Sinch Community

Extensible Markup Language - This is a standard for creating markup languages which describe the structure of data. It is not a fixed set of elements like HTML, but rather, it is like SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) in that it is a meta-language, or a language for describing languages. XML enables authors to define their own tags. XML is a formal specification of the World Wide Web Consortium. ... View more

Wireless Markup Language - This is a markup language developed specifically for wireless applications. WML is based on XML. ... View more

Web Real Time Communications (WebRTC) is an open-source project that provides browsers and mobile applications with Real Time Communications (RTC) capabilities via simple APIs. ... View more

Webhooks are custom callbacks (automated messages) sent from a web page or app when they a triggered by an event, such as, receiving a phone call or an incoming SMS, and provide a method for augmenting or altering the behaviour of the web page or app. They contain a message or payload and are sent to a unique URL, essentially the app's phone number or address. Callbacks may be maintained, modified, and managed by third-party users and developers who may not necessarily be affiliated with the originating website or application. ... View more

Wireless Application Protocol - This is a secure specification that allows users to access information instantly via handheld wireless devices such as mobile phones, pagers, two-way radios, smartphones and communicators. ... View more

Virtual Subscription Database. This is used by Operators to stop SMS spam (the end users have to be subscribed before messages can be sent to them). ... View more

Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) is a satellite communication technology using small dish antennas for narrowband and broadband. ... View more

A Virtual Private Network extends a private network across a public network and enables users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network. ... View more

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a technology used for the delivery of voice communications (that is, talking) over the internet. ... View more

Visitor Location Register (VLR) is a database which stores information about mobile phones that have recently joined a particular area of a mobile operator’s network. It plays a vital role in keeping track of roamed mobile phone subscribers and co-ordinates with the HLR to determine whether the mobile is a permanent subscriber or a temporary one. Whenever a Mobile Switch Center (MSC) detects a new mobile in its network, in addition to creating a new record in the VLR, it also updates the HLR of the mobile subscriber, apprising it of the new location of that mobile (the MSC address). The MSC address received during an HLR lookup for a particular mobile number is useful for identifying numbers roaming in another country. The foreign network that the number is logged onto can also be identified using this data. ... View more

Enables you to receive text message from anyone. Virtual SMS makes it possible to send SMS over the internet without having to use a physical phone. ... View more

Also called a DID number, it is a telephone number that is not locked down to a specific phoneline.   Learn how to buy a virtual number. ... View more

A third-party providing MMS VAS by sending content over multimedia messages and processing requests sent from subscribers over multimedia messages. Also referred to as VASP. ... View more

Services such as news on demand, pictures of the day, and the like that are provided by VASPs. Also referred to as VAS. ... View more

Validity period is an optional value that can be set on a per message basis to control how long an SMSC should attempt to deliver an SMS message. It is usually only useful when a destination recipient handset is turned off or out of coverage, and an SMS message is time critical. The value of the validity period is the “number of minutes” from the time the SMS message is submitted, until it should expire. The value may be specified as an absolute (date and time to the second) or relative (indicated in HHMMSS). When this time is reached, an SMSC would generally return an expired delivery report.   If no validity period is set, the Sinch SMSC default is used which is 2 days (2,880 minutes). For example - setting the validity period to 30 would result in an SMS message only being retried for delivery by an SMSC for a maximum of 30 minutes. ... View more