Send Email Verifications with Verify and Twilio SendGrid

This guide explains how to set up and send email verifications using Twilio Verify and Twilio SendGrid.

Prerequisites

Using Verify with Twilio SendGrid requires the following configurations.

Set up your Twilio SendGrid account

Create a Twilio SendGrid account or log in to your existing account. Email verifications use the Twilio SendGrid transactional email API.

Create a Twilio SendGrid API key

To create a Twilio SendGrid API key, use the Twilio SendGrid API or the Twilio SendGrid console.

Create Twilio SendGrid API keys with limited scopes. Set to Restricted Access with the following limited scopes:

Access details	Access level
Mail Send > Mail Send	Full Access
Mail Send > Scheduled Send	No Access
Template Engine	Read Access

To set up your Verify email integration, save your Twilio SendGrid API key.

Set up domain authentication

Domain authentication lets you send email from your company's domain without via sendgrid.net. Configure domain authentication, then authenticate your domain in the Twilio SendGrid console.

Create an email template

To create or select a design for your template, go to the Twilio SendGrid Dynamic Templates page. To include the Verify code in your email template, use at least one of the following three variables.

Variable	Necessity	Contents
`twilio_code`	Required	The 4-10 digit One Time Passcode (OTP) without descriptive text.
`twilio_message`	Required	Both the internationalized descriptive text and the OTP. Language defaults to English. To override language, use the Locale parameter.
`twilio_message_without_code`	Required	The internationalized descriptive text only.
`twilio_service_name`	Optional	The human-readable name given to the Service.

The twilio_message value resembles Your MyServiceName verification code is: 123456 or Su codigo de verificación para MyServiceName es: 123456.
The twilio_message_without_code value resembles Your MyServiceName verification code is or Su codigo de verificacion para MyServiceName es.

Find Template ID

To find a list of your templates and their unique IDs, go to the Twilio SendGrid Dynamic Templates page. Creating a Verify email integration requires a template ID. This ID contains 64 characters with one dash (d-uuid).

Example Twilio SendGrid HTML Template with variables

1<html>
2  <head>
3    <style type="text/css">
4      body, p, div {
5        font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
6        font-size: 14px;
7      }
8      a {
9        text-decoration: none;
10      }
11      a.verify {
12        background-color:#ffbe00;
13        color:#000000;
14        display:inline-block;
15        padding:12px 40px 12px 40px;
16        text-align:center;
17      }
18    </style>
19    <title></title>
20  </head>
21  <body>
22  <center>
23    <p>Example 1 - just the code (no localization in the message):</p>
24    <p>The verification code is: <strong>{{twilio_code}}</strong></p>
25    <p>Example 2 - use the code in a clickable link to trigger a verification check:</p>
26    <p>
27      <a href="https://example.com/signup/email/verify?token={{twilio_code}}"
28         class="verify" target="_blank">Verify Email Now</a>
29    </p>
30    <p>Example 3 - entire localized message and code:</p>
31    <p><strong>{{twilio_message}}</strong></p>
32    <p><a href="https://www.twilio.com/en-us/blog/insights/open-source-transactional-email-templates">Check out more templates</a></p>
33    <span style="font-size: 10px;"><a href=".">Email preferences</a></span>
34  </center>
35  </body>
36</html>

This produces an email that resembles the following:

Email verification examples with code 918135 and 'Verify Email Now' button.

Transactional emails use Email preferences instead of Unsubscribe.

Integrate Verify with Twilio SendGrid

Integrating Verify with Twilio SendGrid involves creating an email integration and connecting to the Verify service.

Create an email integration

To create an integration in the Twilio Console:

Log in to the legacy Twilio Console.
Go to Settings > Email Integration.
Click Create new email integration. The Create new email integration modal appears.
Provide values for the following fields:

Field Value
Integration name Human-readable name only visible within the Twilio console.
“From” email address The sender email address displayed in the recipient's inbox. This

Field	Value
Integration name	Human-readable name only visible within the Twilio console.
“From” email address	The sender email address displayed in the recipient's inbox. This

Connect to your Verify service

Connect your email integration to your Verify service in one of two ways:

Email integrationVerify services

Go to Email Integration.
To associate with an email integration, choose one or more services you want.

