Clickatell

Send SMS and WhatsApp messages worldwide through the Clickatell One API. Agents deliver one-time passwords, order confirmations, and bulk broadcasts, then track delivery with per-message status checks.

4 actions API key available

Clickatell website ↗ Platform Documentation ↗ Capability data verified 2026-07-28

An appointment is booked for tomorrow in the scheduling system

Agent formats the customer's number to international digits-only format

Send SMS delivers the reminder with the time, location, and reschedule link

Get Message Status checks the returned apiMessageId until delivery resolves

Undelivered reminders within four hours of the appointment escalate to a second channel

The day's delivery log, message IDs and states, appends to the tracking sheet

The operations lead reviews numbers that repeatedly fail and decides whether to correct the record or drop SMS for that customer

What This Integration Enables

The messages that decide whether operations run smoothly are small: the appointment reminder, the OTP, the order confirmation, the "your driver is outside." Clickatell's One API carries exactly this traffic over SMS and WhatsApp worldwide, through a unified message model where every recipient gets an individual apiMessageId and acceptance flag. FlowRunner turns that from an API into a discipline: messages are sent by the workflows that know why they are being sent, and every send is tracked to a terminal delivery state.

What the connector adds over raw messaging is closure. A message that fails to deliver is not an exception log entry, it is a branch in the workflow:

Transactional SMS fires from real events, order placed, appointment booked, password requested
WhatsApp handles the conversational side, free text inside the 24-hour service window, approved templates outside it
Bulk broadcasts send one message to a whole list in a single request, with per-recipient errors surfaced individually
Delivery status is polled within Clickatell's retention window and logged into systems you keep
Repeated failures per number become data quality signals routed to a person

One recipient per event runs autonomously. A list of recipients is a different kind of act, and FlowRunner's human-in-the-loop layer treats it that way.

Without FlowRunner

Reminders depend on someone remembering Appointment confirmations and order updates go out when a person gets to them, which is to say inconsistently

Sent means hoped The system fired the message and nobody ever learned whether it arrived, so no-shows look like customer flakiness

Broadcasts are a vendor portal ritual Someone pastes a list into a web console, with no record in your systems of who got what

With FlowRunner

Events send their own messages Orders, bookings, and status changes trigger SMS or WhatsApp within the workflow that observed them

Every message has a tracked ID Agents keep the apiMessageId and poll status, so undelivered becomes an escalation, not a mystery

Broadcasts are workflow artifacts Bulk sends carry per-recipient results into your own logs, with a human approval stamped on top

Use Case Scenarios

Order confirmations with receipts of their own

A Shopify order triggers the flow. The agent sends the confirmation via Send SMS with the order number and tracking link, then logs the apiMessageId to Google Sheets. A follow-up step polls Get Message Status and records the terminal state next to the ID. When a customer later claims they never got a confirmation, support answers from the log instead of guessing, and when a carrier route starts failing, the pattern shows up in the sheet before it shows up in complaints.

Support that moves to WhatsApp when the customer does

A customer replies to a WhatsApp notification, opening the 24-hour service window. Inside it, the agent handles the conversation with free-form Send WhatsApp Message: delivery updates, rebooking options, a handoff summary to the human agent taking over. When the window lapses and the case is still open, the agent switches to the pre-approved follow-up template, because that is the rule WhatsApp enforces and the workflow encodes it rather than trusting each operator to remember.

The opted-in broadcast that survived an approval

A Typeform campaign collects opted-in numbers for a restock alert. When the product lands, the agent assembles the recipient list, drafts the message, and posts both to Slack with the count. The operations lead approves, and Send Bulk Messages fires once, returning an individual apiMessageId and error field per recipient. Rejected numbers are logged for cleanup; delivered ones close the loop. The broadcast exists in your audit trail as a decision with an owner, not as an anonymous portal upload.

Human-in-Loop Highlight

Send Bulk Messages is one API call that becomes hundreds of interruptions on personal phones, each costing money and none recallable. The failure modes are all expensive: a stale list texts people who opted out months ago, a wrong template goes to the whole cohort, a duplicate run doubles every message. So in FlowRunner, bulk sends are gated by construction: the agent prepares the recipient list, the content, and the channel, then presents the count and a preview to a named owner before the request fires. Single-recipient sends triggered by that customer's own event, an order, a booking, a login, flow without a gate, because the event is the authorization. The distinction the workflow enforces is the same one a regulator would draw: a message someone caused versus a campaign someone chose.

Agent processes routinely

Detects exception requiring judgment

Clear match Continues automatically

Ambiguous Routes to human via preferred channel

Human decides

Agent resumes with decision

Agent Capabilities

4 actions

Messaging

Send SMS Sends a single SMS text message to one recipient through the Clickatell One API. Provide the destination number in international format (digits only, e.g. 27831234567). Optionally set a sender ID (a registered alphanumeric sender or long/short code). Returns the message acceptance status and the apiMessageId used to track delivery via Get Message Status.
Send WhatsApp Message Sends a WhatsApp message to a single recipient through the Clickatell One API WhatsApp channel. The recipient must be a WhatsApp-enabled number in international format (digits only). Free-form text is only deliverable within an active 24-hour customer service window; outside that window WhatsApp requires a pre-approved message template. Returns the acceptance status and the apiMessageId for tracking.
Send Bulk Messages Sends the same message to multiple recipients in a single request over the selected channel (SMS or WhatsApp). Provide the recipient numbers as a list in international format. Each recipient produces its own entry in the response with an individual apiMessageId, acceptance flag, and any per-recipient error. Use this for broadcast/bulk sends instead of calling Send SMS repeatedly.
Get Message Status Retrieves the current delivery status of a previously sent message using the apiMessageId returned by any of the send operations. Use this to confirm whether a message was delivered, is still in transit, or failed. Message status is retained by Clickatell for a limited retention window after sending.

Frequently Asked Questions

What can FlowRunner do with Clickatell?

FlowRunner agents can run Send SMS, Send WhatsApp Message, and Send Bulk Messages in Clickatell, plus 1 more action.

Does connecting Clickatell to FlowRunner require OAuth?

No. Clickatell connects to FlowRunner with an API key, no OAuth flow required.

Can Clickatell trigger a FlowRunner workflow automatically?

Clickatell doesn't currently expose triggers in FlowRunner. It connects as an action step inside workflows started by another trigger.

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