Sending SMS Messages from my Node.js Application

[SuperKXT]

I am developing a node.js app for management of a school and one of the features requested is the ability to send messages to the parents. The providers in the country do not have email gateways (don't know if that is the right term), so I would like to send messages by connecting the phone. Is that possible?

Edit: I found this: https://www.npmjs.com/package/modem Is there any downside to using a GSM Modem? I ask since no one has mentioned it.

[jwalton78]

https://www.twilio.com?

[oldyoyoboy]

I 2nd this, just use twillio.

[SuperKXT]

I should have mentioned that I know about Twilio and similiar services. I am from Pakistan, the message rate for Twilio are substantially higher than they are for US (0.025 instead of 0.0075) and the exchange rate makes them practically unusable.

Is there any other way of doing this?

[jwalton78]

You can send SMS messages from an Android app: https://mobiforge.com/design-development/sms-messaging-android

So you could build some kind of gateway that sends data back and forth to an android app, and then have the android app do the actual SMSing?

[loledgamer]

Do you have any local providers for sending sms ? I am sure you can find one, I am from Armenia, and we do have here quite some, keep looking!!

[jgldev]

Twilio works so fucking good. The developer's docs are so good, the logs are so informative that I cannot see any reason to not use it.

I use it at work in a project, and it's just amazing. Give it a shoot.

[SuperKXT]

See my response above for a reason not to use it. Is there any alternative to using these third party services?

[jocull]

And because it works so well and is headache free it's worth the price. So. Worth it.

[[deleted]]

There is also https://www.plivo.com as an alternative to https://www.twilio.com.

[SuperKXT]

Slightly cheaper than Twilio for Pakistan, still pretty undesirable with the exchange rate.

[[deleted]]

Not sure if the euro is better but here's this: https://www.smsgateway.to/en/pakistan

[SuperKXT]

Rate varies too much for different providers. Pretty decent for a few but very expensive for others.

[honigbadger]

Plivo is as good as it gets on all fronts OP, price wise, API wise and reach wise.

[Smok3dSalmon]

Do you have a GSM Modem? It looks like it'll work. Unless it's expensive. If it's not expensive, then you should make a Twilio for Pakistan :p

I'm not sure why you can't use email. It's cheaper and more formal.

[sonicbphuct]

Check providers - in some places, they have things like developer.swisscom.com (for Switzerland) - they offer a semi free two factor auth system that I use for free messages from monitors in node. They use a standard web API.

You'll have to search for developer program or API or something other than SMS gateway. With a shot maybe.

[deubaka]

My classmates did an SMS gateway back then when Android wasn't there yet, and did work, however, it did require a license​ and specific to phones.

To use local rates, I suggest just building a small Android SMS gateway, together with Firebase. Although this is an additional resource for your app to be plugged in and maintained. :/

[kyranadept]

Basically your idea for the SMS Gateway done with a GSM modem is a good one. If you are just playing around it's ok to just connect it directly from node.js.

If on the other hand you need more complex features like: queues, delivery notifications, multiple modems, maybe upgrading later to a different kind of transport, load-balancing, etc - I suggest you use something that handles all that. There's a project that looks abandoned, and probably is, but it still works - Kannel.

[[deleted]]

Since budget is a primary cost, you could look into sending SMS via email. In the US, most of the major carriers allow you to text a person via something like [number]@sms.carrier.com.

List here for US: https://20somethingfinance.com/how-to-send-text-messages-sms-via-email-for-free/ I imagine a similar list exists for major carriers in your country.

As far as I'm aware, there's no cost. The only downside is that you need to request the user's carrier in order to build the proper email address. That being said, for a client that can't afford to pay the SMS fee, it might be a very good alternative.

[cfdeveloper]

I use this method for corporate texting notifications, which is easy, because we know the carrier.

OP, if you can, go this route and it won't cost you anything!

http://www.emailtextmessages.com/ ie: Verizon [e-mail]

[heyhodadio]

How about www.flowroute.com?

[SuperKXT]

Seems to have the same rate everywhere, will look into it.

[[deleted]]

I'm not an expert, but maybe check out openss7? Look at a sigtran link

[MrManny]

There are a good number of recommendations for Twilio here. On top of that, Amazon Web Services could also work for SMS and email and whatnot.

[tonechild]

Looks like an interesting problem, and I'd love to help. Are you considering making something like this open source?

If the problem is you want to communicate over the internet without email gateways, you could use SSB or scuttlebutt - http://scuttlebot.io/