Order and delivery notifications with SMS from your own Android number
Published and updated
Customers want to know their order went through, when it shipped and when it is arriving. Email gets buried; a text from the shop reaches them, and a text they can reply to answers the follow-up question without a support ticket. 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
- Pick the events that deserve a text: order confirmed, shipped, out for delivery, delivered or failed. Fewer, well timed messages beat one per status change.
- When your order system fires the event, render the template with the order fields and call POST /gateway/send-sms with the customer number in E.164.
- Store the returned batch id on the order so support can see whether the text went out, and listen for MESSAGE_FAILED to retry or fall back to email.
- Route replies to your support inbox, since a reply to a shipping text is almost always a question about that order.
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"], "message": "Hi Sam, order #10432 confirmed. Total: $48.00. We will text you when it ships."}'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.
Hi {{ name }}, order #{{ orderId }} confirmed. Total: {{ total }}. We'll notify you when it ships.Consent and compliance
Order updates are transactional and rest on the number given at checkout. Keep them free of promotions; the moment a shipping text carries an offer it becomes marketing and needs separate written consent and an opt-out. Honour STOP for future updates too.
Honest limits
One phone sends roughly 10 to 15 messages a minute, so a large blast takes time to drain. A shop doing hundreds of orders a day is comfortable; a flash sale with thousands of confirmations in an hour will queue on the phone, so add a device or batch the less urgent statuses.
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
Which order events should trigger a text?
Confirmed, shipped and delivered cover most shops. Add out for delivery when the carrier gives you the event and a failed delivery notice when the customer has to act.
Can I include a tracking link?
Yes, in a shipping update. Use your own domain rather than a link shortener, because carriers filter shortened links more aggressively, and keep the message to one segment.
What if the customer replies?
The reply arrives on your number as a received message. Forward it to whoever handles that order, or answer from the same number so the thread stays in one place.