Setup steps
- Choose Connect on this page or in the app. If it shows Guided setup, Connect opens a short form and our team sends you an invite link to the TimberSwitch Zapier app.
- In TimberSwitch, open Account, then API keys, and choose Create Key. Pick your workspace under Workspace and tick only the zapier scope. You must be an owner or admin of that workspace.
- Copy the key. It is shown once.
- In Zapier, accept the invite, create a Zap and pick TimberSwitch. When asked to connect, paste the key.
- Choose a trigger (Call completed, Missed call, Voicemail received, Text received or AI message taken) or an action (Send a text, Add to block list, Create contact), test it and turn the Zap on.
Sending us your API key. Never email it or paste it in a ticket. A workspace owner or admin pastes it into the secure key form on the Connectors page in the app (choose Paste your API key next to Zapier app). It is stored encrypted and we only ever show its last 4 characters.
Permissions we ask for, and why
- A TimberSwitch API key with only the zapier scope, limited to one workspace: Zapier uses it to subscribe to your call, voicemail and text events and to run the actions you add to a Zap. It can't buy numbers, place calls or change settings.
- The key's owner is an owner or admin of the workspace: Subscribing creates a webhook for the workspace, which only owners and admins can do in TimberSwitch.
- Send texts, add to the block list, add contacts (only if you use those actions): These run only when a Zap you built asks for them. Texts follow the same limits as texting from the app.
What the AI can do
- Nothing on the call: Zapier acts on what happened after it.
- Each message the AI receptionist takes becomes an AI message taken trigger with the caller's name, callback number, reason and summary.
- Triggers: Call completed, Missed call, Voicemail received (with transcript), Text received and AI message taken.
- Actions: Send a text, Add a number to the block list, Create or update a contact.
What it can't do, and limits
- Until Zapier lists the TimberSwitch app in its public directory, the app is invite-only and we send you the invite link.
- Zapier can't change what happens on a live call. Everything runs after the call, voicemail or text.
- AI message taken checks for new messages on Zapier's polling schedule (every 1 to 15 minutes, depending on your Zapier plan). The other triggers arrive within seconds.
- Send a text needs the Texting add-on, follows the same daily limits as the app and never texts someone who replied STOP. In the first month the daily text limit is lower.
- Missed call means an inbound call that went to voicemail or that nobody answered. Calls the AI receptionist handled count as AI messages, not missed calls.
- Up to 50 active Zapier triggers per workspace. Your Zapier plan's task limits apply.
- Make and n8n don't need this app: point them at our signed webhooks instead.
Troubleshooting
Zapier says the key is not valid for Zapier.
The key needs the zapier scope and must be limited to one workspace. Create a new key under Account, then API keys, choose the workspace, tick zapier, and reconnect in Zapier.
Zapier says the key's owner must be an owner or admin.
Ask a workspace owner to create the key, or to make you an admin, then reconnect.
My Zap stopped triggering.
Check the Zap is on and the key wasn't revoked. Revoking a key removes its subscriptions; reconnect in Zapier with a new key and turn the Zap off and on again.
Send a text fails with texting not enabled.
Add the Texting add-on from your billing page. Zapier can then retry the step.
Send a text fails with a daily limit.
Your workspace reached its daily text limit. It resets the next day (UTC).
A Zap re-ran and I worry the text went twice.
We send a given text once. Map a value such as the trigger's ID into the Idempotency key field to make replays always safe; without it, the same text to the same number within the same hour is sent once.
Can I use Zapier before you set up the app?
Yes. Create a Catch Hook in Zapier and add its URL as a webhook endpoint in TimberSwitch under Phone, then Webhooks. You get the same events, signed.
Disconnecting, and the data we keep
An owner or admin can disconnect at any time from Phone, then Connectors, in the app. Disconnecting stops TimberSwitch using Zapier app straight away.
- The Zapier hook URL for each trigger you turn on, its signing secret and which key created it.
- A delivery log with status codes, kept for troubleshooting.
- For Send a text, a record of the request (with the number masked) so a replay can't send it twice.
- Turning a Zap off or revoking the key removes its subscriptions.
Still stuck?
Get help: it opens an Integration support ticket. Include the time of the call and what you expected to happen.
Zapier, Inc. is a trademark of its owner; TimberSwitch is not affiliated.