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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 forward incoming SMS text messages.

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How it works

Forward SMS

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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 forward 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 = "/forwardsms/", 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, "<destination_number>", Text));
		return res.toXmlString();
	}
}
Replace the destination number placeholder with an actual phone number in E.164 format (for example, +12025551234).Expose your local server to the internet.

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Create a Plivo application to forward 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 Forward SMS. Enter the server URL you want to use (for example https://<yourdomain>.com/forwardsms/) 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 Forward SMS (the name we gave the application).Click Update Number to save.
Assign Phone Number to Forward SMS App

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Test

Send a text message to the Plivo number you specified using any phone. The message should be forwarded to the destination number you specified.