I'm building a support workflow that needs inbound SMS replies

Got it — inbound SMS replies are a common piece of a support workflow.

A solid setup usually looks like this:

1. Provision a phone number

   • Use an SMS-capable number from a provider like Twilio, Vonage, Plivo, etc.

2. Configure inbound message handling

   • Point the number’s webhook to your app endpoint.
   • Your app receives incoming SMS events when a customer replies.

3. Route messages into your workflow

   • Match the sender’s number to a support ticket, conversation, or case.
   • If no match exists, create a new thread/case.

4. Store the conversation

   • Save inbound and outbound messages with timestamps, sender, delivery status, and ticket ID.

5. Notify support agents

   • Push the inbound SMS into your agent UI, queue, or ticketing system.

6. Reply back

   • Your backend sends outbound SMS through the provider’s API, usually tied to the same conversation.

Important things to plan for:

• Opt-in / compliance: make sure customers have consented to receive SMS.
• STOP/HELP handling: your system should respect unsubscribe keywords.
• Fallbacks: if a message is long, unsupported, or arrives while no ticket is open, decide what to do.
• Deduplication: webhook retries can cause duplicate inbound events.
• Threading: one phone number can represent multiple conversations over time, so use timestamps and ticket IDs carefully.

If you want, I can help with any of these next:

• a high-level architecture
• a Twilio webhook example
• a database schema for SMS conversations
• a workflow design for support agents
• or sample code in your stack of choice