Getting Started with Sent

Send your first message in minutes. This guide covers everything from account setup to your first API call.

What you'll accomplish: Set up your account and complete KYC → Get your API credentials → Send your first message

⏳ Time required: 10-15 minutes

What You'll Need

  • A Sent LogoSent account
    • If you don't have one, you can create yours here
    • You will receive an email with a magic verification link to verify your account
  • Business information for account verification (KYC)
  • Meta Business Portfolio (for WhatsApp integration)
  • Payment method for billing

KYC Verification

Start the KYC verification from your Sent Dashboard to complete account verification, comply with messaging regulations and unlock full access to the Sent platform.

What we need:

  • Business registration details
  • Contact information for compliance

KYC Verification


  • 🔐 Start the verification process by clicking the Start Verification button in your Sent Dashboard
  • 📞 Fill in your Business Contact details
  • 🧳 Fill in your Business Details

  • 📤 Select the planned destination countries you plan to send messages to

    • Select the target countries you plan to send messages to. You can select from:
      • United States (US)
      • Global (all countries)
      • Selected Countries (you can select multiple countries)
    • If your target audience is Selected Countries (not United States or Global):
      • You may need to fill in additional compliance details.
      • Check the table below to see which countries require additional compliance details and which documents you need to upload.
      • You can upload documents using the Select & Upload Documents button for each selected country.
    Supported CountryDocument #1Document #2Document #3
    Australia (AU)Utility Bill (required)
    Belgium (BE)Proof of Local Address (required)Passport (required)Business Registration Certificate (required)
    Poland (PL)Proof of Local Address (required)Government ID or Passport or Business Registration Certificate (Optional)
    South Africa (ZA)Proof of Local Address (required)Passport or Business Registration Certificate (Optional)
    Sweden (SE)Proof of Local Address (required)Government ID or Passport or Business Registration Certificate (Optional)
    Thailand (TH)Proof of Worldwide Address (required)Business Registration Certificate (required)Government ID or Passport (Optional)
    United Kingdom (UK)Proof of Local Address (required)Government ID or Passport or Business Registration Certificate (Optional)
  • 📫 Select your messaging use case & campaign details
  • You can fill in you campaign details by clicking the Add Details button in the campaign details section
  • You can use the Suggest button to automatically fill in the campaign details based on your use case.
  • If your use case is "High Volume", you will need to select at least 2 use cases.

  • 💳 Fill in your billing details

    • If your billing address is the same as your business address, you can use the Use Business Address button to automatically fill in the billing address.
    • Add at least 1 payment method by using the Add new card button.
  • ✅ Submit your KYC application
    • Verify your KYC application details and if everything checks out, click the Submit button to submit your application.
    • If you need to make any changes, click the Previous button to edit your application details.

Timeline: Usually approved within a few hours, sometimes in minutes. You'll get an email when verification is complete.

You will receive a confirmation email when your KYC verification is complete.

While verification is processing, you can continue with the next steps to save time.

Channel Setup & WhatsApp Business Connection

Select a phone number that will be your business identity across SMS and WhatsApp.

Please choose the number wisely:

  • Recipients will see the number you choose across all communication channels
  • It positively contributes to a better brand recognition and trust

Channel Setup & WhatsApp Business Connection


  • 📢 Start the Channel Setup process by clicking the Continue Channel Setup button in your Sent Dashboard
  • 📱 Select a phone number that will be your business identity across SMS and WhatsApp
    • Choose based on your target market location. Sent automatically configures this number for all messaging channels

  • 📨 Connect your WhatsApp Business account

    1. Log in with your Facebook/Meta account
    2. Select or create a WhatsApp Business account
    3. Grant Sent permission to manage messages and conversations
    4. Add payment details to your Meta Business account

    ℹ Don't have a Meta Business Portfolio? No problem - you can create one during this process.

    ❗️ We suggest to use the same number for SMS and WhatsApp to make sure everything runs smoothly.

Sent is working on unified billing to consolidate all messaging costs in one place.

  • 🧾 Add your billing details
  • 💳 Add your payment details
    • This step is optional but recommended to start sending messages
    • You can always add your payment details later in the Billing section in your Sent Dashboard
  • ⌛️ Wait for the Channel Setup to complete
    • This process usually takes just a few seconds
  • ✅ Channel Setup completed
    • 🎉 Congratulations! Your account is now ready to send messages
    • You can copy your API credentials from this page, or you can do it later in the API Keys section in your Sent Dashboard

Security reminder: NEVER share your Sender ID and API Key(s) with anyone.

Set Up Billing

Skip this step if you already set up billing in the previous step

Setup billing from you Sent Dashboard to start sending messages. You can either pay per message or pre-load credits.

Payment options:

  • Credit/debit card for automatic billing

💡 Quick tip: Once your payment method is confirmed, you can also pre-load account credits (optional).

What you'll pay: Only for messages sent - no monthly fees or setup costs.

Create your first Template

Create your first template from your Sent Dashboard to start sending messages.

  • We recommend you to start with one of our pre-designed templates
  • You can always create as many templates as you need later

Create your first template


  • 📝 Create your first template
    • Use our pre-designed templates by clicking the Create from Sample button
  • 📝 Select a sample template
    • For this guide, we will use the first template (Hello with sms and whatsapp)
    • Click on the Use Sample button
  • 📝 Submit the template for review
    • In this page, you can customize the template details to your needs
    • Once done, click on the Submit for Review button

The template will be automatically submitted for review to Meta for WhatsApp approval, but you can still send SMS messages while the template is being reviewed.

  • ✅ Retrieve your template ID
    • Copy the template ID (you can use the copy icon on the right of the template ID)
    • You will need this template ID to send messages using the API

Get Your API Keys

Skip this step if you saved the API credentials in step 2 above

Generate your credentials from your Sent Dashboard to start building with the Sent API.

Security reminder: NEVER share your Sender ID and API Key(s) with anyone.

💡 Quick tip: On the API Keys page in your Sent Dashboard, you can easily copy both your x-sender-id and x-api-key using the copy icon on the right of each key.

You'll receive two credentials:

x-sender-id: xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
x-api-key: xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx

Store these safely - you'll need them for all API requests.

Send Your First Message

Now for the moment of truth - let's send a message! You can use either our API or test in your Sent Dashboard Playground.

  • 📍 API Endpoint: POST https://api.sent.dm/v2/messages/contact
  • 💡 Quick tips:
    1. Don't forget to replace YOUR_SENDER_ID and YOUR_API_KEY with your actual Sender ID and API Key that you received in the previous step.
    2. Replace RECIPIENT_PHONE_NUMBER with your recipient phone number that you want to send the message to.
    3. Replace TEMPLATE_ID with your template ID that you received in the previous step.

Prefer visual testing? Use our playground to test messages with a simple interface.

curl -X POST "https://api.sent.dm/v2/messages/phone" \
  -H "x-sender-id: YOUR_SENDER_ID" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "phoneNumber": "RECIPIENT_PHONE_NUMBER",
    "templateId": "TEMPLATE_ID",
  }'
const response = await fetch('https://api.sent.dm/v2/messages/phone', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'x-sender-id': 'YOUR_SENDER_ID',
    'x-api-key': 'YOUR_API_KEY',
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    phoneNumber: 'RECIPIENT_PHONE_NUMBER',
    templateId: 'TEMPLATE_ID',
  })
});
import requests

response = requests.post(
  'https://api.sent.dm/v2/messages/phone',
  headers={
    'x-sender-id': 'YOUR_SENDER_ID',
    'x-api-key': 'YOUR_API_KEY',
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
  },
  json={
    'phoneNumber': 'RECIPIENT_PHONE_NUMBER',
    'templateId': 'TEMPLATE_ID',
  }
)

Success response:

  • Response Code: 200
  • Response Body: messageId: "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx"

🎉 Awesome! Your message is on its way to your chosen recipient!

What's Next?

🎉 Congratulations! Start building powerful messaging experiences with Sent's unified platform. Here's what to explore next:

Build your messaging system:

Learn and test:

Introduction

Build intelligent multi-channel messaging with Sent's unified API platform

Creating Templates

Master the art of creating templates in Sent

On this page

Getting Started with Sent
What You'll Need
KYC Verification
Channel Setup & WhatsApp Business Connection
Set Up Billing
Create your first Template
Get Your API Keys
Send Your First Message
What's Next?