Sending SMS messages using Amazon SNS
This section describes how to send SMS messages using Amazon SNS, including publishing to a topic, subscribing phone numbers to topics, setting attributes on messages, and publishing directly to mobile phones.
Publishing to a topic
You can publish a single SMS message to many phone numbers at once by subscribing those phone numbers to an Amazon SNS topic. An SNS topic is a communication channel to which you can add subscribers and then publish messages to all of those subscribers. A subscriber receives all messages published to the topic until you cancel the subscription, or until the subscriber opts out of receiving SMS messages from your Amazon account.
Sending a message to a topic (console)
To create a topic
Complete the following steps if you don't already have a topic to which you want to send SMS messages.
Sign in to the Amazon SNS console
. -
In the console menu, choose an Amazon Region that supports SMS messaging.
-
In the navigation pane, choose Topics.
-
On the Topics page, choose Create topic.
-
On the Create topic page, under Details, do the following:
-
For Type, choose Standard.
-
For Name, enter a topic name.
-
(Optional) For Display name, enter a custom prefix for your SMS messages. When you send a message to the topic, Amazon SNS prepends the display name followed by a right angle bracket (>) and a space. Display names are not case sensitive, and Amazon SNS converts display names to uppercase characters. For example, if the display name of a topic is
MyTopic
and the message isHello World!
, the message appears as:MYTOPIC> Hello World!
-
-
Choose Create topic. The topic's name and Amazon Resource Name (ARN) appear on the Topics page.
To create an SMS subscription
You can use subscriptions to send an SMS message to multiple recipients by publishing the message only once to your topic.
Note
When you start using Amazon SNS to send SMS messages, your Amazon account is in the SMS sandbox. The SMS sandbox provides a safe environment for you to try Amazon SNS features without risking your reputation as an SMS sender. While your account is in the SMS sandbox, you can use all of the features of Amazon SNS, but you can send SMS messages only to verified destination phone numbers. For more information, see Getting started with the Amazon SNS SMS sandbox.
Sign in to the Amazon SNS console
. -
In the navigation pane, choose Subscriptions.
-
On the Subscriptions page, choose Create subscription.
-
On the Create subscription page, under Details, do the following:
-
For Topic ARN, enter or choose the Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of the topic to which you want to send SMS messages.
-
For Protocol, choose SMS.
-
For Endpoint, enter the phone number that you want to subscribe to your topic.
-
-
Choose Create subscription. The subscription information appears on the Subscriptions page.
To add more phone numbers, repeat these steps. You can also add other types of subscriptions, such as email.
To send a message
When you publish a message to a topic, Amazon SNS attempts to deliver that message to every phone number that is subscribed to the topic.
-
In the Amazon SNS console
, on the Topics page, choose the name of the topic to which you want to send SMS messages. -
On the topic details page, choose Publish message.
-
On the Publish message to topic page, under Message details, do the following:
-
For Subject, keep the field blank unless your topic contains email subscriptions and you want to publish to both email and SMS subscriptions. Amazon SNS uses the Subject that you enter as the email subject line.
-
(Optional) For Time to Live (TTL), enter a number of seconds that Amazon SNS has to send your SMS message to any mobile application endpoint subscribers.
-
-
Under Message body, do the following:
-
For Message structure, choose Identical payload for all delivery protocols to send the same message to all protocol types subscribed to your topic. Or, choose Custom payload for each delivery protocol to customize the message for subscribers of different protocol types. For example, you can enter a default message for phone number subscribers and a custom message for email subscribers.
-
For Message body to send to the endpoint, enter your message, or your custom messages per delivery protocol.
If your topic has a display name, Amazon SNS adds it to the message, which increases the message length. The display name length is the number of characters in the name plus two characters for the right angle bracket (>) and the space that Amazon SNS adds.
For information about the size quotas for SMS messages, see Publishing SMS messages to a mobile phone using Amazon SNS.
-
-
(Optional) For Message attributes, add message metadata such as timestamps, signatures, and IDs.
