Effective November 22, 2022, Canadian Short Code keyword responses must be updated to align with the latest Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) requirements. This includes responses to the standard English keywords, as well as French keywords AIDE and ARRET. If the keyword responses are not updated for your Canadian Short Code by November 22, 2022, you will be at risk of a carrier audit, and your service could be disrupted until the required updates are completed. You can find more details on the specific requirements in our article Industry standards for Mandatory keyword responses required in Canada (HELP, AIDE, INFO, STOP, ARRET).

For customers handling their own Short Code Opt-Out and keyword responses, this can be incorporated into your existing application logic. But for Advanced Opt-Out customers, this is less intuitive due to the lack of a formal INFO keyword/response. Please see the below instructions on how to meet these requirements while using Advanced Opt-Out.

1: Set Up an ‘INFO’ Keyword Response for Advanced Opt-Out

Advanced Opt-Out does not natively support a dedicated INFO keyword/response, but users can easily build a keyword autoresponder as described in our Studio tutorial here:
https://www.twilio.com/docs/studio/tutorials/how-to-set-up-auto-responder 

In order to match your reply to the keyword INFO, you can create a Split Based On widget that includes specific transitions that will return the appropriate compliance response.

For responses that don’t match the INFO keyword, you can action those using any of the Studio widgets like an HTTP Request, Twilio Function, TwiML Redirect, or more. For an additional example on how to use the Split Based On widget, see our Studio tutorial on building a chatbot with keyword replies.

Notice: Since a Messaging Service can only have a single webhook configured, we recommend using the HTTP Request widget within Studio to re-send non-INFO message parameters to a separate webhook. You can find the variables for building the body of that request here. To see what parameters are included in Twilio’s default Webhook payload, you can reference our webhook documentation.

When your INFO response Studio Flow has been published, you’ll need to configure your Messaging Service to use it:

1. Access the Messaging Services page in Console.
2. Click the desired Messaging Service to edit.
3. Click Integration from the left-side options.
4. Under “Incoming Messages”, make sure Send a webhook is selected.
   
5. Paste your INFO Studio Flow’s webhook URL in the Request URL field. This URL can be copied from your Studio Flow configuration settings menu, and uses the following format: https://webhooks.twilio.com/v1/Accounts/{AccountSid}/Flows/{FlowSid}
   
6. Click Save at the bottom of the screen.

2. Set Up Multiple Languages for Advanced Opt-Out

The other requirement for Canadian Short Codes is to include both French and English in your keywords and replies. This can be accomplished through Advanced Opt-Out by creating Language Specific Keywords for both French and English.