Bulk announcements from your own Android number
Published and updated
A school, club, church, co-op or shop needs to tell a few hundred people the same thing today. The people opted in, the message is short, and the sender should be the number they know. 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
- Keep the list as opted-in numbers in E.164 with the date and source of each consent, and remove anyone who has ever replied STOP.
- Send with one POST to /gateway/send-sms carrying every recipient in the recipients array, or upload a CSV in the dashboard to personalise with {{ name }} style fields.
- Watch the batch: the response carries an estimated completion time, and MESSAGE_SENT, MESSAGE_DELIVERED and MESSAGE_FAILED events report each recipient.
- For lists in the low thousands, add a second device to the account so the batch drains in parallel, or split the send across the 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.
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", "+12015550124", "+12015550125"],
"message": "Riverside FC: Saturday training moves to 10:00 at the east pitch. Reply STOP to leave this list."
}'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.
{{ name }}, {{ offer }}. Valid until {{ expiry }}. Reply STOP to unsubscribe.Consent and compliance
Announcements to a list are the case where consent rules bite hardest. Everyone on the list must have agreed to receive texts from you, marketing needs written consent in the United States, and every send should carry a way out. Carriers watch for identical texts to many numbers from a consumer SIM, so keep lists to people who know you.
- 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
- The CTIA Messaging Principles and Best Practices expect a business sender to hold consent, hold express written consent for marketing, and honour opt-out requests. api.ctia.org, 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. Three hundred messages take twenty to thirty minutes from one phone; three thousand take hours or a second device. Carriers can filter bulk patterns on consumer SIMs, so this is for lists of people who asked to hear from you, not cold outreach.
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
How many messages can one phone send in an hour?
Roughly 600 to 900, since a handset sends 10 to 15 a minute and each recipient is one message. Adding a device to the account doubles that; the account-level send spreads across enabled devices.
Is this a way to send marketing without registering a campaign?
No. Consent rules apply whatever the sender, and a consumer SIM blasting identical marketing is exactly the pattern carriers filter. Use it for lists of people who opted in to hear from you; register a carrier campaign for mass marketing.
Can I personalise each message?
Yes. Upload a CSV in the dashboard with a phone column and any fields you want, then write the message with {{ name }} style placeholders, or build the messages in your own code and send them with the bulk endpoint.
Sources
- Consent rules, ecfr.gov, checked on September 4, 2026
- Consent rules, api.ctia.org, checked on September 4, 2026