-
Choose Publish message. Amazon SNS sends the SMS message and displays a success message.
Sending a message to a topic (Amazon SDKs)
To use an Amazon SDK, you must configure it with your credentials. For more information, see The shared config and credentials files in the Amazon SDKs and Tools Reference Guide.
The following code example shows how to:
Create an Amazon SNS topic.
Subscribe phone numbers to the topic.
Publish SMS messages to the topic so that all subscribed phone numbers receive the message at once.
Publishing SMS messages to a mobile phone using Amazon SNS
You can use Amazon SNS to send SMS messages directly to a mobile phone without subscribing the phone number to an Amazon SNS topic.
Note
Subscribing phone numbers to a topic is useful if you want to send one message to multiple phone numbers at once. For instructions on publishing an SMS message to a topic, see Publishing to a topic.
When you send a message, you can control whether the message is optimized for cost or reliable delivery. You can also specify a sender ID or origination number. If you send the message programmatically using the Amazon SNS API or the Amazon SDKs, you can specify a maximum price for the message delivery.
Each SMS message can contain up to 140 bytes, and the character quota depends on the encoding scheme. For example, an SMS message can contain:
-
160 GSM characters
-
140 ASCII characters
-
70 UCS-2 characters
If you publish a message that exceeds the size quota, Amazon SNS sends it as multiple messages, each fitting within the size quota. Messages are not cut off in the middle of a word, but instead on whole-word boundaries. The total size quota for a single SMS publish action is 1,600 bytes.
When you send an SMS message, you specify the phone number using the E.164 format, a standard phone numbering structure used for international telecommunication. Phone numbers that follow this format can have a maximum of 15 digits along with the prefix of a plus sign (+) and the country code. For example, a US phone number in E.164 format appears as +1XXX5550100.
Sending a message (console)
Sign in to the Amazon SNS console
. -
In the console menu, choose an Amazon Region that supports SMS messaging.
-
In the navigation pane, choose Text messaging (SMS).
-
On the Mobile text messaging (SMS) page, choose Publish text message.
-
On the Publish SMS message page, for Message type, choose one of the following:
-
Promotional – Non-critical messages, such as marketing messages.
-
Transactional – Critical messages that support customer transactions, such as one-time passcodes for multi-factor authentication.
Note
This message-level setting overrides your account-level default message type. You can set an account-level default message type from the Text messaging preferences section of the Mobile text messaging (SMS) page.
For pricing information for promotional and transactional messages, see Worldwide SMS Pricing
. -
-
For Destination phone number, enter the phone number to which you want to send the message.
-
For Message, enter the message to send.
-
(Optional) Under Origination identities, specify how to identify yourself to your recipients:
-
To specify a Sender ID, type a custom ID that contains 3-11 alphanumeric characters, including at least one letter and no spaces. The sender ID is displayed as the message sender on the receiving device. For example, you can use your business brand to make the message source easier to recognize.
Support for sender IDs varies by country and/or region. For example, messages delivered to U.S. phone numbers will not display the sender ID. For the countries and regions that support sender IDs, see Supported countries and regions for Amazon SNS SMS messaging.
If you do not specify a sender ID, one of the following is displayed as the originating identity:
-
In countries that support long codes, the long code is shown.
-
In countries where only sender IDs are supported, NOTICE is shown.
This message-level sender ID overrides your default sender ID, which you set on the Text messaging preferences page.
-
-
To specify an Origination number, enter a string of 5-14 numbers to display as the sender's phone number on the receiver's device. This string must match an origination number that is configured in your Amazon Web Services account for the destination country. The origination number can be a 10DLC number, toll-free number, person-to-person long code, or short codes. For more information, see Origination identities for SMS messages.
If you don't specify an origination number, Amazon SNS selects an origination number to use for the SMS text message, based on your Amazon Web Services account configuration.
