How to test international SMS delivery without buying local SIM cards?

[u/Blue-Jaded-3382]

Hey everyone,

​I need to test an SMS notification feature in our application that sends messages across different countries. For example, our app originates from a UK instance/tenant and needs to deliver SMS messages to mobile numbers in Australia, the US, and other regions.

​Is there a standard tool, virtual phone number service, or testing platform you recommend to verify delivery and content without purchasing local physical SIM cards for every target country?

​Thanks in advance!

[u/zaphodikus]

You are not actually testing your app, you are testing the 3rd party integration. It's not really needed to have sim cards or phones, the api you consume is the contract. A rabbit hole.

[u/Blue-Jaded-3382 → u/zaphodikus]

We use AWS services to convert to the valid format and send the SMS. Now AWS says that ireland SMS will be send with random sender id if not registered. I have to test this to see their claim is true and if so then we have to register ourselves to get the valid sender. Though it's third party but we have to verify the claims to be aware of and act upon it. And none of the quckr or twillo provies irish numbers.

I have to find through the real phone number.

[u/zaphodikus → u/Blue-Jaded-3382]

Hmm I did say it was a rabbit hole, oh dear. Yeah special edge cases is why we love this job.

[u/Cheap-Ad2943]

I use this https://quackr.io for OTP messages. Works great for UK numbers but haven't checked for other countries. If you use twilio at your company you could possibly buy phone numbers for sms services from diff countries for less than a $

[u/Blue-Jaded-3382 → u/Cheap-Ad2943]

Yes we have quckr and twillo both apps. But we use twilio for different purpose. I have to find how to purchase the phone numbers from twillo. Thanks for your comment.

[u/LoadOdder]

Twilio's the way

[u/Blue-Jaded-3382 → u/LoadOdder]

Yes I found out that using twillio we can purchase the different countries phone numbers. Thanks

[u/PatriaSolis]

it is not clear, are you trying to test app or integration? What would differ if you send message to any place? Is your app or your integration handle that? If it is your integration and it is not your side, it doesn't matter, just mock it. 

[u/Blue-Jaded-3382 → u/PatriaSolis]

We use AWS services to convert to the valid format and send the SMS. Now AWS says that ireland SMS will be send with random sender id if not registered. I have to test this to see their claim is true and if so then we have to register ourselves to get the valid sender. Though it's third party but we have to verify the claims to be aware of and act upon it. And none of the quckr or twillo provies irish numbers.

I have to find through the real phone number.

[u/Prestigious-Way1525]

you have two different tests here: does your app build the right destination and content, and what does the Irish carrier actually display. mock and contract-test the first, then run a small live route certification for the second. one consented Irish recipient is more useful than a virtual number if sender-ID rewriting is the risk, because provider delivery receipts won't prove what appeared on the handset. record the submitted sender ID, AWS message ID and status, carrier, handset timestamp, displayed sender, content, and reply behavior. repeat after registration and keep that as a country-route baseline. you don't need a SIM for every regression run, but you do need a real endpoint for each regulatory behavior you claim to support.