Vonage Messages API
The Vonage Messages API is a single abstracted API that provides access to various messaging channels such as SMS, MMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Viber. It enables organisations to communicate with their customers throughout their journey to engage them and drive transactions, to fulfil their requirements, and to provide real-time support.
Features
- Single API enables SMS, MMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Viber.
- Rich media - Images, Audio, Video, Files, and Location.
- Detailed results e.g. read and delivery status, timestamps, and costs.
- Sandbox environment where developers can test the Messages API.
- Secure communications - API calls are secured by JWT authentication.
- Adaptive Routing analyses and sends SMS traffic through optimised routes.
Benefits
- Reduced development. Single API for all channels reduces the complexities.
- Increase customer engagement with notifications, QR codes, receipts, tickets, etc
- Messaging Insights. Analyse the delivery results across multiple messaging channels.
- Sandbox allows free testing of API capabilities to confirm compatibility.
- Security - Businesses can safely send/receive messages with JWT authentication
- Global reach and communicating with customers on their preferred channels.
Pricing
£0.01 to £0.03 a transaction
Service documents
Request an accessible format
Framework
G-Cloud 12
Service ID
3 9 9 6 2 2 7 8 9 0 5 0 5 1 6
Contact
Nexmo Inc.
Matthew Parker
Telephone: +447530580447
Email: matthew.parker@vonage.com
Service scope
- Software add-on or extension
- Yes, but can also be used as a standalone service
- What software services is the service an extension to
- Vonage Communications APIs can be used as extensions to any platform or application including Contact Centres, CRM, Workflow, AI/Bots. Vonage has an extensive partner network of integrated applications: https://www.vonage.com/communications-apis/partners/. Integrations include Salesforce, Microsoft, Mulesoft, Zendesk, Freshdesk, Magento, Amazon SNS, Zoho, Sugar CRM, Zoho, and many more.
- Cloud deployment model
- Public cloud
- Service constraints
- None, features & restrictions are documentation in our knowledge base at https://help.nexmo.com/ and within the developer documentation at https://developer.nexmo.com/
- System requirements
-
- HTTP REST API
- JavaScript/iOS/Android SDK
- SMPP
- SIP Trunking
User support
- Email or online ticketing support
- Email or online ticketing
- Support response times
- This depends on Support Plan selected: see https://www.nexmo.com/about-support for full details/options, response times for Free Support are typically 2-4 hours Mon-Fri, Enterprise Support customers receive a 30minutes response time SLA for Urgent issues.
- User can manage status and priority of support tickets
- Yes
- Online ticketing support accessibility
- None or don’t know
- Phone support
- Yes
- Phone support availability
- 24 hours, 7 days a week
- Web chat support
- Yes, at an extra cost
- Web chat support availability
- 9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
- Web chat support accessibility standard
- None or don’t know
- How the web chat support is accessible
- Via Support portal at https://help.nexmo.com/
- Web chat accessibility testing
- None
- Onsite support
- No
- Support levels
- We offer 3 levels of Support: Standard (Free) via Email/Web during Business Hours; Priority Support adding Chat and SLO; Enterprise Support with Phone Support & Designated Support Engineer and SLA. Details at https://www.nexmo.com/about-support
- Support available to third parties
- Yes
Onboarding and offboarding
- Getting started
- Vonage provide an online service including all documentation and tutorials. New users can sign-up for services for free and start testing at https://dashboard.nexmo.com/sign-up
- Service documentation
- Yes
- Documentation formats
-
- HTML
- Other
- Other documentation formats
- Github
- End-of-contract data extraction
- We don't store client data, usage and account information is available via Dashboard and API.
- End-of-contract process
- When the contract ends if you continue to use our services you will transition onto our standard usage list pricing and standard terms, assuming you continue to use our services.
