When a company wants to send SMS messages automatically as part of its own system - such as notifications, authentication messages or reminders - a technical interface is needed: SMS Gateway i.e. SMS API. How does it work and how to choose the right service?
What is the SMS Gateway?
SMS Gateway is a messaging service that allows you to send SMS messages from your company's own applications and software and receive SMS messages from mobile phones as a return message to the system. In practice, it allows SMS messages to be sent and received programmatically.
Modern SMS Gateway is a cloud-based system that routes SMS messages through various interfaces to the mobile network and from the mobile network back to corporate applications.
The company integrates its own system (e.g. CRM, ERP or even e-commerce) with the SMS Gateway interface, so that messages can be sent automatically based on specific events. The interface is typically provided by HTTP or REST API form.
Efficient interfaces combined with high capacity ensure that businesses can interact with customers quickly and reliably. The SMS Gateway can reach a large number of people quickly, even if those people's phones are on different mobile networks and in different countries around the world.
Read also: How to integrate SMS gateway with Python or Node.js?
What is the SMS Gateway for?
The SMS Gateway is a key component in many business-critical processes. Here are some typical uses:
2FA / MFA identification - multi-factor authentication via SMS is an increasingly common and trusted means of increasing security.
Notifications and alerts - for example, server crashes, integration errors or delivery confirmations can be quickly and securely transmitted directly to the user's phone.
Customer service and marketing - appointment reminders, customer satisfaction surveys (e.g. NPS) and promotional messages reach customers quickly and directly.
Logistics and monitoring - carriers and online shops can communicate about the progress of your shipment, delivery times or delays.
What to consider when choosing an SMS Gateway?
To access the SMS Gateway, you must first choose your SMS provider. There are many different platforms available today, each offering a range of communication solutions. Quriiri offers an easy-to-use SMS service in a browser and SMS Gateway with interfaces that allow you to easily integrate SMS messages into your company's own systems.
When choosing an SMS Gateway, you should consider at least the following details:
1. Capacity
Capacity is the number of text messages that can be sent per second. The higher the capacity, the more messages you can send to customers at the same time. Check that your provider can deliver the required number of messages with certainty.
Quriiri is designed to scale with message volumes, so messages are delivered to phones quickly and securely.
2. GDPR compliance
Introduced in 2018, the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies to all businesses operating in the EU. Compliance with the GDPR is the responsibility of each company, so it is important to choose a partner who will take care of their part of the GDPR compliance. Sending text messages requires the collection and storage of personal data. One factor to consider is the location of servers and where they are stored. Quriiri uses servers located within the EU to store data, which means that the data always remains within the EU. In addition, when you store personal data in Quriiri's system, it is always under your company's control.
3. Integrability
Companies are often looking for an SMS Gateway that can be integrated as easily as possible into their own systems. Quriir's SMS Gateway offers a number of integration options through versatile and powerful interfaces.
The most commonly used interface is the HTTP interface, which enables highly secure sending and receiving of messages using encrypted HTTP calls. In order to use the Quriir HTTP interface, the parameters in the interface calls must comply with the Quriir documentation. Quriir's OpenHTTP interface, on the other hand, allows the use of fully customized parameters in interface calls.
Systems that cannot send HTTP calls, but can send email messages, can take advantage of Quriirin Email to SMS -interface. It converts email messages into SMS messages and sends them to the customer's phone.
In addition to the above options, we also offer an interface based on the SMPP (Short Message Peer-to-Peer) protocol, an open and standardised interface for sending and receiving short messages.
If you would like to read the documentation in more detail, you can find more information on. here.
4. Global connections
If your company sends messages to different countries, you should check your provider's global messaging connections. Quriiri works with operators and other trusted messaging partners, so with Quriiri you can reach people around the world, through a single interface.
5. Customer support
Sometimes situations may arise where you need help with a problem or answers to questions. Different service providers offer different levels of customer support - and many foreign providers do not offer help in Finnish. At Quriir, we always want to be there for our customers, so our domestic support helps in every situation. We also want to listen to our customers' wishes and develop our service according to them.
6. Reporting and monitoring
Statistics and reports on messages are an essential part of regular SMS messaging. How many messages were sent and how many were successfully delivered? Check that the SMS service provides a good reporting tool.
With Quriir's real-time tracking, you can see how many messages have been sent and received, and what percentage of messages have been delivered to your phone, over the desired time period. A versatile message log allows you to monitor the situation at the level of a single mobile number and filter the logs using a wide range of criteria. You can browse reports and statistics from the Quriir interface or export them to an Excel/csv file.
When choosing an SMS provider, it is good to consider several factors such as capacity, GDPR, integrability, connectivity, customer support, reporting and monitoring features. .
Quriiri is also different from many other service providers in that we have developed easy-to-use applications, such as group message, Dialogue (for example, to conduct SMS surveys) and SMS-varmennus, all of which make SMS messaging effortless and can also be exploited through the interface.
Quriiri is suitable for companies and organisations of all sizes, regardless of their industry. We are happy to provide more information and our experts will advise you on how to integrate.
