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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://plivo.com/docs/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

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Overview

This guide shows how to receive SMS text messages on a Plivo phone number — something you might want to do to acknowledge a request from a customer, handle opt-ins and opt-outs, or implement an autoresponder application. You can reply to SMS messages either by using our PHLO visual workflow builder or our APIs. Follow the instructions in one of the tabs below.
Here’s how to use Plivo APIs to reply to incoming SMS text messages.

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Prerequisites

To get started, you need a Plivo account — sign up with your work email address if you don’t have one already. To receive incoming messages, you must have a Plivo phone number that supports SMS; you can rent numbers from the Numbers page of the Plivo console or by using the Numbers API. If this is your first time using Plivo APIs, follow our instructions to set up a Java development environment and a web server and safely expose that server to the internet.

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Create a Spring application to reply to messages

Use Spring Initializr to create a boilerplate project called Plivo SMS. Open the file PlivoSmsApplication and paste into it this code.
package com.example.Plivo.SMS;

import com.plivo.api.exceptions.PlivoXmlException;
import com.plivo.api.xml.Message;
import com.plivo.api.xml.Response;
import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.GetMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;

@RestController
@SpringBootApplication
public class PlivoSmsApplication {

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		SpringApplication.run(PlivoSmsApplication.class, args);
	}
	
	@GetMapping(value = "/replysms/", produces = {"application/xml"})
	public String getBody(String From, String To, String Text) throws PlivoXmlException {
		System.out.println(From + " " + To + " " + Text);
		Response res = new Response().children(
				new Message(To, From, "Thank you, we received your request"));
		return res.toXmlString();
	}

}
Expose your local server to the internet.

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Create a Plivo application to reply to messages

Associate the Spring application you created with Plivo by creating a Plivo application. Visiting Messaging > Applications and click Add New Application. You can also use Plivo’s Application API.Give your application a name — we called ours Reply Incoming SMS. Enter the server URL you want to use (for example http://<yourdomain>.com/replysms/) in the Message URL field and set the method to POST. Click Create Application to save your application.
Create Application

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Assign a Plivo number to your application

Navigate to the Numbers page and select the phone number you want to use for this application.From the Application Type drop-down, select XML Application.From the Plivo Application drop-down, select Reply Incoming SMS (the name we gave the application).Click Update Number to save.
Assign Phone Number to Reply SMS App

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Test

Send a text message to the Plivo number you specified using any phone. You should receive a reply.