Sending SMS from the web

Posted by Felix Okoli on Wednesday June 12, 2013 at 16:15:1:

Nowadays, you can send sms to any capable phone in the world from the web. There are many sms providers that offer web to sms services that allow your website to issue a http request that sends sms on demand. You can use it for a lot of things really.

Things you can do with a web to sms service
- Sending alerts to customers soon after purchase
- Send news to a group of people when there is an update
- Confirm phone numbers prior to registration of a mobile service
- Simply allow members of website to send sms across the world to contacts
- Send short answers to clients who have subscribed to a Q&A website
- Get sms alert when you receive payments from Paypal, Payza, Liberty reserve or other online payment by integrating it with your IPN script.

How does it really work?
Well most bulk sms providers do offer a http api service that allows clients to connect their website with a username and password from which their websites can request for sms to be sent on demand or a scheduled basis. So when a web visitors visits the intended website and performs the required action, the web script issues a request to the sms server and then an sms is sent from the web to the receiving phone number. It should be in international format such as +234 for Nigeria before the actual mobile phone number.

How to get started
Simply go through your bulk sms provider's website and look up for the http to sms command and integrate it to your website's active script that can issue the command. You can then do some simulation tests to see if it is working first before launching it for general use. It normally requires that form variables are sent to the remote sms account's server with the password before an sms is then sent from the web.