Send SMS from Google Sheets with Apps Script and your own phone

What you need

• A Google account and a sheet with a Phone column in E.164 form, a Message column, and an empty Sent column.
• A textbee account with the Android app installed on the phone that holds the SIM, and an API key from the dashboard.
• For replies: the forwarding relay from the Google Sheets forwarding page, or a Make, Zapier or n8n flow that appends a row.
• The textbee app on the phone. Download the app, then create an API key in the dashboard.

Send SMS from Google Sheets

The script never sees the API key in a cell. It reads the key from a script property, sends one row at a time, and records what it sent.

1. 1

   Prepare the sheet

   Use a header row with Phone, Name, Message and Sent. Numbers need the country code, for example +12015550123. Format the Phone column as plain text so Sheets keeps the plus sign.

2. 2

   Store the API key

   Open Extensions, then Apps Script. In Project Settings, add a script property named TEXTBEE_API_KEY with your key.

3. 3

   Paste the script

   Replace the contents of Code.gs with the script below and save.

   Code.gs

   Copy

   const SEND_URL = 'https://api.textbee.dev/api/v1/gateway/send-sms'
   
   function onOpen() {
     SpreadsheetApp.getUi().createMenu('textbee').addItem('Send to unsent rows', 'sendUnsentRows').addToUi()
   }
   
   function sendSms(recipient, message) {
     const apiKey = PropertiesService.getScriptProperties().getProperty('TEXTBEE_API_KEY')
     const response = UrlFetchApp.fetch(SEND_URL, {
       method: 'post',
       contentType: 'application/json',
       headers: { 'x-api-key': apiKey },
       payload: JSON.stringify({ recipients: [recipient], message: message }),
       muteHttpExceptions: true,
     })
     if (response.getResponseCode() !== 200) throw new Error(response.getContentText())
     return JSON.parse(response.getContentText()).data.smsBatchId || 'sent'
   }
   
   function sendUnsentRows() {
     const sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet()
     const rows = sheet.getDataRange().getValues()
     const header = rows[0]
     const phone = header.indexOf('Phone')
     const message = header.indexOf('Message')
     const sent = header.indexOf('Sent')
     for (let i = 1; i < rows.length; i++) {
       if (rows[i][sent] || !rows[i][phone]) continue
       const batchId = sendSms(String(rows[i][phone]), String(rows[i][message]))
       sheet.getRange(i + 1, sent + 1).setValue(batchId)
       Utilities.sleep(4000) // the phone sends roughly 15 texts a minute
     }
   }

4. 4

   Run it

   Reload the sheet and a textbee menu appears. Choose Send to unsent rows. Google asks for permission the first time. Each sent row gets its batch id in the Sent column. For scheduled sends, add a time-driven trigger on sendUnsentRows in the Triggers panel.

Receive SMS in Google Sheets

An Apps Script web app cannot receive the textbee webhook directly: it answers a POST with a redirect and cannot check the signature. Two routes work.

1. 1

   Use the forwarding relay

   The Google Sheets forwarding page has a small relay that verifies the textbee signature and posts to an Apps Script web app that appends the row. It is tested and keeps every cell as plain text.

2. 2

   Or use a workflow tool

   Register the textbee webhook in Make, Zapier or n8n, then add that tool’s Google Sheets module with sender, message and receivedAt mapped to columns. Nothing to host.

Ask your AI agent to set it up

The prompt below carries the endpoints, the payloads and the Google Sheets details from this page. Change the line that starts with What I want, paste the prompt into your agent, and it walks you through the setup with your own field names and numbers.

I want to connect textbee to Google Sheets. textbee is an SMS gateway that sends and receives SMS through my own Android phone. Help me set it up step by step.

