Demystifying SMS Integrations: What You Should Know [2024]

“How do I make all these systems talk to each other?” Garrett wondered out loud as he stared blankly at the screen in font of him.

Glancing between his e-commerce dashboard, customer database, and his new SMS platform, Garrett knew he needed a way to make his processes more efficient.

But he just wasn’t sure how.

Many real businesses may find themselves in fictional Garrett’s shoes, grappling with the promise of SMS but unsure how to seamlessly integrate it into their existing operations.

That’s where integrations come in—which promise more efficiency, allowing your systems to really interact with each other.

Yet it can still seem complicated…

Is there a way to demystify everything so that you know plainly the next steps you need to take?

That’s what we’ll do for you here in this article.

(For a more robust discussion of this topic, see our article on integrated SMS here.)

SMS Integrations Summary

There are 3 ways to integrate Mobile Text Alerts SMS services:

• Native integrations
• Zapier
• API

Native integrations are the easiest but least flexible integration method.

Zapier is a little more complicated than a native integration but offers more flexibility.

An SMS API is the most complicated way to integrate but offers the most flexibility.

Native Integration: Easiest and Least Flexible

The easiest but least flexible way to integrate is through native integrations.

For Mobile Text Alerts, native integrations include Zoom, GoTo Webinars, and Procore.

These integrations directly connect with specific services, enabling you to either automatically send messages triggered by specific events—or to automatically sync your contacts so that you can manage sending SMS to your audience.

Zapier Integration: More Complicated but More Flexible

Another way to integrate that’s slightly more complicated but more flexible is to use your Zapier account, which is a third-party integration service.

The good news is that Zapier has been incorporated directly into the Mobile Text Alerts dashboard, so you can easily set up your Zapier integrations within your online Mobile Text Alerts dashboard.

Zapier gives you a lot of flexible options for the kinds of integrations you might want to set up and doesn’t require any coding knowledge.

API: Most Complicated but Most Flexible

The most complicated yet most flexible way to set up an SMS integration is via an SMS API.

An API allows developers to build their own integrations by following the API documentation.

This means that as long as you have the developer resources, you’re able to create the specific integrations that you’d like.

That way, you don’t have to rely on what’s natively available or on Zapier capabilities.

How to Set Up Each

For native integrations—you can simply see what’s available within your online SMS dashboard and click on the integration you’d like to use there within the dashboard.

For Zapier—you can access Zapier easily within your online SMS dashboard. You’ll be prompted to log in to your Zapier account (or to create one if you don’t already have one) and then you’ll be able to set everything up directly there within your dashboard.

For the API—you’ll need developers who can follow the API documentation to create the integration you’re looking for via an API client.

The First Step to Getting Started

As you can see, SMS integrations don’t have to be too complicated.

And if you haven’t already, you’re now ready to take the first step: getting your free SMS platform trial.

Go ahead and try it today.