I recently upgraded to a paid Twilio account and I’m trying to build a workflow that can check whether phone numbers are legitimate or not. I’ve managed to get outbound calling working through Zapier connected to Twilio, which is great.
The issue I’m running into is with capturing call responses. Zapier has this trigger feature that lets you use call responses to start other actions, but it seems like this only functions when someone calls in to my Twilio number. When I make outbound calls, the trigger doesn’t seem to pick up anything.
I’m specifically looking at the “New Call” trigger in Zapier. Is there a way to make this work for outbound calls too, or do I need to configure something different in my setup?
Zapier’s “New Call” trigger only watches incoming calls by default. For outbound validation, you’ll need TwiML bins or Twilio’s Call Status callback URLs that push data to Zapier webhooks after calls finish. I set up a webhook URL in my Twilio console pointing to a Zapier webhook trigger, then added the StatusCallback parameter to my outbound call requests. This captures call completion status, duration, and whether someone answered or it hit voicemail. StatusCallback works for both inbound and outbound calls, making it way more reliable for validation than Zapier’s basic triggers.
yeah, zapier’s trigger is kinda wonky with outbound calls. maybe try a webhook in twilio instead? it might catch call status updates better. just check your twilio console for the webhooks config and point the responses back to zapier or wherever ur processing validation.
This situation is quite common when using Twilio with Zapier, and I faced similar issues while creating automated flows. Unfortunately, Zapier’s triggers aren’t designed to properly capture responses from outbound calls. A more effective solution would be to bypass Zapier’s built-in options and instead utilize Twilio’s REST API. You can set up your outbound calls with a StatusCallback URL that points to your own webhook, allowing you to receive call outcomes directly. This way, you can effectively track various outcomes such as busy signals or answered calls, giving you greater control over the validation process. I recommend reviewing the documentation on Twilio’s callback parameters for guidance.