How to ensure that outgoing SMS from the bot are not concatenated?

King-A. J. Olly 1

Hello!

I'd like to understand more about the Twilio channel within the Bot Framework and if there's a way to change the outgoing message settings so that the messages don't concatenate when sending a message that is longer than 160 characters.

For example, this message:

Hey hey! We're back and we're testing again. I'm sending you a long message to see how concatenating messages works. And if the messages will be sent and recognized as a single message or understood by the bot as several messages and not sent out the same. I think here we may be on to 5 or 6 message segments now. Let's see how it reassembles on your end and if it looks normal like I've just sent you a big blob of text or if I've sent you several messages one after another after another.

...should show up as a single block of text on the receiving end. However, it does not, it shows up as 7 different SMS messages in a sequence.

When I send the same message from Twilio directly, via a REST API request, or from any other tools, it shows up as a blob of text as it should.

There are no settings in the Twilio channel UI that allow for adjusting this option. Typically, it's an option that needs to be set at the sending out of the message. Is there any way to adjust this so that my message appear as one in areas where concatenating is supported?

Please advise. Thanks!

King-A. J. Olly 1 Reputation point

2021-01-04T18:07:51.137+00:00

I did a bit of additional research and it looks like the function that the Bot Framework is using on the Twilio channel for outgoing messages may be using the outdated Twilio API and not the Twilio Messages resource. I cannot know this for sure, because I have no understanding or access to the background Twilio channel code.

More info here:
Switching from SMS/Messages resource URI to Messages resource URI
https://support.twilio.com/hc/en-us/articles/223181028-Switching-from-SMS-Messages-resource-URI-to-Messages-resource-URI-

The differences between the two APIs are listed and also the Twilio docs for each.

The key thing to note is that the new /Messages resource URI allows for message concatenating of up to 1600 characters, and does it automatically, while the previous SMS/Messages API does not.

Is there a way to check which API the Twilio channel setup is using?
romungi-MSFT 44,771 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2021-01-06T07:14:20.353+00:00

@King-A. J. Olly Looking at the adaptors package that needs to be installed for the latest version of botframework as per the documentation it looks like a package dependency of>= 5.37.2 for twilio and the link for message resource to support 1600 char also needs to use 5.x version of twilio client for C#.

The botframework github repo also indicates support upto 1600 characters in length. If you are using any other language you can check if the latest adapter is installed and try again.
King-A. J. Olly 1 Reputation point

2021-01-06T15:58:39.233+00:00

Hi! Thanks!

However, I don't have access to any of that information as I'm using the Twilio channel integration as described here: https://video2.skills-academy.com/en-us/azure/bot-service/bot-service-channel-connect-twilio?view=azure-bot-service-4.0

Is there anyway to know which version of the Twilio adaptor that Microsoft's native integration is using? There's not much information or detail provided in the UI/portal about the adaptor version when I click on Channels>Twilio in the portal.

Please advise. I'd like to avoid needing integrate the Twilio adaptor with the bot via the CLI / coding.

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How to ensure that outgoing SMS from the bot are not concatenated?

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