Bandwidth brings Verified SMS by Google to market with customers KAYAK and Fivestars

RALEIGH, N.C., Dec. 12, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Enterprise CPaaS company Bandwidth announced today that they are among the first providers partnering with Google for Verified SMS, which will be gradually rolling out to Google's Messages app on Android starting this week. Businesses are now sending trillions of messages each year, and Verified SMS aims to reduce fraud risk while improving response rates and brand experience over text messaging. Verified SMS demonstrates Google's continued commitment to improving the ways businesses communicate with consumers, putting business information such as a brand's logo and company overview immediately in front of text recipients.

To see if your phone is enabled for Verified SMS, text Bandwidth's own verified phone number at 844.661.1938 using Google Messages.

As Bandwidth integrates with Verified SMS by Google, businesses building text messaging functionality using Bandwidth's API platform will now be able to verify any phone number across Bandwidth's A2P messaging portfolio, which includes APIs for toll-free and local numbers as well as its new short codes offering. The verification process is a simple application submission and approval—once accepted, the phone number is instantly verified, which will be displayed in Google's Messages app on Android as the rollout progresses. This technology will provide a number of benefits to enterprises utilizing messaging communications and their consumers, including:

• An added layer of safety and authenticity so consumers know they are communicating with the brand they think they are.
• Protection against spoofing and fraud threats via text messaging.
• Personalized brand impressions through a channel that historically has been impersonal for business communication.
• Automatic verification with no behavior change or added download from the end user, as the enterprise is verified through Bandwidth and Google.

"It's exciting to be a first adopter for such an important new phase of text messaging and to be able to offer this as a benefit to Bandwidth's messaging customers," said Brad Roldan, VP of Product Management at Bandwidth. According to Roldan,  "the brilliance of Verified SMS by Google is that it's tied to the business's number so it just works—with no change on the part of the recipient. " Android phone users with the Messages app will now be able to see a substantiated identity if a company that is verified sends them a message. Two of Bandwidth's customers, KAYAK and Fivestars, will be among the first to provide these benefits to their users in the initial rollout.

"At KAYAK we are committed to building products and features that make planning and managing travel, easier," said Matthias Keller, Chief Scientist & SVP, Technology at KAYAK. "With Verified SMS by Google, our users can feel confident that the travel updates they receive are backed by verified information. The move to Bandwidth makes communicating with our users easier and gives us an extra level of reassurance that they are getting the information they need."  

Chris Luo, SVP of Marketing at Fivestars, added that, "We are looking forward to using Verified SMS as it is rolled out. While the higher response rates from our 50 million+ users and the opportunity to build our brand through SMS are very exciting, keeping our communications and our users secure is very important to us."

ABOUT BANDWIDTH INC.
Bandwidth (NASDAQ: BAND) is a software company focused on communications for the enterprise. Companies like Google, Microsoft, and RingCentral use Bandwidth's APIs to easily embed voice, messaging and 911 access into software and applications. Bandwidth is the first and only CPaaS provider offering a robust selection of communications APIs built around their own nationwide IP voice network – one of the largest in the nation. More information available at www.bandwidth.com.

SOURCE Bandwidth Inc.