You can use one email integration for multiple services.

Send a Verify notification using email

An email verification can use a create Verify request with or without overrides that modify the email template and other details or use Twilio SendGrid substitutions.

Basic verificationVerification with overridesVerification with substitutions

Start a verification with email

1// Download the helper library from https://www.twilio.com/docs/node/install
2const twilio = require("twilio"); // Or, for ESM: import twilio from "twilio";
3
4// Find your Account SID and Auth Token at twilio.com/console
5// and set the environment variables. See http://twil.io/secure
6const accountSid = process.env.TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID;
7const authToken = process.env.TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN;
8const client = twilio(accountSid, authToken);
9
10async function createVerification() {
11  const verification = await client.verify.v2
12    .services("VA305f5177a5c94bd22dba9aed7494c784")
13    .verifications.create({
14      channel: "email",
15      to: "recipient@foo.com",
16    });
17
18  console.log(verification.sid);
19}
20
21createVerification();

View the response

You can override the default template ID, default from name, or default from email with a channel configuration:

Start a verification with email with overrides

1// Download the helper library from https://www.twilio.com/docs/node/install
2const twilio = require("twilio"); // Or, for ESM: import twilio from "twilio";
3
4// Find your Account SID and Auth Token at twilio.com/console
5// and set the environment variables. See http://twil.io/secure
6const accountSid = process.env.TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID;
7const authToken = process.env.TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN;
8const client = twilio(accountSid, authToken);
9
10async function createVerification() {
11  const verification = await client.verify.v2
12    .services("VA305f5177a5c94bd22dba9aed7494c784")
13    .verifications.create({
14      channel: "email",
15      channelConfiguration: {
16        template_id: "d-4f7abxxxxxxxxxxxx",
17        from: "override@example.com",
18        from_name: "Override Name",
19      },
20      to: "recipient@foo.com",
21    });
22
23  console.log(verification.sid);
24}
25
26createVerification();

View the example response

Channel configuration also supports substitutions.

Start a verification with email with substitutions

1// Download the helper library from https://www.twilio.com/docs/node/install
2const twilio = require("twilio"); // Or, for ESM: import twilio from "twilio";
3
4// Find your Account SID and Auth Token at twilio.com/console
5// and set the environment variables. See http://twil.io/secure
6const accountSid = process.env.TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID;
7const authToken = process.env.TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN;
8const client = twilio(accountSid, authToken);
9
10async function createVerification() {
11  const verification = await client.verify.v2
12    .services("VA305f5177a5c94bd22dba9aed7494c784")
13    .verifications.create({
14      channel: "email",
15      channelConfiguration: {
16        substitutions: {
17          username: "Foo Bar",
18        },
19      },
20      to: "recipient@foo.com",
21    });
22
23  console.log(verification.sid);
24}
25
26createVerification();

View example response

Check an email verification

To check an email verification token, use the same code as other channels like SMS or voice.

Check an email verification

1// Download the helper library from https://www.twilio.com/docs/node/install
2const twilio = require("twilio"); // Or, for ESM: import twilio from "twilio";
3
4// Find your Account SID and Auth Token at twilio.com/console
5// and set the environment variables. See http://twil.io/secure
6const accountSid = process.env.TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID;
7const authToken = process.env.TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN;
8const client = twilio(accountSid, authToken);
9
10async function createVerificationCheck() {
11  const verificationCheck = await client.verify.v2
12    .services("VA305f5177a5c94bd22dba9aed7494c784")
13    .verificationChecks.create({
14      code: "123456",
15      to: "recipient@foo.com",
16    });
17
18  console.log(verificationCheck.sid);
19}
20
21createVerificationCheck();

View the example response