Created and developed by Alex Morton
Welcome! wellbean is my submission for the April 2020 Twilio hackathon. It's an app that generates automatic Whatsapp reminders for users to stay in touch with loved ones. Enjoy!
During this period of self-isolation, I realized it's a great opportunity to stay in touch more frequently with friends and loved ones. I thought it would be a great idea to create an app that allowed me to input certain indivuduals and receive automated reminders for when to contact them, based on my own preferences.
I found that just a simple message reminder would help so much in keeping in touch with friends and family.
Run locally, the app is not set up to run on full time requirements. In other words, if a user wants to be reminded 'Daily' to call one of their contacts, the app will send a message about once every 20 seconds.
Live demo: https://www.loom.com/share/36e0660de36f42f2aedb9623bab1876b
Below is the timetable for when users would receive Twilio messages via Whatsapp based on their contact frequency settings:
| Frequency chosen | Actual time elapsed between message sends |
|---|---|
| Daily | one message every 20 seconds |
| Twice a Week | one message every 40 seconds |
| Weekly | one message every 60 seconds |
| Every Two Weeks | one message every 80 seconds |
| Monthly | one message every 100 seconds |
- Node.js web server using Express.js
- User interface to set up contact reminders
- Project specific environment variables using .env files
wellbean will give you a ready-made starting point for generating your own stay-in-touch reminders. Before we begin, we need to collect all the config values we need to run the application:
| Config value | Description |
|---|---|
| Account sid | Your primary Twilio account identifier - find this in the console. |
| Auth token | Used to authenticate - just like the above, you'll find this here. |
| Your Whatsapp number | You'll need to add your Whatsapp account phone number in E.164 format. |
| The Twilio whatsapp number | You will have this once you set up your Whatsapp Sandbox within Twilio. |
Note: To run the app locally and receive Whatsapp alerts, you'll need to authorize the Whatsapp sandbox to send alerts to your Whatsapp number. To authorize testing, head to your Whatsapp Sandbox for instructions on how to set up your testing sandbox.
- Clone this repository to your local machine and then cd into it
git clone https://github.com/alexlsalt/wellbean-twilio-hackathon.git
cd wellbean-twilio-hackathon
- Install dependencies
npm install
-
Edit the .env file to include the necessary environment variables - your Twilio account ID, Twilio auth token, and the phone numbers to add into the app. Reminder: To run the app locally and receive Whatsapp alerts, you'll need to authorize the Whatsapp sandbox to send alerts to your Whatsapp number. To authorize testing and add the Twilio Whatsapp number to your .env file, head to your Whatsapp Sandbox for instructions on how to set up your testing sandbox.
-
Once your set up is complete, start the app by running
node app
-
Head to your local port 3000 (http://127.0.0.1:3000/) to view the app.
-
Once you've submitted three contacts, wait about 20 seconds, and you will start receiving your simulated Whatsapp reminders. (Your reminders will also be logged into your terminal while the program is running.)
-
Important: To close out of the app and end the message queue and sending, you must end the node process within your terminal by pressing Ctrl + C
No warranty expressed or implied. Software is as is.