5-minute quickstartHow to start sending messages with Telesign
Telesign is a privately held communications platform based in Marina del Rey, USA. This guide takes you from zero to a delivered SMSin about five minutes — no sales call required.
- A Telesign account — sign up here (free trial credit included).
- Your API credentials from the dashboard.
- A phone number capable of receiving SMSs for testing.
Step 1 — Create your account
- Sign up. Head to www.telesign.com and create an account. Onboarding is self-service, so you can start immediately. New accounts include free trial credit to test with.
- Grab your keys. Open the dashboard and copy your credentials. Telesign uses HTTP Basic authentication using your Customer ID as the username and API key as the password (Basic or Digest auth supported); SDKs handle signing automatically..
Step 2 — Send your first SMS
The fastest path is a single API call. Drop in your credentials and a destination number, then run this from your terminal:
curl -X POST https://rest-ww.telesign.com/v1/messaging \
-u "CUSTOMER_ID:API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" \
-d "phone_number=15551212&message=Your message here.&message_type=ARN"The request hits https://rest-ww.telesign.com/v1/messaging. A 2xx response means Telesignhas accepted your message for delivery — you should see it arrive within seconds.
Step 3 — Go native with an SDK
Once the raw call works, switch to an official SDK for retries, typing and error handling.Telesign ships SDKs for C#, Java, Node.js, PHP, Python, Ruby, and Python is a great place to start.Full reference lives in the Telesign documentation.
What's next
- Add more channels. Telesign also supports WhatsApp, RCS, Viber, Voice — reuse the same account and credentials.
- Mind compliance. Telesign is GDPR, ISO 27001, SOC 2, HIPAA aligned, with EU and US data residency options.
- Compare before you commit. See how Telesign stacks up on the provider table or in a head-to-head comparison.
Values in this guide come from Telesign's public documentation. Always check the official docs for the latest details.