Send SMS and MMS Messages in Java

In this tutorial, we'll show you how to send SMS and MMS messages from Java using Twilio's Programmable Messaging. The code snippets in this guide target Java SDK 8 or higher, and make use of the Twilio Java Helper Library.

Sign up for (or log in to) your Twilio account

Before you can send messages, you’ll need to sign up for a Twilio account and purchase a Twilio phone number.

If you’re brand new to Twilio, you can sign up for a free trial account to get started. Once you've signed up, head over to your Console and grab your Account SID and your Auth Token. You will need those values for the code samples below.

Get a phone number with SMS (and MMS) capabilities

Sending messages requires a Twilio phone number with SMS capabilities. If you don’t currently own a Twilio phone number with SMS capabilities, you’ll need to buy one. After navigating to the Buy a Number page, check the 'SMS' box and click 'Search':

If you live in the US or Canada and also wish to send MMS messages, you can select the 'MMS' box. When viewing the search results, you can see the capability icons in the list of available numbers:

Find a number you like and click "Buy" to add it to your account.

Send an SMS Message via the REST API with the Java Helper Library

Sending an outgoing SMS message requires sending an HTTP POST to the Messages resource URI. Using the helper library, you can create a new instance of the Message resource and specify the To, From, and Body parameters for your message.

The first phone number in the example below is the To parameter (your Twilio number), and the second phone number is the From parameter (your mobile number).

If you want to send a message to several recipients, you could create an array of recipients and iterate through each phone number in that array.

You can send as many messages as you like, as fast as you like and Twilio will queue them up for delivery at your prescribed rate limit. See our guide on how to Send Bulk SMS Messages for more tips.

Send a Message in Java with Media (MMS)

You may wish to send outgoing MMS using Twilio. To send an MMS, you also make an HTTP POST request to the Messages resource but this time specify a parameter for the URL of media, such as an image.

We'll add a line to our code from the above example that sets the MediaUrl for the message.

The setMediaUrl() method call in this code tells Twilio where to go to get the media we want to include. This must be a publicly accessible URL - Twilio will not be able to reach any URLs that are hidden or that require authentication.

Just as when you send a simple SMS, Twilio will send data about the message in its response to your request. The JSON response will contain the unique SID and URI for your media resource:

"subresource_uris": {"media": "/2010-04 01/Accounts/ACxxxxxxxx/Messages/SMxxxxxxxxxxxxx/Media.json"}

When the Twilio REST API creates your new Message resource, it will save the image found at the specified media url as a Media resource. Once created, you can access this resource at any time via the API.

You can print this value from your Java code to see where the image is stored. Add the following line to the end of your Example.java file to see your newly provisioned Media URI:

System.out.println(message.getSubresourceUris().get("media"));

What's next?

Want to build more messaging functionality into your Java Application?

Check out these in-depth resources to take your programmatic messaging a step further:

• Monitor the status of your message to confirm its delivery.
• Learn how to reply to an SMS sent to your Twilio phone number.
• Learn how to manage message state to turn individual messages into a true SMS conversation.
• Dig into the details with our API reference documentation for Messages.
• Sending high-volume messages? Check out our messaging services.

Also, try our Java SMS Quickstart, and see how to receive and reply to messages in Java.