How to Send an SMS from Your Android Phone with Python

Use a short Python script and your Android phone to send real SMS messages: no Twilio, no carrier contracts. Just textbee, requests, and a small script.

textbee team

March 21, 20262 min read

Most SMS APIs charge you per message and route texts through shared short codes your recipients don't recognize. With textbee, the message leaves from your Android phone: your number, your SIM, your carrier rate. Python just tells it what to send.

Here's the entire flow: install the textbee app on your Android device, grab an API key, and run a script. That's it.

Prerequisites

textbee app installed and linked to your account: download here, then follow the quickstart
Your device ID and API key from the textbee dashboard
Python 3 with requests installed (pip install requests)
Android 15+ users: SMS permissions need an extra step. See the permissions guide

The script

Python

import os
import requests

API_KEY = os.environ["TEXTBEE_API_KEY"]

def send_sms(to: str, body: str) -> dict:
    resp = requests.post(
        "https://api.textbee.dev/api/v1/gateway/send-sms",
        json={"recipients": [to], "message": body},
        headers={"x-api-key": API_KEY},
        timeout=30,
    )
    resp.raise_for_status()
    return resp.json()

result = send_sms("+15551234567", "Hello from Python")
print(result)

Set TEXTBEE_DEVICE_ID and TEXTBEE_API_KEY as environment variables (don't hard-code them). A .env file with python-dotenv works too.

What the API returns

A successful call means your message was accepted and queued for the device to process (not that delivery to the handset is already finished). The body is wrapped in data, for example:

JSON

{
  "data": {
    "success": true,
    "message": "SMS added to queue for processing",
    "smsBatchId": "…",
    "recipientCount": 1
  }
}

After you send: open the textbee dashboard to see each message move through states like sent, delivered, or failed. If you have webhooks configured, you can get notified there too.

If something is wrong (device offline, bad API key, invalid payload), you get a non-2xx HTTP status and a JSON error body with "success": false, so keep using raise_for_status() or inspect the body on failure.

A few things to keep in mind

Phone numbers: You can use local numbers without a country code when sending within the same country (for example, a 10-digit national number). We still recommend E.164 when you can (+ then country code and number, e.g. +15551234567), especially for international or automated sends, so formatting stays unambiguous.

Multiple recipients: Pass more numbers in the recipients array. One API call, multiple messages, same SIM.

Don't spam: These are real messages from your real phone number. Make sure recipients have opted in. If you're unsure about the rules, the SMS compliance checklist is a good starting point.

Unlike traditional SMS gateways that charge per message, textbee works with your existing carrier plan. Check out the pricing to see what's included.