textbee Logotextbee.dev
Plans from $9.99/mo.View Plans

Appointment reminders with SMS from your own Android number

Published and updated

Clinics, salons, consultants and trades lose money to appointments nobody turns up for. A text the day before, from a number the client recognises and can answer, is the cheapest fix there is. With textbee the sender is an Android phone holding your SIM, so the message comes from your own number, recipients can reply, and the Pro plan, up to 5,000 messages for $9.99 a month with no per message fee.

How it works

  1. Store each booking with the client number in E.164, the local time of the appointment, and a reminder time, usually 24 hours before plus a second one two hours before.
  2. A scheduled job selects reminders that are due and sends each with POST /gateway/send-sms, or passes scheduledAt so the API sends at the right moment.
  3. Read replies through a webhook or by polling /gateway/messages, match CONFIRM, YES, CANCEL and STOP, and update the booking.
  4. Show the reply state to staff so a cancelled slot can be offered to the waiting list the same day.

Send it

The API key comes from the dashboard and the phone registered on your account does the sending. Recipients are E.164 numbers; the example is fictional.

send-reminder.sh
curl -X POST https://api.textbee.dev/api/v1/gateway/send-sms \
  -H "x-api-key: $TEXTBEE_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"recipients": ["+12015550123"], "message": "Reminder: your appointment is on Tuesday at 10:00 at Main Street Clinic. Reply CONFIRM or CANCEL."}'

Message template

Placeholders in double braces are filled per recipient by your code or by the CSV upload in the dashboard. Keep the result under 160 GSM-7 characters so it stays one segment.

template.txt
Reminder: Your appointment is on {{ date }} at {{ time }} at {{ location }}. Reply CONFIRM or CANCEL.

Consent and compliance

A reminder about a booking the client made is transactional, and the number they gave when booking is the consent. Tell clients at booking that they will get a text, keep the message about the appointment, and treat STOP or any reply asking you to stop as an opt-out for reminders too.

  • In the United States, 47 CFR 64.1200 requires prior express consent for automated texts and prior express written consent for marketing, and a recipient may revoke consent in any reasonable manner. ecfr.gov, checked on September 4, 2026

Honest limits

One phone sends roughly 10 to 15 messages a minute, so a large blast takes time to drain. A practice sending a few hundred reminders a day is well inside that. Send in the morning local time rather than at midnight when the job runs, and remember the phone must be on and connected at send time.

One phone sends roughly 10 to 15 messages a minute, so a large blast takes time to drain. Carriers can filter bulk patterns on consumer SIMs. Marketing messages still need consent from the recipient under the local rules.

Frequently asked questions

Can the client reply to the reminder?

Yes. The message comes from a real number, so a reply lands in your account as a received message. That is the point of the CONFIRM and CANCEL keywords.

How do I send at a specific time?

Either run your own scheduler and call the API when a reminder is due, or pass scheduledAt in the send request and let the API hold the message until then.

Do I need consent for appointment reminders?

The booking is the relationship and the number the client gave is the consent for messages about it. Say at booking time that you send reminders, and stop for anyone who asks.

Sources

  1. Consent rules, ecfr.gov, checked on September 4, 2026

Read next