How to Send SMS Online as a Business or Developer
To send SMS online as a business or developer, you use a paid messaging platform or SMS API that hands your texts to mobile carriers and bills you per message. TemporarySMS isn't one of these: it only shows incoming texts, and if you just want to text a friend, see the free ways to send a text.
This guide covers what to sort out before your first campaign or app alert goes out: the platform, the sender, registration, consent and deliverability.
How SMS platforms and APIs work
An SMS provider sits between your software and the carriers. You either use its web dashboard to upload contacts and schedule campaigns, or call its API from your own code for one-off messages such as order updates and login codes. Twilio and Vonage are well-known examples among many providers.
- Your app sends a request with the recipient's number in international format, your sender and the text.
- The provider routes the message to the recipient's carrier.
- The carrier reports back, and the provider passes that status to you as a delivery receipt, usually through a webhook.
- If your number accepts replies, incoming messages reach your app the same way.
Pricing is per message segment and varies by destination country, often with extra fees for renting numbers and registering senders. One segment holds 160 characters from the standard GSM character set, but only 70 once the text includes an emoji or characters outside that set. Longer texts are split and billed as several segments.
Choosing what your texts come from
| Sender type | What the recipient sees | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Local long code | A regular-looking phone number | Supports replies and two-way conversations. In the US, business texting from these numbers (called 10DLC) needs registration first. |
| Toll-free number | A text-enabled toll-free number in the US or Canada | Requires a verification step before you start sending. Common for support and notifications. |
| Short code | A short number, often five or six digits | Built for high volume, such as large alert or marketing programs. Approval takes longer and costs more. |
| Alphanumeric sender ID | Your brand name, such as ACMESHOP | Supported in many countries but not in the US or Canada. Usually one-way, and some countries require the name to be registered in advance. |
Registration rules: 10DLC and other countries
Carriers want to know who is sending business texts and why. In the US, application-to-person (A2P) messages from standard 10-digit numbers fall under 10DLC rules: you register your business as a brand and describe each use case as a campaign, usually through your SMS provider. Unregistered traffic is likely to be filtered or blocked.
Other countries have their own systems. Some, such as India, require businesses to register sender names and message templates before they send. Your provider's country guides are the practical place to check current rules for each destination.
- Register before launch, since approval can take a while.
- Describe your real use case and give sample messages that match what you'll actually send.
- Keep your business name, website and contact details consistent across every form.
Consent, opt-out and message content
In many countries, including the US, marketing texts need the recipient's prior consent, and carriers expect consent for other business texts too. Laws differ, so check the rules where your recipients live.
- Collect clear opt-in: say what you'll send and roughly how often at the point where people give their number, and keep a record of when and how they agreed.
- Honor STOP: a reply such as STOP or UNSUBSCRIBE must end messages to that number. Send one short confirmation and nothing after it.
- Answer HELP: reply with your business name and a way to get support.
- Identify yourself: start messages with your brand so people know who's texting.
- Don't buy number lists: people on them never agreed to hear from you.
- Keep sensitive data out: texts show up on lock screens and shared phones, so leave out account numbers and health details.
Deliverability and testing
Before you send SMS online at volume, remember that carrier filters look at who is sending, how much and what the message says. A few habits help more of your texts arrive:
- Ramp up volume on new numbers gradually instead of sending to your whole list at once.
- Use links on your own domain; shared public link shorteners are often filtered.
- Remove numbers that bounce, and use a number lookup to drop landlines before a campaign.
- Watch delivery receipts and error codes for patterns by carrier or country.
For test runs, send to phones your team controls in each target country. If you're testing a sign-up flow with throwaway accounts, our page on testing SMS verification explains where public numbers fit. Never send real customer data or live codes to a public inbox.
Need to receive a code? Free numbers
Click a number to open its public inbox, enter the number on the signup form, then press Update Messages on the number's page to fetch the code.
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