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Overview

The Skyetel Network can enable your phone numbers for SMS and MMS. This feature allows you to send and receive a SMS or MMS from/to mobile phone networks (like Verizon or T-Mobile). 

Getting Started

You can toggle the SMS & MMS enablement from within our portal in the phone number options menu:

You will be presented with three options:

E-mail

This method allows an incoming SMS or MMS to be converted to an email and sent to a specified address in our portal.

Phone Number

This method allows an incoming SMS or MMS to be forwarded to another phone number (generally a mobile phone)

Callback URL (POST or GET)

This method allows you to receive the SMS or MMS via a call from our API. Messages are sent to your provided callback URL with a JSON body that matches the fields required for sending an SMS or MMS shown below. You can expect at least tofrom, and text fields.

Info

Once your phone number is enabled for SMS, it will appear green in our Portal:

Limitations to SMS & MMS

While our network is able to enable and process SMS and MMS for almost all of our numbers, there are a few limitations to be aware of:

Toll Free Numbers 

Our network is not currently configured to SMS enable Toll Free numbers. 

SMS Enablement Requires the "State" of a number to be Healthy

Our network does the legwork to prepare a number for SMS enablement as soon as it it's phone number state becomes "Healthy". This insures that we do not accidentally prepare a number for SMS prior to it actually being on our network. 

SMS Enablement can take up to 24 hours

While most SMS enablements will be instant, there are edge cases where some phone numbers take longer than others to enable. 

SMS & MMS may only be sent via our API

Our network requires you to use our API to send any SMS or MMS. 

Short Code SMS is unsupported

Our network is unable to receive short code sms messages

1 Outbound SMS/MMS per Second

All Skyetel numbers are limited to 1 SMS or MMS per second

Ineligible Numbers

While most numbers on our network support SMS and MMS, some numbers do not. Specifically, non-US numbers (including Canada - sorry guys) can not be enabled for SMS. There are also a very small percentage of US numbers that are ineligible.

Sending an SMS or MMS through Skyetel API

SMS is sent by generating a specially-crafted request to the Skyetel SMS API and using an SID and Secret you have created for this purpose.

Generating and obtaining an SID and Secret

Skyetel allows you to create your own SID and Secret and later remove it when it is no longer used. These can be generated by visiting your Skyetel portal 

Sending a basic SMS or MMS

Here is an example of performing that request using the curl command-line tool:

Code Block
curl -X POST -v \
  -H "Content-type: application/json" \
  --user <SID>:<SECRET> \
  --data '{ "to": "15558001234", "text": "You are awesome" }' \
  https://sms.skyetel.com/v1/out?from=15558004321


Info

In the to field provide your the correct 11-digit destination phonenumber; and provide you SMS-enabled source phonenumber in the from field.

Required header fields
FieldData TypeExample Usage
Authorization"Basic" followed by a base64 encoding of a string that includes your SID and Secret separated by a colon ':'Authorization: Basic RXhhbXBsZTpFeGFtcGxl
Content-type"application/json" is required to verify the kind of data being sentContent-type: application/json
Required fields in data
FieldData TypeExample
to (required)11-digit phonenumber"15558004242"
text (required)String up to 1024 characters"Never gonna give you up; never gonna let you down"
media (optional)One or more accessible links to media files. Maximum of 1.5 MB total.[ "https://media.giphy.com/media/LXONhtCmN32YU/giphy-tumblr.gif", "https://media.giphy.com/media/tqI9aaw8dtoYM/giphy.gif" ]


Code Block
titleExample SMS Message Body
{
  "to": "15558001234",
  "text": "ARRR! THE SHIP BE SINKING!",
  "media": [ "https://media.giphy.com/media/3o6ZtihIv0pJqdp3H2/giphy.gif" ]
}
Required URL query fields
FieldData TypeExample Usage
from11-digit Skyetel message-enabled phonenumber from=15558004321
Troubleshooting 
Unauthorized Error
  • Check that your SID and Secret are correct
  • Check that the your 11-digit from phone number is accurate, in a GOOD lifecycle state, and SMS-enabled
  • Check that you have a positive Skyetel balance
Message not Received
  • Wait up to 3 minutes especially for MMS messages that include multiple attachments
  • Check that your media attachments are not large than 1.5MB
  • Make sure your media or attachment is a supported type
  • Check that your recipient phone number is correct and able to receive messages
  • Try a separate recipient phone number
  • Open a Skyetel portal support ticket
Message Received without Media
  • Make sure your recipient supports the media attachment that you are sending
Supported File Attachment Extensions


Media Files

.ogv
.oga
.ogx
.ogg
.avi
.mp4
.m4v
.mpg
.mpeg
.m1v
.mpv
.spx
.ogm
.mov
.qt
.webm
.wmv
.flv
.m4a
.m4p
.m4b
.m4r
.mp1
.mp2
.mp3
.m1a
.m2a
.mpa
.flac
.webm
.wav
.amr
.3ga
.3gp
.bmp
.dib
.gif
.jpg
.jpeg
.pjpeg
.png
.svg
.tiff
.tif
.webp
.ico

Attachments.json
.pdf
.rtf
.zip
.tar
.xml
.gz
.bz2
.gz
.smil
.js
.css
.csv
.html
.cal
.txt
.js
.vcf
.vcard
.wap
.xml


Postcards

Postcards is a UI for the Skyetel SMS & MMS application that we released as an open-source project. You can read all about that here:

https://bitbucket.org/skyetel/postcards-installer


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