SMS Notifications
Send text message alerts to your team when monitors go down, heartbeats are missed, or incidents are created. SMS notifications use your own provider account — you choose Twilio, Vonage (Nexmo), MessageBird, or Esendex — so delivery is tied directly to your contract and number.
Prerequisites
- A StatusPage.me account on a Pro plan or higher
- An account with one of the supported SMS providers
Supported Providers
| Provider | Website | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Twilio | console.twilio.com | Account SID + Auth Token + sender number |
| Vonage (Nexmo) | dashboard.nexmo.com | API Key + API Secret + sender number |
| MessageBird | MessageBird Dashboard | Access Key + sender number |
| Esendex | portal.esendex.com | Username + Password + Account Reference + sender number |
AWS SNS is not supported — its SDK adds significant dependencies without meaningful benefit over the providers above.
Setup Steps
1. Add an SMS Channel
- Go to
/user/status-pages/notifications - Click Add Channel → SMS
- Select your provider (Twilio, Vonage, MessageBird, or Esendex)
- Fill in the provider-specific credentials (see below)
- Enter a Sender / From Number in E.164 format (e.g.
+12345678900), or an alphanumeric sender ID if your provider supports it - Enter one or more Recipient Numbers (comma-separated E.164)
- Configure cost controls (see below)
- Select which events should trigger an SMS
- Click Save Channel
2. Credentials Per Provider
Twilio
- Account SID — starts with
AC, found on your Twilio console dashboard - Auth Token — found next to the Account SID
Vonage (Nexmo)
- API Key and API Secret — found in your Vonage API dashboard
MessageBird
- API Key — create a live Access Key in Developers → Access Keys
Esendex
- Username — the email you use to log in to the Esendex portal
- Password — your Esendex portal password
- Account Reference — your Esendex account reference (e.g.
EX0000000), found in the portal under Account Settings
3. Link to a Status Page
- Open your status page settings:
/user/status-pages/{status_page_id}/settings#notifications - Click Link Channel
- Select your SMS channel and link it
- Toggle it on
4. Test the Channel
- Go to
/user/status-pages/notifications - Click Test next to your SMS channel
- Check that you receive the text message
- If not, verify your credentials and phone numbers
Cost Controls
SMS messages are billed by your provider on a per-message basis. To help avoid surprise bills:
| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Min. minutes between alerts | 60 | Suppresses duplicate SMS for the same monitor + event within this window |
| Max SMS per day | 10 | Hard cap across all events for this channel — alerts beyond the cap are silently dropped |
Adjust both values in the channel settings. Set a higher dedup window (e.g. 120) for noisy monitors, or lower the daily cap if costs are a concern.
Event Filter
SMS can be noisy and expensive, so you can choose exactly which events trigger a text:
| Event | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Monitor Down | On | Core alert — strongly recommended |
| Heartbeat Missed | On | Core alert — strongly recommended |
| Incident Created | On | High-priority operational event |
| Monitor Recovered | Off | Optional — consider email/Slack instead |
| Heartbeat Recovered | Off | Optional |
| Incident Resolved | Off | Optional |
| Monitor Degraded | Off | Can be noisy; use only for critical monitors |
| SSL Expiring | Off | Low urgency; email is sufficient |
You can toggle individual events on/off at any time in the channel settings.
Delivery Tracking
Every SMS attempt is recorded in your Notification History on the Monitor Alerts page (/user/monitors/{id}/alerts):
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Status | Delivered (green) or Failed (red) |
| Provider Message ID | The provider’s message ID (e.g. Twilio SID SM…, Vonage message-id, MessageBird ID, Esendex batch ref) — use this to look up the message in your provider’s console |
If an SMS fails, the error reason is visible on hover over the Failed badge. Common failure reasons:
- Invalid recipient number format (must be E.164:
++ country code + number) - Incorrect credentials
- Provider rate limiting or account suspension
- Daily cap reached
SMS Message Format
SMS alerts are plain text, truncated to 160 characters (one GSM-7 segment) to avoid split-message billing. Example:
Monitor Down: API Server — statuspage.me/dashboard
Markdown formatting (bold, links) is stripped before sending.
Plan Availability
SMS notifications are available on Pro, Growth, Business, and Enterprise plans.
Not available on the Free plan.
Troubleshooting
I’m not receiving SMS
- Check that the channel shows Enabled and is linked to your status page
- Verify the recipient number is in E.164 format (e.g.
+442071234567, not07123 456 789) - Send a Test notification from the channel list
- Check the Notification History on the relevant monitor for a Failed entry with an error message
- Log in to your provider console and check the message log there using the Provider Message ID
SMS stopped after a while
Your daily limit may have been hit. Check the Notification History and look for missing entries after the cap was reached. Increase the daily limit in channel settings if needed.
Duplicate messages
Increase the Min. minutes between alerts dedup window. If you have the same phone number in multiple SMS channels both linked to the same status page, you may receive two messages per event — remove the duplicate or consolidate channels.