Using the service
- Web browser interface
- Yes
- Supported browsers
-
- Internet Explorer 11
- Microsoft Edge
- Firefox
- Chrome
- Safari 9+
- Opera
- Application to install
- No
- Designed for use on mobile devices
- Yes
- Differences between the mobile and desktop service
- None relevant (API, SDK products support all application types including Web, Mobile Web, iOS/Android platforms)
- Service interface
- Yes
- Description of service interface
- Web Dashboard and APIs
- Accessibility standards
- None or don’t know
- Description of accessibility
- Vonage provides APIs for Service Management that enable customised application access to service features within any client application. The Vonage API Dashboard supports common features of Browser including Zoom/Resize.
- Accessibility testing
- None
- API
- Yes
- What users can and can't do using the API
- Communications via SMS/MMS, Voice including Text-to-speech/Speech Recognition, Video, 2FA Verification, Social Chat including WhatsApp/Facebook Messenger/Viber, transactional and email campaigns. Service/Account management. Reporting & Billing. Telephone Numbers. GDPR Data Redaction.
- API documentation
- Yes
- API documentation formats
-
- Open API (also known as Swagger)
- HTML
- API sandbox or test environment
- Yes
- Customisation available
- No
Scaling
- Independence of resources
- We operate a globally distributed high availability cloud platform and ensure spare capacity across our Data Centres to ensure we don't overload one or more locations.
Analytics
- Service usage metrics
- Yes
- Metrics types
-
Dashboard Analytics - Inbound & Outbound Volumes
Success Rates (Delivery & Conversion)
Quality (Message Delivery Quality) - Reporting types
-
- API access
- Real-time dashboards
- Reports on request
Resellers
- Supplier type
- Not a reseller
Staff security
- Staff security clearance
- Other security clearance
- Government security clearance
- Up to Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS)
Asset protection
- Knowledge of data storage and processing locations
- Yes
- Data storage and processing locations
-
- United Kingdom
- European Economic Area (EEA)
- EU-US Privacy Shield agreement locations
- Other locations
- User control over data storage and processing locations
- Yes
- Datacentre security standards
- Managed by a third party
- Penetration testing frequency
- At least every 6 months
- Penetration testing approach
- ‘IT Health Check’ performed by a Tigerscheme qualified provider or a CREST-approved service provider
- Protecting data at rest
-
- Physical access control, complying with SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
- Physical access control, complying with another standard
- Data sanitisation process
- Yes
- Data sanitisation type
-
- Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation
- Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
- Equipment disposal approach
- Complying with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v.30, CAS (Sanitisation) or ISO/IEC 27001
Data importing and exporting
- Data export approach
- Vonage API Group as a CPaaS provider of communications services does not store client data. Users can extract usage reports via the Vonage Dashboard at https://dashboard.nexmo.com. Reporting Analytics data can be viewed within the Dashboard, downloaded in CSV format, or accessed via Reports API.
- Data export formats
-
- CSV
- Other
- Other data export formats
- HTTP REST API (JSON)
- Data import formats
- Other
- Other data import formats
- HTTP REST API (JSON)
Data-in-transit protection
- Data protection between buyer and supplier networks
- TLS (version 1.2 or above)
- Data protection within supplier network
- TLS (version 1.2 or above)
Availability and resilience
- Guaranteed availability
- Vonage API Group offers SLAs for platform availability for customers who opt for the Enterprise Support plan. Our SLA under the Enterprise Support plan is for 99.99% availability. "Availability" means the platform is up and able to process inbound and outbound message traffic.
- Approach to resilience
- Vonage API Group has a robust global infrastructure designed for High Availability and Disaster Recovery scenarios. The platform has failover, DR and load-balancing attributes configured over resilient infrastructures across global data centres. The Vonage API platform fails-over to secondary environments within each data centre but also across region, providing true global redundancy.
- Outage reporting
- Public dashboard https://www.nexmostatus.com/. Subscription to alerts via email, SMS, Twitter, API (Webhook), RSS feed.
Identity and authentication
- User authentication needed
- Yes
- User authentication
-
- 2-factor authentication
- Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
- Username or password
- Other
- Other user authentication
- Dashboard access is via username/password with the user option to enable two-factor authentication. API access is via key/secret credentials or JSON Web Token (JWT) dependant on product.
- Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels
- Authentication via LDAP with two-factor authentication for internal tools. remote access over VPN is restricted with user certificates
- Access restriction testing frequency
- At least once a year
- Management access authentication
-
- 2-factor authentication
- Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
- Username or password
Audit information for users
- Access to user activity audit information
- Users have access to real-time audit information
- How long user audit data is stored for
- At least 12 months
- Access to supplier activity audit information
- No audit information available
- How long system logs are stored for
- At least 12 months
Standards and certifications
- ISO/IEC 27001 certification
- No
- ISO 28000:2007 certification
- No
- CSA STAR certification
- Yes
- CSA STAR accreditation date
- 19/06/2020
- CSA STAR certification level
- Level 1: CSA STAR Self-Assessment
- What the CSA STAR doesn’t cover
- N/A
- PCI certification
- No
- Other security certifications
- No
Security governance
- Named board-level person responsible for service security
- Yes
- Security governance certified
- No
- Security governance approach
- Vonage API Group ensures that we design our infrastructure and software with security in mind. We select datacenter providers with security compliance certification, and continuously review our system for vulnerabilities in-house and through 3rd parties. Dedicated security function lead by Chief Information security officer, Risk and vulnerability management process, Incident respond process , security compliance function
- Information security policies and processes
- Vonage API Group has a dedicated security team and a management process that among other things includes documented security policies, procedures, and staff training. A full list of Security Policies can be shared on request under NDA. Our Policies are aligned with HIPPA, ISO,PCI-DSS, HITRUST frameworks
Operational security
- Configuration and change management standard
- Supplier-defined controls
- Configuration and change management approach
- Vonage API Group's development process is built on the principle of segregation of duties and employs mandatory reviews and approvals. Each change to production environment is submitted by Development, tested by Quality Assurance, and reviewed by Operations before deployment. All source code is stored in private repositories that only engineering has access to.
- Vulnerability management type
- Supplier-defined controls
- Vulnerability management approach
- Vonage API Group employs a three-fold vulnerability management strategy which includes proactive updates of 3rd-party applications, internal monthly vulnerability scans, and external penetration tests. Vonage API Group keeps itself up to date with patches/upgrades and updates 3rd-party applications promptly as new versions are released. External penetration tests covering APIs, web applications, and SDKs are performed quarterly. External infrastructure vulnerability assessment is done annually.
- Protective monitoring type
- Supplier-defined controls
- Protective monitoring approach
- Vonage API Group uses enterprise grade monitoring systems to ensure monitoring on three different levels: networking (availability of devices), endpoint (disk, memory, CPU usage, etc.), and application level (process status, port status, log size, percentage of 400 Bad Requests, etc). All endpoints and all applications are monitored. Vonage API Group utilises risk-based approach to alerting. Depending on the criticality, on of the following alerting mechanisms is used: mail, sms, automatic call.
- Incident management type
- Supplier-defined controls
- Incident management approach
- Security incidents are managed through an incident report form within the ticketing system (JIRA), this records details of the incident and tracks the onward investigation until remediation actions can be put in place. Upon issue resolution, if necessary, the security team defines any further/longer-term remediation requirements, and assigns these to the appropriate team (e.g. operations, product engineering, etc). At each stage there are defined communications covering Identification, Investigation, Remediation, and Documentation (Reporting) of security incidents. Where customers are impacted; the “critical situations” team is notified (includes senior management), and Support communicates to affected customers, providing advisory, or specific remediation instructions.
Secure development
- Approach to secure software development best practice
- Conforms to a recognised standard, but self-assessed
Public sector networks
- Connection to public sector networks
- No
Pricing
- Price
- £0.01 to £0.03 a transaction
- Discount for educational organisations
- No
- Free trial available
- Yes
- Description of free trial
- Sign up for a free account at https://dashboard.nexmo.com/sign-up including 2 EUR of free credit for trialing the platform and sending messages.
- Link to free trial
- https://dashboard.nexmo.com/sign-up