The ServiceNow Virtual Agent meets your users where they are, including on their mobile devices. Users can reach the Virtual Agent or Agent Chat via SMS via the Conversational SMS integration with Twilio.
To enable this capability, ensure that you have valid ServiceNow entitlements for the following applications, associated with Pro and Enterprise licenses:
- IntegrationHub
- Twilio spoke
- Conversational SMS Service Channel
- Conversational SMS Integration with Twilio
Summary Steps to integrate Virtual Agent with SMS
For full steps on how to set up the SMS integration with Twilio, visit the documentation here: Link
For a video on the installation steps for Virtual Agent and Agent Chat on SMS, see below
1. Create a Twilio account (a free trial account is fine) and create a trial phone number.
2. Install the following plugins to your instance:
- IntegrationHub
- Twilio spoke
- Conversational SMS Service Channel - store app
- Conversational SMS Integration with Twilio - store app
3. Set up the Twilio spoke: In Connections & Credentials > Credentials, create three credential records for the Twilio spoke; one each for Twilio Base, Twilio Notify, and Twilio Messaging. Each credential should be associated with the respective Twilio API.
4. Create Connection records to your Twilio account. The Twilio spoke connection and credential alias uses these connections to perform actions on Twilio.
5. Create a Hash Message Verification record and a Message Auth record.
6. In Conversational Interfaces > SMS integration with Twilio, create a Messaging Provider Application record.
7. In the Twilio Console, for the phone number, update the SMS incoming web-hook. To update the webhook, navigate to the phone number in your Twilio console: Phone Numbers > Manage > Active numbers. Click on the phone number and enter the following address in the Messaging webhook field: https://<instance-name>.service-now.com/api/sn_va_sms_twilio/message
To enable your VA topics for SMS
In your topic’s Properties tab, ensure that “Roles” field is set to Public if your SMS users include guests, and that “Additional channel support” field is set to SMS.
Summary steps to enable Agent Chat with SMS
Documentation for setting up SMS for Agent Chat: Link
1. First, ensure that default Agent Chat is configured.
2 .Configure the Twilio integration for Virtual Agent described above.
3. In the Service Channel record for SMS, ensure that Active is set to True.
4. The SMS Agent Group, in the same SMS queue as the SMS Service Channel, should have a member(s) to receive the SMS chat.
5. In Presence State for Available, add SMS as a selected Service Channel.
For CSM customers with priority SMS Virtual Agent use cases, Messaging Service support is available. ServiceNow Messaging Service allows organizations to purchase SMS and WhatsApp directly from ServiceNow, making it easier to quickly integrate popular messaging platforms with ServiceNow workflows. Contact your account representative for more details.