Facts about the textbee API. Use only these. Do not invent endpoints or fields.
- Send an SMS: POST https://api.textbee.dev/api/v1/gateway/send-sms with the header x-api-key: <TEXTBEE_API_KEY> and a JSON body like {"recipients": ["+12015550123"], "message": "Hello"}. recipients must be a JSON array of E.164 numbers, even for one number. Optional fields: deviceId, simSubscriptionId, scheduledAt (ISO 8601, in the future). The response is {"data": {"success": true, "smsBatchId": "..."}}.
- Check delivery or read replies: GET https://api.textbee.dev/api/v1/gateway/messages with the same header. Filters: direction=received, smsBatchId=<id from the send>, from and to as ISO timestamps. Each row has a status such as sent, delivered, failed or received.
- Receive an SMS: textbee posts JSON to a webhook URL I register in the dashboard. A MESSAGE_RECEIVED delivery has these top-level fields: smsId, message, deviceId, webhookSubscriptionId, webhookEvent, idempotencyKey, sender, receivedAt. The header X-Signature holds an HMAC-SHA256 hex digest of the raw body, keyed with the signing secret I set on the webhook. Retries reuse the same idempotencyKey.
- Limits: One Android phone sends roughly 10 to 15 messages a minute. Text only, no MMS. Messages over 160 characters are split into segments.

What I want: Send a text to every row in my Google Sheet that has not been sent yet, from a menu and on a schedule, and log replies to another sheet.

Google Sheets specifics you should know:
- Apps Script sends with UrlFetchApp.fetch using method post, contentType application/json, a headers object and a JSON string payload.
- Store the key in PropertiesService script properties, never in a cell.
- A single execution stops after 6 minutes and UrlFetch has a daily call quota, so batch large sheets and pace calls to the phone.
- An Apps Script web app cannot receive the signed textbee webhook directly; use the relay from textbee.dev/forward-sms/google-sheets or a workflow tool.

Give me:
1. The exact clicks and field values in Google Sheets, using its real field labels.
2. The request body or field mapping, with placeholders for my API key and phone numbers. Never ask me to paste the real key into this chat.
3. A test with one number and what a correct result looks like.
4. The three most likely failure causes and how to check each one.

Automations that work well

Appointment list

Phone, Name and Time columns, and a Message column built with a formula such as ="Hi "&B2&", see you at "&C2&"." The script sends whatever the formula produces.

Event-day blast

Fill the sheet the day before, then let a time-driven trigger send the rows at the hour you pick.

Order status from an export

Paste the daily export from your shop into the sheet, keep only the rows that changed, and run the menu item.

Reply log

A second sheet fed by the forwarding relay, so replies to the reminders sit next to the list that sent them.

Why teams move Google Sheets SMS to their own phone

The bill

Sheets add-ons that send SMS resell a cloud provider, so every row costs a per-message fee plus the add-on subscription. The script on this page sends through a flat textbee plan.

The reply rate

Reminders from the number the recipient already has saved get answered. Texts from a rented number get ignored or filtered.

Your data stays in your sheet

No add-on reads the sheet, no provider stores the list. The script runs in your Google account and the messages sit in your textbee account.

A cloud SMS provider in Google Sheets vs textbee in Google Sheets

Per-message prices by provider and country, with sources and dates, are on the provider comparison pages.

What works and what does not

What Google Sheets charges

Apps Script is free with a Google account. Consumer accounts get 20,000 URL Fetch calls a day, and each script execution stops after 6 minutes. developers.google.com, checked on September 25, 2026. textbee itself charges a flat monthly plan with messages included; see pricing.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. developers.google.com, checked on September 25, 2026
2. developers.google.com: UrlFetchApp, checked on September 25, 2026
3. developers.google.com: Installable triggers, checked on September 25, 2026

Read next

• Log received SMS to Google Sheets
• Bulk announcements from your own Android number
• Appointment reminder text messages from your own Android number (SMS API)
• Home Assistant SMS notifications: send and receive texts through your own phone
• Node-RED SMS: send and receive texts with the http request and http in nodes
• All integrations