Voice & SMS paging

What this covers

HowlOps can page an on-call responder by phone call and SMS as escalation steps, on top of email and chat. This page explains which numbers the alerts come from, what you can do during a call, and how to verify it works.

Which numbers we call and text from

Voice calls and SMS are delivered through HowlOps's Twilio number. The number you see as the caller ID / sender is the workspace's configured From number.

• Add it to your contacts as "HowlOps Alerts" so a 3 a.m. page doesn't look like spam and isn't silenced by Do-Not-Disturb.
• The exact number is shown when you verify your phone while adding a Voice or SMS channel — it's the number that places the verification call/text, and it's the same one used for real alerts.
• Voice and SMS usually share one number, but an operator can set a separate voice caller-ID. If you've allow-listed one number and calls arrive from another, check with your workspace admin.

Tip: if you use a call-screening app, allow-list the HowlOps number so paging calls always ring through.

Acknowledge, silence or escalate from a call

Incident voice calls are interactive. After the spoken alert, HowlOps asks you to press a key:

Press	Action
1	Acknowledge the incident — stops the escalation immediately
2	Silence for 30 minutes
3	Escalate now to the next responder

The action applies to the exact incident the call is about — no app, login or callback needed. If you don't press anything, the escalation policy keeps running and pages the next step.

SMS alerts

SMS messages are notify-only today: you receive the alert text, but replying to the SMS does not change the incident. Use the voice call (above), the chat buttons (Slack / Discord / Telegram), or the web app to acknowledge.

Quiet hours and limits

• Non-critical SMS can be suppressed during your configured quiet hours; critical alerts always go through.
• SMS and voice are metered on the On-call plan. Once you reach your included allotment, alerts stop on those channels and escalation moves to the next channel — unless you've enabled overage billing.

Send a test (admins)

A workspace admin can confirm the integration end to end:

1. Open Admin → Settings → Notifications.
2. Under SMS Provider enter a phone number and click Send Test SMS.
3. Under Voice Provider enter a phone number and click Place Test Call.

Both use the live, resolved Twilio credentials (environment first, then the values entered in the admin UI), so a successful test means real alerts will deliver too.