I am developing a PHP site, which requires users to provide their US mobile n umber. The PHP site will send a confirmation link to that number to verify the number for registration. Any mobile can only be registered once.
I need to test the registration for which I will need a US mobile number as I don't have one.
The current problem is that the confirmation message, which is sent using Twilio SMS API, is getting segmented into 2 or more parts.
This is messing up the confirmation link in the SMS i.e. the query string in the confirmation link is getting split up. So the user is not confirmed on clicking the garbled link even if the number is genuine.
Since I have to test the registration multiple times, I was hoping that:
If there is a free Android or iOS app, that provides large number of US mobile numbers for at least getting inbound messages for free, so that I can run multiple tests.
Any guidance on twilio api to control the number of segments in the confirmation message sent from the PHP site or send the confirmation message in such a way that it does not split up the query string, no matter what.
I have tried NextPlus but that allots only 1 US number to me and I have already used it for registration and got the same problem with the confirmation link in the message. Some other apps like magic App need payment for the US number.
Sample confirmation message given below:
Hello lbcustomer13,\n Thank you for registering with Lightning Bug.\nPlease click here to complete registration: \n http://example.com/login/?acu=Nzk=
The above message is sent upto the question mark in the first segment:
Hello lbcustomer13,\n Thank you for registering with Lightning Bug.\nPlease click here to complete registration: \n http://example.com/login/?
and
acu=Nzk= in the second segment
Any ideas?
Your message is being truncated because of the maximum character limit (160) in SMS. To control this, you should reduce the text before the link so that the it finishes before the character limit runs out. You can also use URL shortener services to reduce the characters in your link.
I do not have any information about US numbers available but you could have code which sends the message to any mobile no based on a system flag stating if it is in testing phase.