Bring Your Own Twilio (BYOT)

Most subscribers let Allison Voice purchase a new phone number on their behalf — fastest path, nothing to configure on a third-party account. But if you already own phone numbers on your own Twilio account, you can route them through Allison instead. We call this BYOT — Bring Your Own Twilio.

This is the right path when:

• You already have an established phone number on Twilio with reputation and history you don't want to start over
• Your business has compliance requirements that mandate keeping the Twilio account in your name
• You want consolidated billing on your own Twilio account instead of paying through us
• You're migrating from another voice platform that ran on Twilio and want to keep the same numbers

If none of those apply, the simpler path is to let us purchase a new number for you. You can always switch later.

How phone-number setup works

During onboarding you'll see three options under "Phone setup," and the same three are available any time from Settings → Phone Numbers (including if you skipped phone setup during signup, or want to add another number):

• Forward: keep your existing business number on whatever provider you have today; set call forwarding to ring an Allison-purchased number. Fastest path; no provider migration. The forwarding step is on your existing provider's dashboard.
• New: let Allison purchase a brand-new phone number for you (in the area code of your choice). The number is purchased in our managed phone infrastructure; you don't deal with Twilio at all.
• BYOT: bring an existing Twilio number. You point the number at Allison from your Twilio Console, then enter your Twilio credentials so your agent can transfer and record calls.

You can add more numbers later and mix paths within one organization. For example, a purchased main line plus a BYOT number for a second location is fine. Each number belongs to one location.

Setting up a BYOT number

BYOT has two parts, and both are needed before your agent can answer.

1. Point the number at Allison. In your Twilio Console, open the phone number and find its Voice Configuration. The BYOT screen in Allison shows three URLs to paste there, with a copy button for each: one for "A call comes in", one for "Primary handler fails", and one for "Call status changes". All three use HTTP POST. Nothing on our side can do this for you; it's a change on your account, made by you.

2. Enter your credentials. Two pieces of information from your Twilio Console:

• Account SID: the unique identifier for your Twilio account, shown at the top of the Console dashboard
• Auth Token: the secret token used to sign API requests. Found under Account → API keys & tokens, in the Auth tokens section under Live credentials

Plus the phone number itself (E.164 format, e.g., +15551234567) that you want to use.

The Auth Token isn't optional in practice: the security setup you complete after subscribing won't finish while a BYOT number is missing its token.

3. Place a test call. We don't test your credentials or verify the number when you save them. The first inbound call is the test. Call the number, hear your agent answer, and ask it to transfer you to confirm the credentials work end to end.

We store the Auth Token encrypted at rest. It's never exposed in logs, transcripts, the dashboard, or webhook payloads.

What we do with your Twilio credentials

The credentials are used for exactly two things:

1. Inbound call security. When someone calls your number, Twilio sends a signed webhook to our voice service. We use your Auth Token to check that signature and accept the call. This is also why an Auth Token is required rather than an API key: Twilio signs those webhooks with the Auth Token, and nothing else can verify them.
2. In-call actions on your account. When your agent does something that affects the call (start recording, transfer to a team member, end the call), we call Twilio's API using your credentials. The action runs against your account.

That's it. We don't list other numbers in your Twilio account, don't read your call logs, don't send messages, don't change settings, and don't grant ourselves persistent access. We never place calls from your account on our own initiative; a transfer is a leg of the caller's inbound call, dialed through your account, and Twilio bills it as usual (see Costs). Every API call we make is event-driven and logged in your Twilio Console.

If you ever rotate your Auth Token in the Twilio Console, update it in Allison Voice right away under Settings → Phone Numbers (each BYOT number has an Update button for its credentials). Until you do, transfers and recording on that number stop working.

Costs

With BYOT, you pay Twilio directly for:

• The phone number (Twilio's monthly per-number fee)
• Per-minute call costs on your Twilio account, including the outbound leg whenever your agent transfers a call to a team member

You pay Allison Voice for:

• The platform subscription (Starter / Professional / Business per the Plans article)
• Call minutes per the plan you're on

The Allison subscription doesn't change based on BYOT vs new-number — it's the same plan rates. BYOT is about who provides the underlying phone-number infrastructure, not about discounted Allison pricing.

Switching between paths

Switching from Forward to BYOT, or from New to BYOT (or vice versa), is a manual transition managed by the team today. Reach out via the dashboard chat and we'll coordinate the swap so callers don't experience downtime.

The general flow:

1. Configure the new path on your end (e.g., set up your Twilio account if you haven't)
2. Tell us when you're ready
3. We update the routing on our side at the agreed-upon time
4. You verify by placing a test call

Number portability between Twilio accounts (e.g., porting an existing carrier number to your Twilio for BYOT) is a separate Twilio process that takes 5-15 business days. If you need that, plan ahead.

What stays in your Twilio Console

Functionally, the calling experience is identical to an Allison-purchased number. Your agent answers, knowledge and tools work, transfers happen, post-call processing fires. The differences are operational: number management (releasing a number, renaming it, changing its settings) and the call detail records for each call live in your Twilio Console, not in Allison.

What's not yet supported

• Automatic webhook setup. You paste the three webhook URLs into your Twilio Console yourself; Allison can't configure your number for you.
• Credential verification at setup. We don't check the Account SID, Auth Token, or number when you save them. A typo shows up as a failed call, so always place a test call after adding or updating credentials.
• Twilio API Key auth instead of Auth Token. Twilio signs inbound webhooks with the account Auth Token, and we verify every inbound call before answering it. An API Key can't do that, so the Auth Token is required.
• Bring Your Own [other provider]. Only Twilio is supported. Vonage, Telnyx, Bandwidth, and others are not.
• Automated number porting. Porting numbers between carriers or accounts is a Twilio-side process; we don't automate it. You handle the port in Twilio's portal, then update your credentials in Allison if they changed.
• Moving a number to a different location after it's added. This applies to every number, not just BYOT; see Managing Locations and Phone Numbers.

If one of these blocks your setup, tell Allison and she will file a ticket for the team.