Implementing new phone number and SMS messaging functionality in Ruby on Rails web app

1
votes

I have an existing web app built using Ruby on Rails. It already has a built-in email messages feature. Our users have requested for a functionality which is able to do the following (for US users only):

  1. Get a unique and new US phone number which is tied to their registered email address (user ID in our web app

  2. For others (users or non-users) to be able to send our registered SMS messages to this new number. The registered user will get a notification that he has received an SMS and will then go to Messages module to retrieve the SMS

  3. The registered user should also be able to send an SMS message from his Message module to other users and their mobile numbers. These users will not be receiving the content of the SMS but rather be getting a notification that they have receved a SMS from our registered user and now they need to either creae a new ID or login using existing credentials and authenticate phone number in order to retrieve SMS from our user.

Question: What Ruby Gem could be used for such functionality?

Also, are there APIs and open source code available for such functionality?

I would also like to kee my costs low for all the above as we are still a start-up company.

Thanks in advance.

1
ruby-on-railsrubygemssms

1 Answers

1
votes

You might consider checking out Twilio (disclosure: I work for Twilio).

Twilio has a Ruby gem that provides a high-level API for sending SMS messages and buying phone numbers. You can also receive incoming SMS messages to a number by specifying "webhook" URLs that will receive an HTTP request when a message is received. You can sign up for a free trial account here.

Some relevant bits of documentation: