Chapter 8. SMS

Previous chapters have focused on communicating with users in realtime while they are sitting in front of their computer. In this chapter, we step back from the desktop and venture out into the real world.

A big part of creating realtime user experiences means delivering messages to a user, whether she is on the website, in a chat window, or via text messages sent to her phone. Users increasingly expect that the applications they use online can notify them of updates long after they have stepped away from the computer. But sending a message to a user is only half the battle; modern applications need to be able to receive messages that originate as SMS messages from any old mobile phone. Luckily, there are several ways to accomplish this.