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TwigaGuide · TeachersTwigaGuide · TeachersFollow along
Getting Started
How to get a Twiga account. You send one message, a person approves you, then you fill two short forms. All of it happens inside WhatsApp.
There is no website and no app to download. You register by sending a message to the Twiga WhatsApp number. The number you send from becomes your account, so there is no username and no password to remember.
Do this on your phone
Setup uses WhatsApp forms, and forms open in the WhatsApp app. Start on your phone and the whole thing takes a couple of minutes.
Save the Twiga number in your contacts, open the chat and send anything at all. One teacher typed a single greeting and that was the whole sign-up.
HelloHello
Thank you for registering! Your account is being reviewed by our team. You'll receive a message once approved. Thank you for your patience!
You are now registered. Nothing else is asked of you at this point.
A person on the Twiga team reads your request and approves it. This is not automatic, so it is not instant. For the teacher above, the request went at 13:50 and the approval came back at 21:37 the same day. That is close to eight hours. Plan for hours rather than minutes.
The approval arrives as a WhatsApp message. Close the chat and carry on with your day. Your phone will tell you when it lands.
Messaging again does not move you up the queue
A person still has to approve you, and more messages will not reach that person any faster. You also cannot sign up twice, because your phone number is the account. Until setup is finished, anything you send comes back as the same standard reply.
The approval message asks you to reply with one word. It means that word exactly.
You have been approved 🥳 Congratulations! We approved your request to use Twiga 🦒, your artificially intelligent teaching companion. We support educators teaching the TIE (NECTA) curriculum in Tanzania. To get started, please respond to this message with 'ok'.
ok
okTwo letters, on their own. A greeting or a question here goes to the normal chat instead, and setup never starts. Send this reply from your phone, because the forms come next.
Twiga sends two forms, one after the other. The first asks for your personal details. The second asks which classes and subjects you teach. There is nothing else to fill in.
Select the classes you teach 📚 Select the classes you teach from each of the subjects below Please follow the instructions.
Tap the form, tick every class and subject you teach, and send it. Twiga uses that list to decide which questions it will answer, so it is worth a careful minute.
Do this part in the WhatsApp app
The picker is a form, and forms open in the WhatsApp app on your phone. If you started on a laptop, open the same chat on your phone and tap the form there. Nothing is lost and nothing needs sending again.
When the forms are done, Twiga introduces itself and you can start asking.
Welcome! I'm here to help you with your teaching journey. I'm Twiga 🦒, your teaching assistant. I can help you with questions related to the classes you teach, search the content, and generate exercises you can use in your classes. To update your personal or subject information, type 'settings' in the chat. Let's get started! Just talk to me like a colleague.
That last line is the best advice on this page. You do not need special wording. Type the way you would text a colleague in the staff room.
Both forms stay open to you. Send the bare word settings in the chat at any time. Two buttons come back, one for your personal details and one for your classes and subjects.
settingsTeachers change subjects between terms, so you will use this again. The subjects form has one trap worth knowing about before you open it, and the next page covers it.
| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| Nothing at all after your first message | Check you sent it to the right number. If the chat shows the review notice, you are registered and waiting. Approval can take hours. |
| The form bubble says it cannot be displayed | Open the chat on the WhatsApp phone app and tap it again. |
| You replied with something other than ok | Send ok on its own. Nothing is broken. |
| You finished setup but Twiga refuses your subject | Your profile is probably wrong. Send settings and fix the class list. |