Skio's one-way SMS notifications are automated text alerts that keep subscribers informed about key subscription events as part of SkioSMS. Unlike two-way SMS management (which lets customers interact and manage their subscriptions via text), one-way notifications are informational updates triggered by specific events like billing reminders, order confirmations, or payment failures.
These notifications are:
Automated and event-triggered: sent when specific subscription events occur
One-directional: subscribers receive information but can't reply to take action
Free: included with your Skio account at no additional cost
Fully customizable: edit message copy, timing, and use dynamic variables for personalization
One-way SMS notifications can be used independently or alongside Skio's two-way subscription management tool. Learn more about two-way SMS management.
How do I set up SMS notifications?
Step 1: Enable SkioSMS
In the lefthand menu of your Skio Dashboard, go to Features > SkioSMS.
In the top right corner, click on Enable SMS.
When you enable SkioSMS for the first time, you'll see a setup prompt that walks you through toll-free verification.
A setup prompt appears when you enable SkioSMS for toll-free verification.
If you have already enabled SkioSMS, you can access this form again by going to Features > SkioSMS > Settings under Toll-free verification.
The toll-free verification form can be accessed again from SkioSMS > Settings.
This survey collects business and regulatory information required to obtain a toll-free number from Twilio. Learn more about Twilio toll-free number verification here.
Your Twilio number cannot send messages to customers until verification is complete. You can check your verification status in the Settings tab on the SkioSMS page.
Step 2: Enable individual notifications
By default, all SMS notifications are disabled. Once SkioSMS is enabled, you can turn on specific notifications by clicking the toggle on the top right of any notification card to enable it.
You can enable or disable notifications at any time based on your communication strategy.
Important considerations
If you've enabled the two-way subscription management tool, you cannot disable the billing reminder notification. To disable it, you'll need to first disable the management tool, then disable the notification.
If you have SMS quiet hours enabled, some notifications that were queued to send during the specified time window may still be sent after you disable a notification.
Viewing send history
You can view your SMS notification send history at the bottom of the page, where a log displays all messages sent through SkioSMS One-Way. You can search by phone number, and each entry shows the send date, recipient phone number, associated customer, the notification template that triggered, and the exact message body. If no notifications have been sent yet, the table will display “No logs found.”
How do I customize SMS notifications?
Trigger settings
Most notifications are triggered automatically by system events (like order confirmations) or customer actions (like subscription pauses or cancellations).
The Billing reminder text notification is different. It sends before a customer's subscription renews. You can configure how many days ahead to send this reminder:
Go to the Settings tab in SkioSMS.
Find the Billing reminder notification days ahead setting.
Enter the number of days (default is 3 days before renewal).
Notification send behavior can be affected by your billing settings. If you've configured a billing window, it affects when billing reminder notifications are sent. For example, if billing is only open on weekdays and a subscription renews on Saturday, a 3-day reminder will send on Wednesday (3 business days before), not Friday. Learn more about billing windows.
Message copy
To customize notification copy:
Click on the edit icon
at the top right of any notification card to open the edit page.Edit the message text using plain language and dynamic variables.
Use the preview section to see how the notification will appear to customers.
Each notification includes:
Available variables that dynamically populate customer-specific information (like name, order details, or subscription status
Preview section that shows how the message will display to customers using test data
An example of the available variables at the top of a notification page.
Dynamic variables in the preview are populated with sample data and may not reflect your actual store information.