SMS API Suggestions [closed]
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/804924
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I am looking for several SMS api. Basically to receive sms messages from mobile phones. Any suggestions?
Solution
If you looking for a sms service provider? You could try Clickatell
If you looking at creating a sms api, look at the Twitter API
OTHER TIPS
There are two basic "SMS API's": SMPP and HTTP.
The SMPP interface is a world-wide standard used internally by cellular telephone companies as well as between SMS send/receive clients and those telcos and SMS Aggregators. I recommend reading the SMPP v5.0 specfication. The general international support for SMPP claims "SMPP v3.4 compliance", but operationally, SMPP v5.0 is little changed from 3.4 except that the documentation is much better. The SMPP v3.4 specification document was a bit sparse, and the SMS Forum greatly enhanced the specification document with version 5.0.
SMPP is the specification that documents a means of sending and receiving SMS between two nodes: the ESME or client side, which would be you, and the MC or "telco" side, which would be the telephone company or SMS aggregator with which you contract to be hooked into the international SMS infrastructure.
SMPP is needed if you are implementing for high volume, i.e.: multiple SMS per second. The SMPP protocol is a binary PDU request/response pair protocol that runs over TCP. The fundamental request/response pair protocol is relatively simple, but the SMPP specification has many extensions, and in the real world things get pretty complicated due to the sheer number of extensions and inconsistency in how various features of SMPP are implemented by various software and telcos. Using SMPP requires that you have a daemon / service running continuously to provide the real time SMPP peer communications facility, and cannot be implemented purely within web app code. Integrating SMPP into a web application requires developing a daemon / service to handle the ESME part of the SMPP ESME / MC pair, and then providing some kind of RPC mechanism between that daemon and your web app.
An example of an SMPP Library is Logica. Logica was a pioneer in development of SMPP SMSC's, and has released this library as open source. One of the very few that run on Windows. Most open source SMPP code runs on *nix.
Alternatively, one can use third party SMPP Gateway software. By far the most widely adopted open source SMPP server is Kannel. I know several SMS aggregators that use it. As you are asking about PHP and I presume Linux, integrating with Kannel may be your best bet. I do warn you that it is non-trivial to configure. There are several non-open source ones available too such as the Ozeki Message Server and Nordic Messaging Technologies' Enterprise Message Server (EMG). Both of these offerings provide a more "turn-key" solution than Kannel and may be more appropriate for your uses.
For lower volume applications, it is much simpler to implement an HTTP interface to an SMS Aggregator. There are many SMS Aggregators out there offering HTTP interfaces. There is no universal standard, but nearly all offer a relatively simple GET/POST HTTP interface that is quite simple to integrate into a web app or any software environment where HTTP GET/POST is well supported. The SMS Aggregators also generally offer some file or XML based interface for higher volume sending. As the above reader mentioned, Clickatell is an example of an SMS Aggregator, they are considered "pioneers in the industry." Another example, one I've used is Routo Messaging.
Each SMS Aggregator has their own HTTP API, though most all of them support the same services. Also, most of them offer a few free test credits. I have written code to test with several of them, and it is a simple few hour process, generally less than an hour once you have written one.
You can use SMSSync, a free and open source SMS gateway for Android.
It will receive SMS on your Android Phone, then do a HTTP POST to a URL you specify within the app.
However, note services like these will have a throughput limitation (around 1 sms per 6 sec) and you have to manage the "hosting" of the "SMS gateway". If you could afford, you might want to consider virtual SMS providers such as Nexmo and Hoiio API.
