I'm looking for an iPhone app (or web and phone app) that lets me send group SMS texts to smartphones and dumbphones that
handles replies to my group
texts within the app
doesn't automatically 'reply
all' and
let's me set up at least three
groups
Thank you for any recommendations.
this may be very difficult to do with Apple iPhones because their SMS API locks this ability. It's even locked within Android Phones to 100 outgoing SMS Messages per hour.
That being said there's always a way around. You will need to install Cydia on your iPhone, and for your Android you will need to http://www.market4android.com/how-to-remove-the-100-sms-limit-each-hour.php
Then you will need some sort of Bulk SMS Software which handles incoming and outgoing message management. If you are looking for one where there's no per sms cost, and which will work with your smart phone (Android OS) or a simple phone then I would check out http://www.firetext.com, for Apple, just do a search within the Cydia store for SMS.
Related
I want to create a realtime stock alert app where users can subscribe to specific stock instrument with target price. Once that target price hit, The subscribed user will be notified over the app.
A good example of such platform is Tradingview.com
For stock API's I will be receiving realtime stock quotes from My API vendor over.
As far my knowledge is concern, I'm looking at this app as Web socket OR MQTT pub/sub platform where users can subscribe to that specific instrument topic and get notified once stock price is hit.
But my knowledge is limited when it comes to thousands of users subscribing to thousands of alerts.
What technologies must be going at the backend for such kind of apps ? What must be the data flow ?
Bit late answer to this, I was working on something similar with all custom NodeJS server and instruments you want to subscribe on. It is very simple server and you can find it here https://github.com/markosole/yahoo-node-streamer
I am working on desktop App built on top of Electron which is used for subscribing to instruments, monitoring multiple instruments and creating visual and sound alerts for every instrument individually. I have not release Electron app source to the public yet.
Creating mobile app will be harder as it would require backround data and best bet would be using Flutter and Google Firestore to send alerts. Well this is very top level.. I will eventually make flutter app and share it on Github
Overlooking the fact that there are literally thousands of apps out there that do all of this already....
Your best bet might be to do one of two things:
1) Just send out the stock price and let the client app figure out the alert, or
2) Have a back-end system that just sends out the alert to the specific customer when their price point is reached.
Option 1 is something that MQTT could easily do. Option 2 could be done using MQTT, but its something of an overkill IMHO. MQTT is built for applications where one node is publishing data, and many nodes are subscribing to that data -- hence Option 1 is more in line with what MQTT was built for.
I was wondering how to create an SMS app like this where you text something say "1GB" and get some response from server. https://imgur.com/zwFFhzz
Sorry I'm new to USSD so apologies if amateur question. 1) How does an app like this work? What do I need to know to implement this?
To implement a USSD style application you need to have buy in and assistance from the network operator.
There are API's in various toolsets that will allow you to issue USSD commands to the device, these API's simply just pass the request straight through to the GSM modem on the device as an AT command (I can't remember off the top of my head what it actually is), and the modem unit is responsible for actioning it.
Some commands are processed directly on the device. For example if you type in * 06# (or #06 *) i forget which, most devices will display thier IMEI number. Many mobile sites too, will often have lists of "Secret Manufacturer Commands Your Not Supposed to Know" or "Special Commands that get you Free Credit".... :-)
All these are, are fixed strings built into the modems firmware by the manufacturer of the modem, not the device.
Most USSD style SMS's however are actually parsed and acted upon inside the providers network, usually on some kind of application server that's attached to or works in tandem with the main network SMSC's
For example when I worked on the Yalla Bill pay system out in Qatar we routinely had to attend meetings at QTel (The state telcom provider) to explain our routing rules and test them to make sure they where implemented correctly.
When I worked as a network engineer for Orange UK, i would often have to take care of service requests from vending machine companies that used USSD in thier firmware to send messages to a router at the provider's SMSc center.
The other thing to consider too, is that many providers will charge you A LOT OF MONEY to undertake a project like this, even more if you want them to just intercept anything sent to a given number and be routed directly back to you for you to act on in your own servers.
