Does anybody know of a way to send an SMS message from within the client application... in other words, when the message is sent from the client device their telephone number will show up as the sender. If I use a service like Twillo.com, the telephone number assigned to my account is assigned to the sent SMS. So if a client using my WebConnect application clicks on a link to send an SMS message (perhaps an invitation to another person), I want their telephone number to be exposed to the recipient not some service that has assigned a telephone number to my account. Assuming the message is sent to a friend or colleague, chances are good the person receiving the message will look at it and not assume it was spam.

The ideal solution would be a JavaScript library that has access to smartphone hardware.

Nope - the only way you can do this is through the phone that has that number. However, Twilio should let you set up phone numbers for your area code and then the number can be set up to forward to some other number. Works for specific companies but probably not generically for multiple customers.

There is no JavaScript support for sending SMS in the browser. There are proposals for that but none of the browsers actually support it. The only this can be done is through a native app (ie. Cordova/Ionic etc) and then you have to deal with the app store etc.

+++ Rick ---

You can pop up the messaging app with a number and text prefilled:

<a href="sms:+15039146335&body=Hi there.%10This is a test message.">Text us</a>

You can also do this in code via window.location.href.

But you can't automate the actual sending of the message - the user has to explicitly send the message and then navigate back to your application.

+++ Rick ---

Shortly after posting the question, I came up with the same solution. I think this might work if I include a token in the body of the message that allows the recipient be tracked...

In my uses case, I popup an SMS message, the user enters their contact as a friend to invite to my app. When the friend receives the message the body includes a link back to the server that when they click on it, I'm able track the hit back to the original sender who invited this new user. The relation between the two has now been made and the social graph is complete.

Thanks for your considerations!