How to add a sender name to sms messages

Question

I am trying to bypass having to pay an sms gateway company to send sms messages so I thought of a novel idea to turn my Android phone into an sms gateway instead as I get unlimited sms message allowance:

1. send a push message to Android phone from a server

2. get broadcast receiver to intercept the push message containing a phone number to send to

3. forward the message via sms from my phone to the recipient

But there is one problem I found: there is no way to add a sender name such as MyCompany instead of a number.

Does anybody know how to get around this problem?

Answer 1

We implemented an app named txty.mobi (development as ceased on it) which works in a very similar way to what you are proposing and included the possibility to send messages from other peoples phones who allow you too.

We had a similar problem where if you used another persons phone to send a message, the number of that phone would be sent (obviously) and the only way we could indicate to the receiver who the original sender actually was, was having the server insert > Message sent from : <name> at the beginning of the message, because you had unlimited texts the additional chars weren't too much of a problem.

Our app was used successfully for group sending from businesses.

Answer 2

It's not really possible. When you send a text message, it hits your carriers sms gateway, then the SMS gateway with your carrier chooses to send the message with the number. If you somehow spoofed your number so that it didn't show your phone number when it got to the carrier's gateway, then their sms gateway would decline the message and not send it out to the recipient.

I guess there MIGHT be some hackery you can do to get it to work, but as far as I know it would be illegal to do so.

EDIT: And one other thing. Cell phones do not have inbound caller ID (sms ID) unless the number is programmed into the phone, so even if you found a way to make your number appear differently or hide your number, I really think it would be impossible to make it show a company name on the inbound message, even with awesome hackery.