SMS & voice API

Endpoints for SMS inboxes, the texts and calls they capture, and texts simulated from phones. Authentication, roles, errors and paging are described in the API overview.

An SMS inbox is a fake Twilio account: your app sends texts and places calls with its Account SID and auth token through the Twilio-compatible API, or binds to it over SMPP. The endpoints on this page are for your tests and tooling, with a team API key. They use the inbox's workspace id, which is not the Account SID.

#SMS inboxes

curl -X POST https://app.testlie.com/api/sms-inboxes \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TESTLIE_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "name": "Checkout SMS", "failureRules": [{ "pattern": "+1555000*", "errorCode": 30003, "mode": "async" }] }'

{
  "smsInbox": {
    "id": "cm2a7…",
    "name": "Checkout SMS",
    "projectId": null,
    "accountSid": "AC4f1c…",
    "authToken": "9b2e…",
    "baseUrl": "https://app.testlie.com/sms",
    "messagesUrl": "https://app.testlie.com/sms/2010-04-01/Accounts/AC4f1c…/Messages.json",
    "failureRules": [{ "pattern": "+1555000*", "errorCode": 30003, "mode": "async" }],
    "smpp": { "host": "smtp.testlie.com", "port": 2775, "tlsPort": 3550, "systemId": "tl3f9a…", "password": "…" },
    "messageCount": 0,
    "unreadCount": 0,
    "createdAt": "2026-10-23T10:30:00.000Z"
  }
}

Credentials are shown to every team member, like SMTP passwords. SMS inboxes and WhatsApp sandboxes share the plan's SMS inbox limit (402 with "code": "quota_exceeded" past it).

#Failure rules

failureRules is a list of up to 20 rules, first match wins. Each rule matches the To number and makes the send fail with a Twilio error:

#Captured texts

A text has id, sid, smsInboxId, to, from, messagingServiceSid, body, numSegments, encoding (GSM-7 or UCS-2), mediaUrls, status (queued, sent, delivered, undelivered, failed), errorCode, errorMessage, statusCallback, channel (api or smpp), isRead, receivedAt and sentAt.

#Wait for a text

curl -f -H "Authorization: Bearer $TESTLIE_API_KEY" \
  "https://app.testlie.com/api/sms-inboxes/$SMS_INBOX_ID/messages/wait?to=%2B15551234567&contains=code&since=2026-10-23T10:30:00Z"

{
  "sms": {
    "sid": "SM8c1d…",
    "to": "+15551234567",
    "from": "+15005550006",
    "body": "Your sign-in code is 482913",
    "numSegments": 1,
    "encoding": "GSM-7",
    "status": "delivered",
    "channel": "api",
    "receivedAt": "2026-10-23T10:30:02.114Z",
    "extracted": { "codes": ["482913"], "links": [] }
  }
}

The response is abridged here; it has every field listed above. On timeout it answers 408. extracted.codes lists likely one-time codes, best guess first: a code next to a word such as "code", "OTP" or "PIN" ranks first.

#Voice calls

Calls placed with the Twilio Voice-compatible API are captured in the SMS inbox of the same account.

#Texts from phones

Simulate a person texting your app's number. Testlie posts the text to your app as Twilio would, and to SMPP clients bound to the inbox. See Inbound SMS & email to your app.

Captured texts, calls and texts from phones each count toward the plan's monthly SMS limit. A simulated text past the limit answers 402; your app's sends get Twilio error 20429 instead. See Plans & limits.