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twilio-python

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Documentation

The documentation for the Twilio API can be found here.

The Python library documentation can be found here.

Versions

twilio-python uses a modified version of Semantic Versioning for all changes. See this document for details.

Supported Python Versions

This library supports the following Python implementations:

Installation

Install from PyPi using pip, a package manager for Python.

pip3 install twilio

If pip install fails on Windows, check the path length of the directory. If it is greater 260 characters then enable Long Paths or choose other shorter location.

Don't have pip installed? Try installing it, by running this from the command line:

curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py | python

Or, you can download the source code (ZIP) for twilio-python, and then run:

python3 setup.py install

Info If the command line gives you an error message that says Permission Denied, try running the above commands with sudo (e.g., sudo pip3 install twilio).

Test your installation

Try sending yourself an SMS message. Save the following code sample to your computer with a text editor. Be sure to update the account_sid, auth_token, and from_ phone number with values from your Twilio account. The to phone number will be your own mobile phone.

from twilio.rest import Client

# Your Account SID and Auth Token from console.twilio.com
account_sid = "ACXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
auth_token  = "your_auth_token"

client = Client(account_sid, auth_token)

message = client.messages.create(
    to="+15558675309",
    from_="+15017250604",
    body="Hello from Python!")

print(message.sid)

Save the file as send_sms.py. In the terminal, cd to the directory containing the file you just saved then run:

python3 send_sms.py

After a brief delay, you will receive the text message on your phone.

Warning It's okay to hardcode your credentials when testing locally, but you should use environment variables to keep them secret before committing any code or deploying to production. Check out How to Set Environment Variables for more information.

Use the helper library

API Credentials

The Twilio client needs your Twilio credentials. You can either pass these directly to the constructor (see the code below) or via environment variables.

Authenticating with Account SID and Auth Token:

from twilio.rest import Client

account_sid = "ACXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
auth_token  = "your_auth_token"
client = Client(account_sid, auth_token)

Authenticating with API Key and API Secret:

from twilio.rest import Client

api_key = "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
api_secret = "YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY"
account_sid = "ACXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
client = Client(api_key, api_secret, account_sid)

Alternatively, a Client constructor without these parameters will look for TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID and TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN variables inside the current environment.

We suggest storing your credentials as environment variables. Why? You'll never have to worry about committing your credentials and accidentally posting them somewhere public.

from twilio.rest import Client
client = Client()

Specify Region and/or Edge

To take advantage of Twilio's Global Infrastructure, specify the target Region and/or Edge for the client:

from twilio.rest import Client

client = Client(region='au1', edge='sydney')

A Client constructor without these parameters will also look for TWILIO_REGION and TWILIO_EDGE variables inside the current environment.

Alternatively, you may specify the edge and/or region after constructing the Twilio client:

from twilio.rest import Client

client = Client()
client.region = 'au1'
client.edge = 'sydney'

This will result in the hostname transforming from api.twilio.com to api.sydney.au1.twilio.com.

Make a Call

from twilio.rest import Client

account_sid = "ACXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
auth_token  = "your_auth_token"
client = Client(account_sid, auth_token)

call = client.calls.create(to="9991231234",
                           from_="9991231234",
                           url="http://twimlets.com/holdmusic?Bucket=com.twilio.music.ambient")
print(call.sid)

Get data about an existing call

from twilio.rest import Client

account_sid = "ACXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
auth_token  = "your_auth_token"
client = Client(account_sid, auth_token)

call = client.calls.get("CA42ed11f93dc08b952027ffbc406d0868")
print(call.to)

Iterate through records

The library automatically handles paging for you. Collections, such as calls and messages, have list and stream methods that page under the hood. With both list and stream, you can specify the number of records you want to receive (limit) and the maximum size you want each page fetch to be (page_size). The library will then handle the task for you.

list eagerly fetches all records and returns them as a list, whereas stream returns an iterator and lazily retrieves pages of records as you iterate over the collection. You can also page manually using the page method.

Use the list method

from twilio.rest import Client

account_sid = "ACXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
auth_token = "your_auth_token"
client = Client(account_sid, auth_token)

for sms in client.messages.list():
  print(sms.to)

Asynchronous API Requests

By default, the Twilio Client will make synchronous requests to the Twilio API. To allow for asynchronous, non-blocking requests, we've included an optional asynchronous HTTP client. When used with the Client and the accompanying *_async methods, requests made to the Twilio API will be performed asynchronously.

from twilio.http.async_http_client import AsyncTwilioHttpClient
from twilio.rest import Client

async def main():
    account_sid = "ACXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
    auth_token  = "your_auth_token"
    http_client = AsyncTwilioHttpClient()
    client = Client(account_sid, auth_token, http_client=http_client)

    message = await client.messages.create_async(to="+12316851234", from_="+15555555555",
                                                 body="Hello there!")

asyncio.run(main())

Enable Debug Logging

Log the API request and response data to the console:

import logging

client = Client(account_sid, auth_token)
logging.basicConfig()
client.http_client.logger.setLevel(logging.INFO)

Log the API request and response data to a file:

import logging

client = Client(account_sid, auth_token)
logging.basicConfig(filename='./log.txt')
client.http_client.logger.setLevel(logging.INFO)

Handling Exceptions

Version 8.x of twilio-python exports an exception class to help you handle exceptions that are specific to Twilio methods. To use it, import TwilioRestException and catch exceptions as follows:

from twilio.rest import Client
from twilio.base.exceptions import TwilioRestException

account_sid = "ACXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
auth_token  = "your_auth_token"
client = Client(account_sid, auth_token)

try:
  message = client.messages.create(to="+12316851234", from_="+15555555555",
                                   body="Hello there!")
except TwilioRestException as e:
  print(e)

Generating TwiML

To control phone calls, your application needs to output TwiML.

Use twilio.twiml.Response to easily create such responses.

from twilio.twiml.voice_response import VoiceResponse

r = VoiceResponse()
r.say("Welcome to twilio!")
print(str(r))

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Response><Say>Welcome to twilio!</Say></Response>

Other advanced examples

Docker Image

The Dockerfile present in this repository and its respective twilio/twilio-python Docker image are currently used by Twilio for testing purposes only.

Getting help

If you need help installing or using the library, please check the Twilio Support Help Center first, and file a support ticket if you don't find an answer to your question.

If you've instead found a bug in the library or would like new features added, go ahead and open issues or pull requests against this repo!