Africa's Talking provides SMS short codes across Africa. Once you've connected a short code to your workspace, contacts can text it to start your flows, and your messages to them are sent from it.

Before you start

You'll need an Africa's Talking account with a short code, along with your account's username and an API key. Africa's Talking's help center explains where to find your username and how to generate an API key.

Use the details of your live app rather than the sandbox's, as a sandbox can't send messages to real phones.

Adding the channel

Go to Settings > Channels and click New Channel. Africa's Talking is under SMS & Voice, or you can type its name in the search box. If your workspace's timezone isn't in Africa, check Show other regions to find it.

Then fill in the form:

Field	What to enter
Short Code	Your short code, e.g. 20123
Country	The country your short code is in
Shared	Check this if your short code is shared with other Africa's Talking accounts, e.g. you only have a keyword on it
Username	Your Africa's Talking username
API Key	The API key you generated

Click Add Channel.

Finishing setup

Once the channel is added, its configuration page shows two URLs to add to your Africa's Talking account, so that messages reach your workspace:

• Callback URL, which contacts' messages are sent to. Set it as your SMS inbox callback.
• Delivery URL, which updates on whether your messages were delivered are sent to. Set it as your delivery reports callback.

Africa's Talking's help center explains how to configure callback URLs. You can come back to these URLs at any time from the channel's page.

Try it out

Text your short code from a phone, and the message will appear in your workspace's Inbox. To reply automatically, start a flow when contacts text a keyword with a keyword trigger.

To learn more about channels in general, see Introduction to Channels.