Three recipes for Airtable. Each names its trigger and the BlueBot step, lists the fields to map and says how to test it with your own number before anyone else gets a text.
How Airtable connects
Zapier: BlueBot’s Zapier app has a Send Text action and instant triggers for incoming texts and every change of state.
Make: BlueBot’s Make app sends texts and starts scenarios when a text comes in or changes state.
API: Your own code calls BlueBot’s REST API and listens to its signed webhooks.
Make a view in your base that shows only records whose Status is Ready for pickup.
Start a Zap with Airtable’s trigger for a new record in that view.
Add BlueBot’s Send Text action and map the phone field to To.
Map the fields
BlueBot field
Map it to
To
The person’s mobile number from Airtable. US numbers can leave off the +1.
Text
Hi {{first_name}}, your order is ready for pickup. We’re open until 6 today.
{{first_name}} in the text
Airtable’s first name field.
Metadata
source set to airtable, and record_id set to the record’s id, so the status and reply webhooks for this text can find the record again.
Service
Auto, the default: iMessage when the person uses it, otherwise SMS through your iPhone.
Test it
Put your own number in To and press Test step. A text arrives on your phone from your own number, and Zapier shows the message BlueBot returned with state: "queued". Then map Airtable’s field back into To and turn the Zap on.
Save replies on the record
Part
What it is
Trigger
A text comes in (BlueBot’s message.received webhook)
Action
BlueBot’s Watch Incoming Texts module starts it, and Airtable takes the text
Start a scenario from BlueBot’s webhook for incoming texts.
Search Airtable for the record whose phone matches the sender’s number.
Update that record’s Last reply field with the words of the text.
Map the fields
From BlueBot
Into Airtable
From
The phone number to find the person by in Airtable. It’s in E.164 (+15555550123); search by the last 10 digits if Airtable stores numbers another way.
Text
The words, for a note, a row or a message. Null when the person sent only a picture.
Received At
When it came in, in UTC.
Files
Pictures and voice memos. Each url works for an hour, so copy a file you want to keep.
Chat ID
Set when the text came in a group chat; null for a one-to-one text.
Test it
Press Run once in Make, then text your BlueBot number from another phone you’ve texted through BlueBot before. The scenario runs with that text. BlueBot copies texts from people you’ve texted through it, unless you set Which chats to copy to Everything.
Keep the delivery state on the record
Part
What it is
Trigger
A text is delivered or fails (BlueBot’s message.delivered and message.failed webhooks)
Send from your script with POST /v1/messages and put the Airtable record ID in metadata.
Listen for message.delivered and message.failed, which carry the same metadata.
Update the record’s Text status field through Airtable’s API.
Map the fields
From BlueBot
Into Airtable
data.state
sent, delivered, read, failed or expired, for a field or a filter.
data.metadata
The record_id you sent with the text, to find the record it was for.
data.failure.reason
Why a failed text didn’t go: not_on_imessage, messages_refused or file_unavailable.
data.to
Who the text was for.
Test it
Send one text to your own number, then look for the event. To try the step without sending anything, POST /v1/webhooks/{id}/test sends an example of any event type to your webhook.
Before you turn it on
Text only people who asked to hear from you. Anyone who replies STOP goes on your stop list, and BlueBot cancels texts to them. Stop words
A text that can’t go yet waits with a hold rather than failing: quiet hours, your Mac away, a daily limit. Holds