Sign in Start free
Developer docs

Set up an Android phone as your SMS gateway

Install the gateway app from your dashboard, scan one QR code, and the phone's SIM plan starts sending and receiving your SMS. Five minutes, no login screen, no Play Store.

lang_undefined

lang_undefined

lang_undefined

What you need

  • An Android phone or tablet with a SIM card, running Android 8.0 or newer. A spare handset is ideal; it does not have to be new or fast.
  • A mobile plan on that SIM with the SMS allowance you intend to use. The phone sends on its own plan; SharkSMS adds nothing per message.
  • Wi-Fi or mobile data on the phone, so it can pick up the queue and report delivery.
  • A SharkSMS account. The free plan includes one device.

Install the app

  1. In your dashboard open Devices → Android and press Add device. The dialog shows a download link and a QR code for the app.
  2. On the phone, open the link (or scan that first code) and download sms-gateway.apk.
  3. Android will ask you to allow installs from this source. Allow it for the browser or file manager you used, then open the file and install. The app is called SMS Gateway.
  4. Open it. It asks for SMS, phone and notification permissions. Grant all of them; they are what let it send, receive and stay awake.
Why not the Play Store? Google Play reserves the SMS permissions this app needs for apps like dialers and messengers. A gateway that sends and reads SMS on your behalf is deliberately outside that policy, so it is installed directly from your dashboard, the same way it has always been. There is no iPhone version, and none is planned.

Pair the phone

  1. Back in Devices → Android → Add device, the dialog now shows a pairing QR code. It carries the site address and a single-use code that lasts ten minutes.
  2. In the app, tap Scan and point the camera at it. That is the whole pairing step; there is no username or password to type.
  3. The phone appears in your Devices list with its model and a device ID. That ID is what you pass as device in the API, and what you choose in the send form's device mode.

Closing and reopening the dialog issues a fresh code and invalidates the old one, so a screenshot of an old code cannot be reused. To pair a second phone, open the dialog again. A phone already linked to another SharkSMS account is refused.

Keep it sending

The phone is the thing that physically sends. If it is off, offline, or Android has put the app to sleep, messages wait in queued until it comes back. Three settings keep it reliable:

  • Battery optimisation: off for SMS Gateway (Settings → Apps → SMS Gateway → Battery → Unrestricted). Aggressive power saving is the most common reason a gateway "stops" overnight.
  • Leave it plugged in, somewhere with signal. Most people leave a spare handset on a charger in the back office.
  • Keep the app installed and signed in. New messages are pushed to the phone; it then fetches the queue and posts back delivery reports, which is what turns a message from queued to sent in your dashboard.

If a message sits in queued for more than a minute or two: check the phone has data, open the app once (it resyncs on open), and confirm the device shows as connected in Devices.

Two SIMs, several phones

Dual-SIM phones expose both slots. Pick slot 1 or 2 in the send form, or pass sim=1 / sim=2 in the API. A busy shop usually pairs two or three phones so sends spread across them and one being charged does not stop the others: the free plan includes 1 device, Professional 3, Enterprise 50. Each phone is its own device ID; a bulk send targets one device, so split large lists across devices if you want them to go out in parallel.

Common questions

Will my carrier mind?

You are sending on a consumer plan from a normal phone. Sensible volumes to people who asked to hear from you are what those plans are for; blasting thousands of unsolicited texts is not, and carriers do notice. Send to your own list, at a human pace, and use more than one phone before you push a single SIM hard.

Can customers reply?

Yes. Replies land on the phone and appear in your dashboard inbox, trigger auto-replies and flows, and are pushed to your server by webhook. Someone who replies STOP is opted out automatically.

Does the phone need to stay unlocked?

No. Locked and screen-off is fine, as long as the app is exempt from battery optimisation and the phone has data.

What number do customers see?

The SIM's own number. If it is the number they already have saved for your business, your texts arrive under your name.

Ready to send? REST API for code, or the dashboard send form for everyone else.