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SMS and WhatsApp

Connect your own Twilio and WhatsApp Business accounts, ask candidates for consent on the application form, write text templates per language, and text from a profile or an automation, with replies and delivery on the timeline.

How-to guide4 min read

Some candidates answer a text faster than an email, especially for interview times. Careers Orbit can send text messages by SMS and WhatsApp next to email. Both stay off until an admin connects your organisation's own account under Settings › Messages.

SMS and WhatsApp are in the Growth and Enterprise plans. On Starter, candidates can still reply STOP to texts sent before, and replies still arrive. See Plans and the trial.

Connect SMS

SMS goes through your own Twilio account, so you choose the number and pay Twilio directly.

  1. In Twilio, buy a number that can send SMS in the countries you hire in, or set up a Messaging Service. A sender name, such as Northwilds, works in many countries but can't receive replies.
  2. On Messages, paste the Account SID and Auth Token from the Twilio Console and the number to send from (Send from), with its country code. Under Twilio region, choose Ireland (EU) if your Twilio account uses Twilio's Ireland region, then choose Connect SMS.
  3. Copy the Webhook for incoming SMS shown after connecting into the number's Messaging settings in Twilio, under "A message comes in" (HTTP POST). Replies then reach the candidate's timeline.

Connect WhatsApp

WhatsApp goes through the WhatsApp Business Cloud API from Meta.

  1. In Meta Business Suite, create a WhatsApp Business Account and add a phone number that isn't used in the WhatsApp app. Meta checks your business before you can message many people.
  2. In your Meta app, under WhatsApp › API Setup, copy the Phone number ID and the WhatsApp Business Account ID. Create a system user with the whatsapp_business_messaging permission and generate a Permanent access token. Copy the App secret from App settings › Basic.
  3. Paste them on Messages, with the WhatsApp number, and choose Connect WhatsApp. Then, in Meta under WhatsApp › Configuration, set the Callback address and Verify token that Careers Orbit shows, and subscribe to the messages field.

Template approval

WhatsApp only lets a business start a conversation with a message template that WhatsApp has approved. Create your templates in WhatsApp Manager, for example an interview reminder in the Utility category, in each language you need, and wait for approval (often minutes, sometimes a day or two). Then link it to a text template in Careers Orbit: under Linked to a WhatsApp template, enter the Template name in WhatsApp Manager and Its variables, in order, the same order as {{1}}, {{2}} in WhatsApp.

Within 24 hours of a candidate's own WhatsApp message, you can also write freely.

Consent

Nobody is texted without agreeing first. Turn on Ask on the application form and the form gets an optional box per connected channel such as "Northwilds may send me messages about my application by SMS to the phone number above. I can reply STOP at any time." It only shows when your form asks for a phone number.

Candidates can stop at any time by replying STOP (or STOPP, STOPALL, UNSUBSCRIBE, ABMELDEN, AVSLUTT, END, QUIT or CANCEL), from Your applications, or by telling you: under Privacy on their profile, Stop SMS or Stop WhatsApp records it. Every consent and withdrawal is on their profile and in the audit trail.

Text templates

On Messages, write short templates with variables such as {firstName}, {jobTitle} and {company}, in each of your career site's languages. A language you haven't translated uses your main language. Keep them short: one SMS holds about 160 characters, and longer messages are sent as several.

Sending

On a candidate's profile, open the timeline's Messages tab and choose Send a text. Pick the channel, then a template or your own words. The message shows on the timeline with its status: Waiting to send, Sent, Delivered, Read (WhatsApp) or Not delivered, with the provider's reason.

Automations can send text templates too, for example a reminder the day before an interview. See Automations.

Replies

Replies from the candidate's number appear on their timeline and notify the job's hiring team, like email replies. Messages from numbers Careers Orbit doesn't know are ignored and not stored.

Who can do what

Admins connect the accounts and write templates. Anyone who may email candidates for a job may text them too.

Privacy

Credentials are stored encrypted and never shown again. Every webhook from Twilio and WhatsApp is checked against its signature. Texts are part of the candidate's data download, and erasing a candidate erases their texts and consents. Twilio and Meta process the messages for you, so add them to your own list of processors.

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