-
-
If you're sending SMS messages to recipients in India, expand Country-specific attributes, and specify the following attributes:
-
Entity ID – The entity ID or principal entity (PE) ID for sending SMS messages to recipients in India. This ID is a unique string of 1–50 characters that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) provides to identify the entity that you registered with the TRAI.
-
Template ID – The template ID for sending SMS messages to recipients in India. This ID is a unique, TRAI-provided string of 1–50 characters that identifies the template that you registered with the TRAI. The template ID must be associated with the sender ID that you specified for the message.
For more information on sending SMS messages to recipients in India, India sender ID registration process in the Amazon End User Messaging SMS User Guide.
-
-
Choose Publish message.
Tip
To send SMS messages from an origination number, you can also choose Origination numbers in the Amazon SNS console navigation panel. Choose an origination number that includes SMS in the Capabilities column, and then choose Publish text message.
Sending a message (Amazon SDKs)
To send an SMS message using one of the Amazon SDKs, use the API operation in that SDK
that corresponds to the Publish
request in the Amazon SNS API. With this
request, you can send an SMS message directly to a phone number. You can also use the
MessageAttributes
parameter to set values for the following attribute
names:
AWS.SNS.SMS.SenderID
-
A custom ID that contains 3–11 alphanumeric characters or hyphen (-) characters, including at least one letter and no spaces. The sender ID appears as the message sender on the receiving device. For example, you can use your business brand to help make the message source easier to recognize.
Support for sender IDs varies by country or region. For example, messages delivered to US phone numbers don't display the sender ID. For a list of the countries or regions that support sender IDs, see Supported countries and regions for Amazon SNS SMS messaging.
If you don't specify a sender ID, a long code appears as the sender ID in supported countries or regions. For countries or regions that require an alphabetic sender ID, NOTICE appears as the sender ID.
This message-level attribute overrides the account-level attribute
DefaultSenderID
, which you can set using theSetSMSAttributes
request. AWS.MM.SMS.OriginationNumber
-
A custom string of 5–14 numbers, which can include an optional leading plus sign (
+
). This string of numbers appears as the sender's phone number on the receiving device. The string must match an origination number that's configured in your Amazon account for the destination country. The origination number can be a 10DLC number, toll-free number, person-to-person (P2P) long code, or short code. For more information, see Phone numbers in the Amazon End User Messaging SMS User Guide..If you don't specify an origination number, Amazon SNS chooses an origination number based on your Amazon account configuration.
AWS.SNS.SMS.MaxPrice
-
The maximum price in USD that you're willing to spend to send the SMS message. If Amazon SNS determines that sending the message would incur a cost that exceeds your maximum price, it doesn't send the message.
This attribute has no effect if your month-to-date SMS costs have already exceeded the quota set for the
MonthlySpendLimit
attribute. You can set theMonthlySpendLimit
attribute using theSetSMSAttributes
request.If you're sending the message to an Amazon SNS topic, the maximum price applies to each message delivery to each phone number that is subscribed to the topic.
AWS.SNS.SMS.SMSType
-
The type of message that you're sending:
-
Promotional
(default) – Non-critical messages, such as marketing messages. -
Transactional
– Critical messages that support customer transactions, such as one-time passcodes for multi-factor authentication.
This message-level attribute overrides the account-level attribute
DefaultSMSType
, which you can set using theSetSMSAttributes
request. -
AWS.MM.SMS.EntityId
-
This attribute is required only for sending SMS messages to recipients in India.
This is your entity ID or principal entity (PE) ID for sending SMS messages to recipients in India. This ID is a unique string of 1–50 characters that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) provides to identify the entity that you registered with the TRAI.
AWS.MM.SMS.TemplateId
-
This attribute is required only for sending SMS messages to recipients in India.
This is your template for sending SMS messages to recipients in India. This ID is a unique, TRAI-provided string of 1–50 characters that identifies the template that you registered with the TRAI. The template ID must be associated with the sender ID that you specified for the message.
Sending a message
The following code examples show how to publish SMS messages using Amazon SNS.