Sending an SMS with Unicode

Nexmo's SMS API supports Unicode characters too, which you will need to use when communicating with customers in Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

To send an SMS that contains Unicode characters, replace the following variables in the example below:

Key Description
NEXMO_API_KEY You can find this in your Nexmo Dashboard.
NEXMO_API_SECRET You can find this in your Nexmo Dashboard.
NEXMO_BRAND_NAME The alphanumeric string that represents the name or number of the organization sending the message.
TO_NUMBER The number you are sending the SMS to, for example 447700900000.
  • cURL
  • Node.js
  • Java
  • .NET
  • PHP
  • Python
  • Ruby

    • Write the code

    Add the following to send-an-sms-with-unicode.sh:

    Copy to Clipboard 
    curl -X "POST" "https://rest.nexmo.com/sms/json" \
  -d "from=AcmeInc" \
  -d "to=$TO_NUMBER" \
  -d "text=こんにちは世界" \
  -d "type=unicode" \
  -d "api_key=$NEXMO_API_KEY" \
  -d "api_secret=$NEXMO_API_SECRET"

    View full source

    Run your code

    Save this file to your machine and run it: 

    sh send-an-sms-with-unicode.sh

    Prerequisites

    Install dependencies

    npm install nexmo
    Initialize your dependencies

    Create a file named send-unicode-sms.js and add the following code:

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    const Nexmo = require('nexmo')

const nexmo = new Nexmo({
  apiKey: NEXMO_API_KEY,
  apiSecret: NEXMO_API_SECRET
})

    View full source

    Write the code

    Add the following to send-unicode-sms.js:

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    const from = NEXMO_BRAND_NAME
const to = TO_NUMBER
const text = 'こんにちは世界'
const opts = {
  "type": "unicode"
}

nexmo.message.sendSms(from, to, text, opts, (err, responseData) => {
    if (err) {
        console.log(err);
    } else {
        if(responseData.messages[0]['status'] === "0") {
            console.log("Message sent successfully.");
        } else {
            console.log(`Message failed with error: ${responseData.messages[0]['error-text']}`);
        }
    }
})

    View full source

    Run your code

    Save this file to your machine and run it: 

    node send-unicode-sms.js

    Prerequisites

    Install dependencies

    Add the following to `build.gradle`:

    compile 'com.nexmo:client:5.2.1'
    Initialize your dependencies

    Create a class named SendUnicodeMessage and add the following code to the main method:

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    NexmoClient client = NexmoClient.builder().apiKey(NEXMO_API_KEY).apiSecret(NEXMO_API_SECRET).build();

    View full source

    Write the code

    Add the following to the main method of the SendUnicodeMessage class:

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    TextMessage message = new TextMessage("Acme Inc", TO_NUMBER, "Blue Öyster Cult \uD83E\uDD18", true);

SmsSubmissionResponse responses = client.getSmsClient().submitMessage(message);

for (SmsSubmissionResponseMessage responseMessage : responses.getMessages()) {
    System.out.println(message);
}

    View full source

    Run your code

    We can use the application plugin for Gradle to simplify the running of our application. Update your build.gradle with the following:

      apply plugin: 'application'
  mainClassName = project.hasProperty('main') ? project.getProperty('main') : ''

    Run the following gradle command to execute your application, replacing com.nexmo.quickstart.sms with the package containing SendUnicodeMessage:

    gradle run -Pmain=com.nexmo.quickstart.sms.SendUnicodeMessage

    Prerequisites

    Install dependencies

    Install-Package Nexmo.Csharp.Client
    Initialize your dependencies

    Create a file named SMSSender.cs and add the following code:

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    const string API_KEY = "NEXMO_API_KEY";
const string API_SECRET = "NEXMO_API_SECRET";

var client = new Client(creds: new Nexmo.Api.Request.Credentials(
    nexmoApiKey: API_KEY, nexmoApiSecret: API_SECRET));

    View full source

    Write the code

    Add the following to SMSSender.cs:

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    var messageType = "unicode";
var results = client.SMS.Send(new SMS.SMSRequest
{
    from = NEXMO_BRAND_NAME,
    to = TO_NUMBER,
    text = message,
    type = messageType
});

    View full source

    Prerequisites

    Install dependencies

    composer require nexmo
    Initialize your dependencies

    Create a file named send-unicode-sms.php and add the following code:

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    $basic  = new \Nexmo\Client\Credentials\Basic(NEXMO_API_KEY, NEXMO_API_SECRET);
$client = new \Nexmo\Client($basic);

    View full source

    Write the code

    Add the following to send-unicode-sms.php:

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    $message = $client->message()->send([
    'to' => TO_NUMBER,
    'from' => 'Acme Inc',
    'text' => 'こんにちは世界',
    'type' => 'unicode'
]);

    View full source

    Run your code

    Save this file to your machine and run it: 

    php -f send-unicode-sms.php

    Prerequisites

    Install dependencies

    pip install nexmo
    Initialize your dependencies

    Create a file named send-an-sms-with-unicode.py and add the following code:

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    import nexmo

client = nexmo.Client(key=NEXMO_API_KEY, secret=NEXMO_API_SECRET)

    View full source

    Write the code

    Add the following to send-an-sms-with-unicode.py:

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    client.send_message({
    'from': 'Acme Inc',
    'to': TO_NUMBER,
    'text': 'こんにちは世界',
    'type': 'unicode',
})

    View full source

    Run your code

    Save this file to your machine and run it: 

    python3 send-an-sms-with-unicode.py

    Prerequisites

    Install dependencies

    gem install nexmo
    Initialize your dependencies

    Create a file named send-unicode-sms.rb and add the following code:

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    client = Nexmo::Client.new(
  api_key: NEXMO_API_KEY,
  api_secret: NEXMO_API_SECRET
)

    View full source

    Write the code

    Add the following to send-unicode-sms.rb:

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    client.sms.send(
  from: 'Acme Inc',
  to: TO_NUMBER,
  text: 'こんにちは世界',
  type: "unicode"
)

    View full source

    Run your code

    Save this file to your machine and run it: 

    ruby send-unicode-sms.rb

    Try it out

    When you run the example above, the text message will be sent to the mobile number specified with the Unicode characters intact.

    Note that Unicode messages can only contain 70 characters, rather than the usual 160. There's more information about this on the help page

    Further reading