for days because there is no phone showing a notification.

The moment a text arrives at your Twilio number, this emails it to you with the sender's number, the message text and the time. You can send it to one address or a shared mailbox, so the people who need to see it get it where they already work.

It is the quickest way to make a Twilio number usable as a real business line. Setup takes minutes.

What you get out of it

Customer texts get seen
A message arriving at your number appears in an inbox you read all day. The customer who replied about their appointment is answered the same day, not discovered during the next console visit.
Works with a shared mailbox
Forwarding to a team address means anyone on shift can read and answer. A vacation or sick day does not leave the number unattended, because the message does not depend on one person's phone.
No logging in to Twilio
Staff who are not technical never have to see the console. Support or sales people get texts in the same email tool they use for everything else, with no new accounts to manage.
Searchable record of conversations
Emails are easy to search, file and forward. Months later you can find what a customer wrote, which helps with disputes, refunds and follow-up questions. That also makes handovers between staff much simpler for everyone involved.
Immediate, not on a timer
The forwarding happens as the text arrives, not on a periodic check. A time-sensitive reply, such as a customer confirming they are at the door, reaches you right when it matters.

How it works

What happens, step by step

When someone texts your Twilio number, ClickRuntime picks it up straight away.
It notes who sent it and which of your numbers it went to.
You get an email with the sender in the subject and their message as the body.

Before it runs live

Connect Twilio
Paste your automation's link into the other app's webhook settings

What you get

RunsThe moment it happens

Get texts to your Twilio number by emailjust nowSucceeded

Email · SMS from +447700900456Can you come Thursday morning instead? – Riley

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.

Your own rules
Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.
Any number of apps
One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.
AI where it helps
Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.
On a schedule or on each event
Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

Act only on the items that match your own rules, and skip the rest
Add an AI step, for example to summarize, sort or draft a reply
Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
Combine it with other Twilio steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.

forward_incoming_sms_to_email.pyexample

from clickruntime import on_event, notify

@on_event
def handle(event):
    sms = event.json  # Twilio messaging webhook (form fields)
    notify.email_me(f"SMS from {sms['From']}", f"{sms['Body']}\n\nTo: {sms['To']}")
    return {"forwarded": sms["MessageSid"]}

FAQ

Common questions

Can I reply to the text by replying to the email?

Not directly, since a normal email reply goes to the email sender and not back to the phone. You can reply from your Twilio tools or add a flow that turns replies into texts, if you need that.

Does it forward picture messages?

Photos sent by MMS arrive with a link to the media in the email, as Twilio stores them. Open the link to see the image. This works for MMS-capable numbers, for example numbers in the US and Canada.

Can I filter which texts are forwarded?

Yes. You can forward only texts containing certain words, or only from specific numbers, and skip the rest. That is useful on busy numbers where you only want the messages that need a person. Everything else is left out.

What permissions does it need?

read (+write to set the webhook URL). Nothing else in your accounts is used.

Does it need AI?

No. It runs without AI, so it doesn't use your plan's AI allowance.

How many runs does it use?

One run for each event the app sends.

Can I change how it works?

Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

The moment it happens