How to direct your TwiML App to your local machine.

Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash

So, tough guy, you’ve set up your first TwiML App and you want to start receiving calls to your local machine. You’ll first need a public-facing IP address to direct your calls.

Step 1: Create a public-facing IP

If you’re like me and don’t pay for a static IP address, you can quickly launch one on your local machine using ngrok.

The good folks at ngrok make starting a new reverse-proxy stupid simple. From a terminal window, simply type:

$ ngrok http <PORT>

Where <PORT> should be the port of your server receiving calls.

A working reverse-proxy brought to you by ngrok

Copy the http://XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.ngrok-free.app url as we’re going to use it to update our TwiML app

Step 2: Update your TwiML App

Navigate to the Twilio Console. On the sidebar, select Phone Numbers. Expand the Manage menu and click on TwiML Apps. Select the TwiML app you want to update and copy and paste the link provided by ngrok