I am following the instructions on https://www.twilio.com/help/faq/sms/can-i-try-twilios-global-sms-without-upgrading
However, in Step 2 Give your account calling permission, the countries are quite limited. Does this mean that I cannot set up my Twilio API with a USA number and text to Thailand? It appears that texting to Thailand is not the issue, but rather the ability to call to verify the number to begin with.
In Step 3, "Verify the phone number where you will be sending SMS messages." Does this mean that I can only text to numbers that have been manually verified through this website? What if I want to import a spreadsheet of my contacts that I want to send SMS to? It would be nice to be able to enroll new numbers via an API.
Finally, does upgrading help any solve any of these roadblocks to send SMS from USA to internationally? If not, any recommendations of other services with good APIs?
Thanks for reading and pitching in!
Under the free trial account, you will have to verify every number to use Twilio's service. Upgrading and paying removes the verification requirement.
As quoted from Twilio support when I contacted them to ask this question:
When you upgrade your account, you are free to send SMS anyone,
without needing to verify the phone number.
The docs state "Please note, all Twilio SMS-capable numbers can be used to send SMS to other countries."
And then in small print at the bottom, it negates that optimistic statement with..
"Note: While global SMS enabled numbers can generally be used to reach other international destinations, using such numbers to reach +1 destinations (US and Canada) is not supported."
But it means that international numbers can't SMS to the USA or Canada.
Related
In the U.S, carriers normally charge people for receiving SMS messages (It's not like other countries where only the side that sends the SMS is charged).
Can I send an SMS with Twilio (or with another service) that will be free for the end users to receive? I am happy to pay the cost instead of the end user, of course.
Twilio's pricing and U.S pricing pages don't have anything about this.
I can't find any other good service that seems to solve this problem either.
I believe I found your answer here: https://support.twilio.com/hc/en-us/articles/223133527-Do-mobile-users-get-charged-when-they-send-messages-to-Twilio-US-toll-free-numbers-
From the article:
Do mobile users get charged when they send messages to Twilio US toll-free numbers?
Yes, they will be charged according to their mobile texting plan. Subscribers who pay a monthly charge for unlimited two-way texting will not be charged extra for texting to a toll-free number, but other subscribers may be charged per text sent or received.
Calls to toll free numbers, on the other hand, are always free for the callers.
Get started here: https://www.twilio.com/sms/toll-free
Looks like you can add sms to existing toll free phone numbers but keep voice with the existing carrier. Is this possible with a regular landline without porting to Twilio? How can other companies do this (zipwhip)?
They work through an inter-carrier vendor like TNS, Aicent, or iQuall. These vendors basically all do the same thing - which is to provision and store SMS routing instructions for all US-based phone #s... these are all aggregated in one big central repository.
Example: if you're on T-mobile, whenever someone texts your phone # (from any carrier or platform) it hits this routing network that tells the message to get posted to t-mobile. Companies like zipwhip do the same thing, they just tell the network to enable SMS for that landline number, and the instructions just tell the network to point any messages back to their cloud.
This is only possible because the overall telecom industry agreed to support intercarrier messaging back in 2001. (source: CTIA)
Twilio has a private beta for routing SMS from toll-free numbers. You can DIY, just a little more work.
Updated answer: it is now possible to SMS host an existing landline, toll-free, or in some cases an existing VoIP phone number via Twilio. The voice routing and voice provider will not change.
Note that you cannot "roll your own" functionality today to make this happen because you need permission to write to the NetNumber database. And you're not going to be able to get permission to do so as an individual.
I am looking for a Paid, Premium service that will allow me to RELIABLY send transactional SMS-es INTERNATIONALLY. Not only to the United States and Canada, but to all over the world. I've been looking around but have had no success finding one. Does anyone know of a platform? I've seen Twilio, but do not think they send International.
I am NOT looking for a bulk spamming service. My need is to send sing up verification codes, password requests, online account notifications and such.
Will appreciate any leads.
I am using twilio for last two years and my experience is amazing.
Check this out
http://www.twilio.com/international-sms
We've been asked by a customer whether it is possible to send a free text message to a subscriber. They would like to know if there is a way to not charge the recipient for an inbound text message?
We work with a couple text messaging services and I don't see that as an option. My assumption is that you would need to partner with each carrier and send the message from their system in order to accomplish this.
Are there any 3rd party service providers that have this capability?
In the United States the recipient is responsible for delivery charges, while the sender is responsible for sending charges. In Europe the sender is responsible for both.
Using online mechanisms the sender is generally not paying anything. However with Verizon I believe in the U.S. you will be charged for sending to someone's inbox no matter how you send it.
