Overview

Nexmo's SMS API allows you to send and receive text messages to users around the globe through simple RESTful APIs.

• Programmatically send and receive high volume of SMS anywhere in the world.
• Build apps that scale with the web technologies that you are already using.
• Send SMS with low latency and high delivery rates.
• Receive SMS for free using SMS-enabled local numbers in countries around the world.
• Only pay for what you use, nothing more.

Contents

In this document you can learn about:

• Nexmo SMS API Concepts
• How to Get Started with the SMS API
• Building Blocks
• Guides
• Tutorials
• Reference

Concepts

To use the Nexmo SMS API, you may need to familiarise yourself with:

• Authentication - Nexmo SMS API is authenticated with your account API Key and Secret.

• Webhooks - HTTP requests are made to your application web server so that you can act upon them. For example, the SMS API will send the delivery receipts and inbound SMS.

Getting Started

Send an SMS

Before you begin, Sign up for a Nexmo account  .

Using your Nexmo API_KEY and API_SECRET, available from the dashboard getting started page  , you can now send an SMS message:

curl -X "POST" "https://rest.nexmo.com/sms/json" \
  -d "from=Acme Inc" \
  -d "text=A text message sent using the Nexmo SMS API" \
  -d "to=TO_NUMBER" \
  -d "api_key=NEXMO_API_KEY" \
  -d "api_secret=NEXMO_API_SECRET"

$ npm install nexmo

const Nexmo = require('nexmo')

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

const from = 'Acme Inc'
const to = TO_NUMBER
const text = 'A text message sent using the Nexmo SMS API'

nexmo.message.sendSms(from, to, text)

$ compile 'com.nexmo:client:3.1.0'

AuthMethod auth = new TokenAuthMethod(NEXMO_API_KEY, NEXMO_API_SECRET);
NexmoClient client = new NexmoClient(auth);

SmsSubmissionResult[] responses = client.getSmsClient().submitMessage(new TextMessage(
        "Acme Inc",
        TO_NUMBER,
        "A text message sent using the Nexmo SMS API"));
for (SmsSubmissionResult response : responses) {
    System.out.println(response);
}

Install-Package Nexmo.Csharp.Client

var client = new Client(creds: new Nexmo.Api.Request.Credentials
{
    ApiKey = "NEXMO_API_KEY",
    ApiSecret = "NEXMO_API_SECRET"
});

var results = client.SMS.Send(request: new SMS.SMSRequest
{
    from = "Acme Inc",
    to = TO_NUMBER,
    text = "A test SMS sent using the Nexmo SMS API"
});

$ composer require nexmo/client

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

$message = $client->message()->send([
    'to' => TO_NUMBER,
    'from' => 'Acme Inc',
    'text' => 'A text message sent using the Nexmo SMS API'
]);

$ pip install nexmo

import nexmo

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

client.send_message({
    'from': 'Acme Inc',
    'to': TO_NUMBER,
    'text': 'A text message sent using the Nexmo SMS API',
})

$ gem install nexmo

require 'nexmo'

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

client.sms.send(
  from: 'Acme Inc',
  to: TO_NUMBER,
  text: 'A text message sent using the Nexmo SMS API'
)

Try it

Building Blocks

• Sending an SMS
• Receiving an SMS

Guides

• Custom Sender ID: sending messages using an alphabetical identifier to match with your brand
• Delivery receipts: how delivery receipts are produced and how to integrate them into your application
• Concatenation and Encoding: how multiple messages are concatenated to implement extended SMS and details of encoding schemes for messages
• SMPP access: bulk sending messages via the SMPP protocol
• Country specific features: what features are available in different countries

Reference

• SMS API Reference

Tutorials