Some providers do have SDK's that allow some kind of similar access, sometimes for free, sometimes for a cost. I remember when I worked for Orange, you could join the "Orange Partners Program" and that got you some nice SDK code and access to various inner network stuff (I built a big chunk of it :-D) that allowed you to do some interesting stuff, since the company became EE and now part of BT however, I honestly don't know if any of it is still in use.
You can also get a shortcode, and while that's not USSD style SMS, you can have SMS messages sent to the code and those messages will then get forwarded onto a TCP server endpoint that you control.
I believe Twilio have this feature available, and I know MBlox do beacuse that's who I use.
It's not genuine USSD, but you can easily set up a shortcode, have folks send SMS to it, then use an SMS send API to reply back to the sending number.
My MBlox account for example gives me a pay as you go HTTP SMS end point, where I send regular TCP based get requests with a set of parameters, and they turn those into SMS's and send them to the recipient. I pay roughly 2p UK per text inside the UK, and it cost me £50 UK to set it up.
On top of that, I got an inbound SMS number, which costs me a fixed £50 per year, and any SMS recieved by the number is sent to a TCP/WEB based endpoint I provide to them, and which I then do what's needed with the recieved SMS when it arrives.
My inbound is a normal full length number though, for a "shortcode" number which is what your picture shows, you'll likley have to pay extra for that.
That looks like it uses a short code for the interaction, the response is parsed to make a purchase of the 2GB via another API.
I have an application for various platforms. Let them be iOS, Android and Windows. In order to use a app, a monthly fee needs to be paid, but it just needs to be paid once in order to use all platforms. It is the same as with Spotify, so by paying once, every platform can be used.
According to the guidelines of Google and Apple, I need to offer In-App Purchases for the monthly fee. The system is connected to user accounts, which are managed by a server, which is in my control. I am storing the subscription data of users, so if a user uses the In-App Purchases on iOS, the information is transmitted to the central server in order to unlock the Android-App as well (in case it has been paid on another platform already)
The problem is the following scenario:
A user has a valid subscription which has been payed via Google Play. The iOS and Windows apps are unlocked as well. Now the user uninstalls the Android app, goes to the Google Play website and cancels the subscription. In the current scenario, I am not able to detect this and the subscription will be valid for all other platforms.
The question is:
Is there any pattern to circumvent this problem? Spotify and co are solving this issue as well, so there must be a solution for this
Well, the server that handles the authorization of the user (that is, your server) should query the Google Subscription API, to check if the current subscription is still valid. Each SubscriptionPurchase Resource contains information about when the subscription expires.
(see https://developers.google.com/android-publisher/api-ref/purchases/subscriptions)
For Apple, the same stuff applies: You will get a receipt, and with that receipt, you can query the server at any time to check if that subscription is still valid.
There is a slide which summarizes these points and the pitfalls very well: https://speakerdeck.com/rosapolis/the-recurring-nightmare-cross-platform-in-app-subscription-purchases
Bottom line: You won't be able to make that happen without a server that does the communication between the two stores. It comes with issues, though, as the slide shows.
Bonus: The talk from which the slides are taken is also on Youtube
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 php developer and for our project (mobile website developed using JQM) we need following functionality,
We need to send SMS to the customer and when customer reads the SMS we need to get the receipt in our site so we can store in database.
I have checked different SMS service api such as ,
Nexmo,plivo,tropo,Twilio,textlocal,clockworksms
Most of them providing facility of the Delivery Receipts such as "delivered/undelivered/QUEUED/ACCEPTD" which denotes delivery status but we want weather SMS is read.
Is this possible in mobile website?
I have checked some reference which gives idea about doing it with andriod app.
http://mobiforge.com/design-development/sms-messaging-android
Thanks.
I have worked with several of the SMS gateway APIs you mention and talked to a number of SMS service providers over 2+ years. The answer to your questions is: No, there is no such thing as a read receipt for SMS in general -- to the very best of my knowledge.
The API delivery status is all you get. And even that status is not 100% reliable. Text messages usually go over a number of hubs to reach their target and service quality and response reliability depend on these.
If you want to make sure the user received your message, you need to have them respond either on you website (with some code you supplied) or by responding to your SMS (in which case you would have to send your message from your own inbound number).
You can get a more definite answer when you do payments via SMS. In this case, there will be multi-step protocols involved that ensure completion of the entire messaging process.