What is Short Message Service

Scenarios

Scenario	Description
Verification code	Sends a verification code to a mobile phone number. Supports variable substitution for custom messages. Common scenarios: account registration, logon security alerts, password retrieval, payment authentication, identity verification, phone number binding, and quick logons.
Notification	Sends notifications to a mobile phone number. Supports variable substitution for custom messages. Common scenarios: system upgrades, maintenance, service activation, price adjustments, order confirmations, logistics updates, transaction confirmations, and payment notifications.
Promotional message	Sends a promotional message to a mobile phone number. Common scenarios: promotional events, business promotions, new product announcements, and member loyalty messages.

Benefits

Comprehensive coverage: Covers more than 200 countries and regions.
Fast and stable: Carrier-grade O&M and real-time monitoring ensure global delivery within seconds.
Easy integration: APIs and multi-language SDKs save development time and costs.
High concurrency: Efficient scheduling algorithms handle business pressure during peak hours.
Intelligent channel scheduling: Real-time carrier and MIIT mobile number location and portability data drives multi-channel scheduling with switching within one second for high delivery rates.
Message accumulation handling: Queue-based peak-load shifting manages task requests and reduces system pressure.
Automatic content classification: AI-powered review classifies message content for fine-grained management by business type and industry.
Audits for message withholding: Full-link carrier audits prevent message withholding. Complete sending logs support reconciliation and analytics.

Main features

Feature	Description
Channel management	Used for centralized management of channel instances and resource configurations.
Sending to international regions	Send messages to mobile phone numbers worldwide through an API, SDK, or the console. Developer guide for sending SMS to regions outside mainland China via API. Sending tasks: Schedule batch sending of system notifications or promotional messages. SenderID: The new API version supports sender ID registration rules. Sender ID registration process and rules.
Sending to the Chinese mainland	Send messages to mobile phone numbers in the Chinese mainland through an API, SDK, or the console. Important Due to policy restrictions, Go China is not available for new users. For accounts that already have this feature enabled, your SMS signatures must undergo identity verification. Unverified signatures may be forcibly deactivated, causing service disruptions. The requirements and procedures for identity verification have been sent to your Alibaba Cloud Message Center and associated email address. SMS signature: Provides an approval feature for SMS signatures. SMS content: Only supports creating Captcha or system notification content. Quick sending: Schedule batch sending of Captchas or system notifications.
Business statistics	The business statistics feature in the SMS console helps you track your sent messages. View details and data trends of SMS sending tasks. Query sending records by date, phone number, destination, and delivery status. View monthly bills, including standard and package fees, to quickly understand your spending. SMS log analysis (disabled by default) uses Simple Log Service for near-real-time query and analysis of service logs.
System Settings	Configure API documentation links, sending thresholds, low balance alerts, sending frequency, contacts, and default validity periods.

Getting started

Send your first test message in five minutes.

References

Document category	Document details
Developer documents	API overview - Call an API to use Short Message Service SDK Reference - Java, Python, PHP, Node.js, and more Receipt messages - Obtain related content by configuring receipt messages
User guides	Signature specifications - Application specifications for SMS signatures Template specifications - Application specifications for SMS templates Sender ID registration process - Register a sender ID for some destination countries or regions
Billing	Product billing - Detailed billing rules and price list
Troubleshooting	FAQ - Frequently asked questions and solutions Error codes - Error codes for sending text messages