Send iMessage from Customer.io

Journey 1: send the iMessage from Customer.io

Event-triggered journey: opt-in event → Webhook (first message) → wait 2 days → Webhook (follow-up) → exit. Paste this into the first Webhook action. The Liquid fills in from the Customer.io profile.

POST https://app.tuco.ai/api/messages
Authorization: Bearer tuco_YOUR_API_KEY
Content-Type: application/json
Idempotency-Key: cio-{{customer.id}}-first

{
  "message": "{% if customer.first_name != blank %}Hi {{customer.first_name}}{% else %}Hi there{% endif %}, thanks for asking about the program. Any questions I can answer for you here?",
  "recipientPhone": "{{customer.phone}}",
  "recipientEmail": "{{customer.email}}",
  "recipientName": "{{customer.first_name}} {{customer.last_name}}",
  "contactOwnerEmail": "{{customer.owner_email}}",
  "sendWindowStart": "09:00",
  "sendWindowEnd": "20:00",
  "timezone": "{{customer.timezone | default: 'America/New_York'}}",
  "skipIfReplied": true
}

• The first message is plain text. Links aren't clickable and attachments don't go through until the contact replies, so save the link for the follow-up or for your rep.
• recipientEmail is what ties replies back to the person. Tuco texts the phone number and stores the email on its lead, and every webhook carries it.
• The send window holds the message, it doesn't drop it. Outside 9:00 to 20:00 in the contact's timezone, Tuco returns scheduled and sends when the window opens.
• The Idempotency-Key header makes a Customer.io retry safe: the same key returns the original response instead of sending twice.
• Don't leave an empty greeting. Tuco rejects a body like “Hi , …” with 400 MALFORMED_NAME_TEMPLATE, which is why the example falls back to “Hi there”.

The follow-up step

Same request with two extra flags. Tuco skips it if the person already replied, so Customer.io needs no reply branch.

{
  "message": "Hi {{customer.first_name}}, just checking in. What questions do you have?",
  "respectGap": true,
  "skipIfReplied": true,
  ...same recipient, owner and send-window fields as step 1
}

Setup in five steps

1. 1

   Create a Tuco API key

   In the Tuco dashboard open API Keys and create a key that starts with tuco_. Every request below sends it as a Bearer token.

2. 2

   Build the send journey in Customer.io

   Create an event-triggered journey on your opt-in event, for example tax_credit_opt_in or form_submitted. Add a Webhook action that POSTs to https://app.tuco.ai/api/messages with the JSON body on this page. Add a delay and a second Webhook action for the follow-up.

3. 3

   Build the events journey in Customer.io

   Create a webhook-triggered journey and copy its incoming webhook URL. Add a Create Event action that identifies the person by {{trigger.lead.email}} and names the event tuco_{{ trigger.event | replace: '.', '_' }}.

4. 4

   Register the webhook in Tuco

   In Tuco open Integrations, then Webhooks, paste the Customer.io URL and subscribe it to message.sent, message.reply, message.fallback, message.failed and conversation.handover. Use Send test to confirm it arrives.

5. 5

   Test with your own phone, then start both journeys

   Trigger the opt-in event for a test profile that has your own mobile number. Confirm the iMessage lands, reply to it, and check that tuco_message_reply appears on the profile's activity log. Then start both journeys.

Customer.io + iMessage FAQ