Add SMS to a Lovable app: send and receive texts through your own phone

What you need

• A Lovable project. Secrets, custom connectors and custom MCP servers work on every Lovable plan, including Free.
• A textbee account with the Android app installed on the phone that holds the SIM, and an API key from the dashboard.
• A second phone, or a friend, to text the textbee phone when you test replies.
• The textbee app on the phone. Download the app, then create an API key in the dashboard.

Send SMS from Lovable

Lovable writes the code. Your job is the key and the prompt. In projects created since May 2026, Lovable puts API calls in a TanStack Start server function. Older React and Vite projects get an edge function instead. Both run on the server, so the key never reaches the browser.

1. 1

   Save the key as a secret

   Open More, then Settings, then Secrets, and click Add secret. Lovable also asks for a key through a secure input in the chat when its code needs one. Names that start with VITE_ are rejected, because those end up in the browser bundle.

   Field	Value
   Name	TEXTBEE_API_KEY
   Value	Your key from the textbee dashboard

2. 2

   Paste the prompt

   Copy the prompt further down this page, change the What I want line to your feature, and send it in the project chat. Lovable plans the change, writes the server function and wires a button or an event to it.

3. 3

   Check the code it wrote

   The core of the server code is one fetch call. If you see the key in a file under src/components or in anything the browser loads, ask Lovable to move the call into a server function.

   send-sms.ts

   Copy

   export async function sendSms(to: string, message: string) {
     const res = await fetch('https://api.textbee.dev/api/v1/gateway/send-sms', {
       method: 'POST',
       headers: {
         'x-api-key': process.env.TEXTBEE_API_KEY ?? '',
         'Content-Type': 'application/json',
       },
       body: JSON.stringify({ recipients: [to], message }),
     })
     if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`textbee returned ${res.status}`)
     return res.json()
   }

4. 4

   Send a test to your own number

   Ask Lovable for a test button that texts your number, for example +12015550123, and click it in the preview. The text leaves your phone within a minute and shows as sent, then delivered, in the textbee dashboard.

Receive SMS in Lovable

Replies need a public URL that textbee can post to. Lovable creates one when you ask it to handle incoming messages. A custom connector does not help here: Lovable routes outgoing calls through connectors, not incoming webhooks.

1. 1

   Ask for a webhook endpoint

   Prompt: "Create a public endpoint that receives textbee webhooks, checks the X-Signature header with TEXTBEE_WEBHOOK_SECRET, and saves sender, message and receivedAt to a messages table." Click Generate when Lovable asks for TEXTBEE_WEBHOOK_SECRET, then Copy, so you have the value for textbee.

2. 2

   Copy the endpoint URL

   A TanStack route looks like https://project--<id>-dev.lovable.app/api/public/... in the preview and drops -dev on the published app. An edge function looks like https://<ref>.supabase.co/functions/v1/<name>. Use the published URL so replies keep arriving when the editor is closed.

3. 3

   Register it in textbee

   In the textbee dashboard open Webhooks, add the URL, select MESSAGE_RECEIVED and paste the same signing secret. Text the textbee phone from another number and the row appears in your table.

Paste this prompt into Lovable

The prompt below carries the endpoints, the payloads, where the key may live and the Lovable details from this page. Change the line that starts with What I want, and Lovable builds the feature without guessing an endpoint.

Add SMS to the app I am building in Lovable. Use textbee, an SMS gateway that sends and receives SMS through my own Android phone.

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.

Rules:
- Store the API key as a secret named TEXTBEE_API_KEY. Call textbee only from server-side code, never from code that runs in the browser.
- Do not ask me to paste the real key into this chat. Tell me where to add the secret instead.
- For incoming texts, create a public server endpoint, check the X-Signature header against a secret named TEXTBEE_WEBHOOK_SECRET, and ignore a repeated idempotencyKey.

What I want: Text the customer a reminder 24 hours before each booking, and save their replies next to the booking.

Lovable specifics you should know:
- New Lovable projects run on TanStack Start: put the textbee call in a server function. Older React and Vite projects use an edge function in the built-in backend.
- Secrets are added in More > Settings > Secrets or through the secure input in chat. Names starting with VITE_, SUPABASE_ or LOVABLE_ cannot be used.
- Incoming webhooks need a public endpoint in the app. They do not go through Lovable connectors.
- Lovable Cloud phone sign-in only offers its own list of cloud SMS providers, such as Twilio and Vonage, with no custom hook. For login codes through textbee, store a short-lived code in a table and send it with the server function.

Build it, tell me where to add each secret in Lovable, and add a way to send one test message to my own number.

Features to build

Booking reminders

A scheduled server function that finds tomorrow's bookings and texts each customer. Ask Lovable to mark each booking as reminded so a rerun never texts twice.

Login codes

Lovable Cloud phone sign-in has no slot for a custom sender. Ask for a codes table, a server function that sends a six-digit code with textbee, and a second one that checks it and signs the user in.

Owner alerts

Text yourself when a form is submitted, an order is paid or a review comes in. One recipient, your own number, no new UI.

Two-way inbox

The webhook endpoint saves every reply, and a Messages page lists them by sender with a reply box that calls the send function.

Why Lovable builders text from their own phone

Test on day one

A cloud provider trial often texts only numbers you verified first. A free textbee account texts any number from the phone you paired, so the reminder flow you just prompted works for real users the same afternoon.

No registration wait

Many providers ask for a sender or brand registration before automated texts go out. textbee sends from an ordinary mobile number, so there is nothing to file and nothing to wait for.

Replies that land in the app

Customers answer a real number they recognize. Every reply reaches your Lovable endpoint as flat JSON, ready to save next to the booking or the order.

A cloud SMS provider in Lovable vs textbee in Lovable

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

What works and what does not

What Lovable charges

Secrets, custom connectors and custom MCP servers are available on every Lovable plan, including Free. The Free plan gives 5 build credits a day, up to 30 a month. Editing code by hand needs Pro or higher. docs.lovable.dev, checked on October 22, 2026. textbee itself charges a flat monthly plan with messages included; see pricing.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. docs.lovable.dev, checked on October 22, 2026
2. docs.lovable.dev: Secrets, checked on October 22, 2026
3. docs.lovable.dev: Connect any API, checked on October 22, 2026
4. docs.lovable.dev: Custom connectors, checked on October 22, 2026
5. docs.lovable.dev: Phone sign-in, checked on October 22, 2026

Read next

• Appointment reminder text messages from your own Android number (SMS API)
• SMS OTP and verification API: text verification codes from your own number
• Build with AI: one prompt for every builder
• Webhooks documentation
• Add SMS to a Bolt app: server functions, secrets and replies from your own phone
• Add SMS to a v0 app: Next.js route handlers that text from your own phone
• All integrations