So unfortunately to answer your question: If you are in the U.S. there is no way unless you call up the carrier directly and offer to assume the delivery charge if the recipient does not have unlimited text messaging as far as I am aware.
Apparently this is possible. You need a provider that supports Free to End User (FTEU) messages, such as mBlox. There are a few of them out there, but some do not support all carriers yet (I'm not sure if mBlox does or not, we're waiting to hear from them).
Free mobile messaging for end user
Another provider and interesting project we are looking into is Private Label SMS they appear to have the ability to send FTEU messages as well, in addition to other standard text messaging services.
Not this is country and carrier specific.
In Europe the receiver of a cell phone call or SMS is never charged.
In the US I am charged for receiving on my PAYG plan but not on my monthly plan, the sender has no way of knowing what plan I am on.
It is possible to send Free to End Use Text Messages.....it's not easy to come by as processes need to be in place with each carrier to enable this. In effect, the originator of the TXT MSG will bare both costs - sender/receiver. This only makes sense where you as a Vendor want to be conscious of any costs to be incurred by your consumers. As well, it can be quite effective in minimizing the number of Opt-Outs from these TXT campaigns as your users won't be discouraged by the disclaimer on the MSG "STD RATES MAY APPLY".
In the UK it's standard 10p to send a message and recipient pays nothing, as it should be. We in the UK can buy a text bundle like for around £5 and this gives you cheaper texts and some providers here give you free txt messages every month anyway
Does any US wireless carrier offer individuals or companies with a direct connection to the SMSC?
The number is 747-772-3101 (repalce 7's with 6's)
This number is registered to t-mobile, also verified by t-mobile to be a valid subscriber sending 160,000+ text messages monthly and that all they have is an unlimited text messaging plan on top of the cheapest voice plan. This company of the number verified to me that they don't use gsm modems as they are too slow.
So I know it's possible but who would I contact, Sales or anyone else reachable through a 1-800 is ignorant to these services and developer.t-mobile is worthless and doesn't reply to emails.
Any info??
Most likely they are connected to an Aggregator (Sybase 365, Mblox, Netsize, Verisign, etc. Smaller guys like multimode and Clickatell are more open to this) that is connected to T-Mobile. As they have chosen to not use a shortcode they simply buy a regular T-Mobile SIM/MSISDN and use the full longcode as the origination address of the messages.
A lot of companies use aggregators to enable Oracle Applications Server to send SMS messages.
does anybody have more info on this????
i did a little investigation and here is what i have determined. the company that the long code is tied to is broadtexter.com. they offer a free service to people who want to follow bands/comedians/acts/ etc. you basically join their fan club.
when i text help to the phone number it immediately autoresponds from that same number. that means they are either using an agg with a dedicated vmn (totally possible) of they are using a mobile modem with a sim (totally possible as well, and probably cheaper), but basically all they are doing from this phone number is pushing traffic to their website.
once you go to their website and sign up to a fan club; ALL FUTURE COMMUNICATION is mo/mt thru the SMTP gateway. dead giveaway is that they ask for your carrier when you sign up. second dead givaway is the caller id is xxxxxxx#broadtexter.com every time.
so the simple answer is that they are only using the vmn (long code) to drive people to their website to sign up...then all future communication is over SMTP. so the 160K+ messages are occuring thru the SMTP gateway. since they appear to be non-commercial (no ads, no spamming, etc.) and they are somewhat of a peer to peer setup, they probably fly under the radar (or are accepted by) the carriers.
if anyone can offer more insight to this, i would love to read it!
I've got more info, and its kinda blowing my mind. I'm interested because I've got a social networking website and I'd like to set up an interactive SMS service without a shortcode. So I went to one of the profile pages on broadtexter.com and used their flash widget to join that bands club. I entered my mobile number and for provider I choose AT&T - option 1 (there were 3 options listed). Almost immediately I got a SMS asking me to reply with a Y to confirm. Here's the crazy thing: The number it was from was 1 (410) 000-001. At first I thought it was a regular cell number, then I realized it's missing a digit. Unless the area code is actually 141 and my iPhone is just formatting it weird. Except 141 isn't an area code?
Next, I replied with a Y and I got another text that asked me to reply with a photo for my profile (something that would be prefect for my site). This time the text from from 1 (410) 000-002.
So I sent back an MMS with a pic from my iPhone gallery, and I didn't get a reply yet. It's been about 15 minutes. It's kinda weird because to sign into their site, I need a username, which they never gave me. I haven't given them my email yet either. Anyway, I don't really care about that. I just wanna know what's going on with those numbers? How are they doing this?!