It was kind of confusing to find a straight forward example on how to send a text message through Twilio using Rails. Here is a step by step guide I wish I had.

1. Sign up for a free account with Twilio. You will get a good amount of free credit to play around with.
2. Install the Twilio Ruby Gem by navigating to your project folder in Terminal and typing:

   
   sudo gem install twiliolib
   
   

3. In your controller (create a new controller if you want), put this chunk of code at the very top. Replace SID, ACCOUNT_TOKEN, and CALLER_ID with what Twilio provides you:

   
   require "twiliolib.rb"
   
   # your Twilio authentication credentials
   ACCOUNT_SID = "put_your_sid_in_parentheses_here"
   ACCOUNT_TOKEN = "put_your_token_in_parentheses_here"
   
   # version of the Twilio REST API to use - do not change
   API_VERSION = '2010-04-01'
   
   # Sandbox phone number
   # or outgoing Caller ID you have purchased through Twilio
   CALLER_ID = "put_your_sandbox_phone_number_here"
   
   #CALLER_PIN only needed to send using sandbox number. Looks like 9999-9999
   CALLER_PIN = "put_your_sandbox_pin_number_here"
   
   

4. Then in a method in that controller try this:

   
   #Text message info
   t = {
     'From' => CALLER_ID,
     'To' => "replace_with_your_cell_num_in_parentheses",
     'Body' => ("#{CALLER_PIN} Twilio scales!")
   }
   
   begin
     account = Twilio::RestAccount.new(ACCOUNT_SID, ACCOUNT_TOKEN)
     resp = account.request("/#{API_VERSION}/Accounts/#{ACCOUNT_SID}/SMS/Messages", 
                'POST', 
                t)
     resp.error! unless resp.kind_of? Net::HTTPSuccess
   rescue StandardError => bang
     #This area will be called if an error happens with the Twilio API
     redirect_to({ :action => :index, 'msg' => "Error #{ bang }" })
     return
   end
   
   redirect_to({ :action => :index, 'msg' => "SMS sent." })
   

5. Then you should get a text message that says: “Sent from a Twilio Trial Account -9999-9999 Twilio Scales!”
6. Now that you have it working with a sandbox number it’s easy to to switch to a real phone number. Just go into the “Numbers” section of your account and buy an outgoing phone number. Give the phone number an SMS URL. I just gave it the url of my app.change out the sandbox phone number
7. Then use that new phone number instead of your sandbox phone number and delete the CALLER_PIN from the top and in the body part of the text message you are sending.

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