Get Started with SmsManager in 5 Minutes

This guide walks you through sending your first SMS with SmsManager’s JSON API v2. By the end, you’ll have made a successful API call, received a message_id, and know where to go next to explore advanced features like multi-channel flows and delivery webhooks.

Prerequisites: You need an SmsManager account and an API key before you begin. Retrieve your key from app.smsmanager.com/api-cloud.

Get your API key

Log in to your SmsManager account and navigate to API & Cloud. Your primary API key is displayed on that page. Copy it — you’ll pass it as the x-api-key header in every request.If you need a scoped key for a specific integration (for example, to isolate credits or simplify revocation), you can create sub-keys through the REST API.

Send your first message

Send a POST request to https://api.smsmngr.com/v2/message with a JSON body containing the message text and at least one recipient phone number in international E.164 format (without a leading + or 00).Request body:

{
  "body": "Hello from SmsManager!",
  "to": [
    { "phone_number": "420777123456" }
  ]
}

cURL:

curl -X POST https://api.smsmngr.com/v2/message \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"body": "Hello from SmsManager!", "to": [{"phone_number": "420777123456"}]}'

Replace YOUR_API_KEY with the key you copied in Step 1 and 420777123456 with the destination phone number.

Check the response

A successful request returns HTTP 200 with a JSON body similar to the following:

{
  "request_id": "bc36f3d1-d284-463a-921b-a3560c154649",
  "accepted": [
    { "key": "0", "message_id": "e27ff0ac-87b5-4e1d-b644-5fc6029e2a11" }
  ],
  "rejected": []
}

request_id — a unique identifier for the entire API call. Use this to correlate requests in your logs.
message_id — a unique identifier for the individual message sent to a specific recipient. Store this value if you want to match delivery webhook events back to the originating send.
rejected — an array of any recipients that were not accepted (for example, due to an invalid phone number format). An empty array means all recipients were accepted.

Set up a webhook (optional)

To receive real-time delivery updates, add a callback URL to your request body. SmsManager will POST a delivery notification to that URL whenever the message status changes (delivered, failed, etc.).

{
  "body": "Hello from SmsManager!",
  "to": [{ "phone_number": "420777123456" }],
  "callback": "https://your-app.example.com/webhooks/sms"
}

See the Webhooks guide for the full event payload schema and verification details.

Code examples

The examples below all send the same basic message. Pick the language that matches your stack.

curl -X POST https://api.smsmngr.com/v2/message \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "body": "Hello from SmsManager!",
    "to": [{"phone_number": "420777123456"}]
  }'

import requests

url = "https://api.smsmngr.com/v2/message"
headers = {
    "x-api-key": "YOUR_API_KEY",
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
}
payload = {
    "body": "Hello from SmsManager!",
    "to": [{"phone_number": "420777123456"}],
}

response = requests.post(url, json=payload, headers=headers)
print(response.json())

const response = await fetch("https://api.smsmngr.com/v2/message", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "x-api-key": "YOUR_API_KEY",
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    body: "Hello from SmsManager!",
    to: [{ phone_number: "420777123456" }],
  }),
});

const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);

<?php

$payload = json_encode([
    "body" => "Hello from SmsManager!",
    "to"   => [["phone_number" => "420777123456"]],
]);

$ch = curl_init("https://api.smsmngr.com/v2/message");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $payload);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, [
    "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY",
    "Content-Type: application/json",
]);

$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
echo $response;

Next steps

Message flow

Learn how to build multi-channel fallback chains with the flow property.

Channels overview

Explore the differences between SMS, Viber, and WhatsApp sending.

Webhooks

Receive delivery receipts and inbound messages in real time.

​Code examples

​Next steps

Message flow

Channels overview

Webhooks

Code examples

Next steps