Sinch Exit API

If you already have an integration using the Sinch SMS API to send and receive SMS messages (basic send and receive only), you can use this guide to start sending your SMS messages through Bird without having to rewrite your API integration.

The Bird Sinch Exit API allows you to send SMS messages through the Bird Engagement Platform, using your existing Sinch Integration. It acts as an adapter that translates the requests and responses from the Sinch format to Bird format and vice versa.

How does it work?

Your Sinch integration will send the request using the Sinch API format to the Bird Sinch Exit API. Our API will accept the Sinch formatted request, translate it to Bird's format, process the message, and then translate our response to the Sinch API response format you're expecting, ta-da! You don't have to rewrite all of your integration to start sending messages via Bird.

Setup the integration

Setup your Bird Engagement Platform account
Install an SMS channel
Copy your main keys
Update your Sinch integration URL and keys
Setup your Webhook to receive events and incoming messages

Setup your Bird account

Install an SMS channel

You will need to install an SMS channel on a working phone number. Follow this guide on how to install an SMS channel.

Copy your main keys

You will need:

Your workspace ID (click Edit workspace to see your ID)
Access key
The phone number of the SMS channel you're sending messages from

Update your Sinch Integration

Now that you have all the keys you need, you will need to do minimal change to your existing Sinch integration.

Update the domain name from https://[us|eu|au|br|ca].sms.api.sinch.com to one of the following domains:
- EU (for Europe region): https://eu-west-1.sinch.to.api.bird.com
- US (for US region): https://us-west-1.sinch.to.api.bird.com
Update your service_plan_id to use your Bird WorkspaceID
Update your Token to use your Bird AccessKey
Update the “From” number to the phone number you used to setup the SMS channel on our end

That's it! You're ready to start sending SMS messages via Bird.

Setup a Webhook subscription

Setting up a webhook subscription can currently be done via the API using the following endpoint:

Here is an example of such a request

Przykład kodu

{
    "service": "channels",
    "event": "sms.inbound",
    "eventFilters": [{
        "key": "channelId",
        "value": "{{channel_id}}"
    }],
    "template": "sinch",
    "url": "https://your.site/webhook/url",
    "signingKey": "your-secret-signing-key"
}

Bird webhooks are signed using the SigningKey specified when creating your webhook subscription.

Make sure you keep your SigningKey safe, as it's used to verify the authenticity of the webhook requests.

Full webhooks API documentation can be found here.

Setup a Webhook subscription to receive incoming messages

Setting up a webhook subscription is an optional step and is only needed if you need to receive inbound messages (2-way messaging use case). Much like Sinch, Bird's webhooks are set up by channel instance. So, for SMS, webhooks are set up by number.

To receive webhooks for incoming SMS messages on your SMS channel, you need to set up a webhook subscription by using the above request. For incoming messages, set the event to sms.inbound. You can choose to receive this webhook in the Sinch format by setting the template parameter to sinch.

Setup webhook subscription for status reports for outbound messages

You can also set up webhooks for status reports for outbound messages by using the sms.outbound event. This is required to make webhooks work for outbound messages since we need a signing key to sign the request.

When you use callback_url to subscribe to webhooks for outgoing messages, this URL overwrites the default URL set in the above request and sets the template to use the sinch template, regardless of the subscription settings.

Bird also employs a secure way of signing requests. When using the sinch template, we will sign our requests the Bird way, with the Bird header.

Sinch Exit API Explained

Our Sinch Exit API translates requests using the Sinch format to the Bird format, before sending it to the Bird API. And on receiving a response from our API, it translates it back into the Sinch format. This section explains which endpoints are supported and how we translate and map fields between both APIs.

Endpoints

Currently, the Sinch Exit API is limited to sending SMS messages exclusively through your Sinch Integration. The supported endpoints are:

Operation	Endpoint
Send message	POST /xms/v1/{{workspaceID}}/batches
Fetch message	GET /xms/v1/{{workspaceID}}/batches/{{messageID}}
List messages	GET /xms/v1/{{workspaceID}}/batches

Message response

The message object's response resembles Sinch's, though some fields may be empty. Below is an example of our responses:

JSON field	Status	Bird field	Example
id	🟢 Supported	id	"id":""
to	🟢 Supported	receiver.contacts[].identifierValue	"to":["+31623456789"]
from	🟢 Supported	sender.connector.identifierValue	"from": "+1234567890"
body	🟢 Supported	body.text.text	"body": "Hello World!"
type	🟡 Always mt_text	-	"type": "mt_text"
canceled	🟡 Always false	-	"canceled": false
delivery_report	🟡 Always none	-	"delivery_report": "none"
client_reference	🟢 Supported	reference	"client_reference": "abcdef"
created_at	🟢 Supported	createdAt	"created_at": "YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.SSSZ"
modified_at	🟢 Supported	updatedAt	"modified_at": "YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.SSSZ"
expire_at	🟢 Supported	-	"expired_at":""

Create message

Form field	Status
service_plan_id (Path)	🟢 Use your Bird WorkspaceID
to[] (Required)	🟠 Supported, only the first item will be used to send to
from (Required)	🟢 Supported. Must be the number of an active SMS channel in MessageBird.
body (Optional)	🟢 Supported
delivery_report (Optional)	🟠 Always per_recipient if used
callback_url (Optional)	🟢 Supported
client_reference (Optional)	🟢 Supported
parameters (Optional)	🟠 Ignored if used
type (Optional)	🟠 Always mt_text
sent_at (Optional)	🟠 Ignored if used, scheduling not supported
expire_at (Optional)	🟠 Ignored if used, validity not supported
feedback_enabled (Optional)	🟠 Ignored if used
flash_message (Optional)	🟠 Ignored if used
truncate_concat (Optional)	🟠 Ignored if used
max_number_of_message_parts (Optional)	🟠 Ignored if used
from_ton (Optional)	🟠 Ignored if used
from_npi (Optional)	🟠 Ignored if used

Query parameter	Status
service_plan_id (Path)	🟢 Use your Bird WorkspaceID
page (Optional)	🔴 Not Supported
page_size (Optional)	🟡 Supported, but with a maximum of 100
from (Optional)	🟢 Supported
start_date (Optional)	🟢 Supported
end_date (Optional)	🟢 Supported

Response

JSON response	Channels field
page	🟢 Supported
page_size	🟢 Supported
count	🟢 Supported
batches	🟢 Supported: See message response