Sending Messages with Third-Party Services

Java 8 applications on App Engine can use third-party companies to send email, SMS messages, or make and receive phone calls. For example, you might send email to confirm business transactions, confirm the creation of user accounts, or send marketing communications.

This page lists some examples of companies that provide communication services and client libraries for Java 8 applications on App Engine.

Note: The services offered by these third-party companies are not covered by the App Engine Service Level Agreement.

Mailgun

Mailgun provides both RESTful APIs and client libraries for sending email, along with a free quota for all users. See the monthly pricing calculator on the sign up page for pricing on additional messages and volume discounts.

Learn more about Mailgun:

• Mailgun developer documentation
• Mailgun client libraries

Mailjet

Mailjet is a global email service that offers a free quota for App Engine users. To take advantage of this offer, click the following link to Create a Mailjet account.

Learn more about Mailjet:

• Mailjet developer documentation
• Mailjet client libraries

SendGrid

You can use SendGrid to power your emails on App Engine. SendGrid can improve your deliverability and provide transparency into what actually happens to those emails your app sends. You can see statistics on opens, clicks, unsubscribes, spam reports and more with the SendGrid interface or its API.

App Engine customers can take advantage of a free quota by signing up for the SendGrid Email API plan through the Google Cloud console. Note that Google is compensated for customers who sign up for a paid account.

Learn more about SendGrid:

• SendGrid developer documentation
• SendGrid client libraries

SMS and Voice Services via Twilio

You can use Twilio to embed voice, VoIP, and messaging into applications. The Twilio platform consists of the Twilio Markup Language (TwiML), a RESTful API, and VoIP SDKs for web browsers, Android, and iOS.

Learn more about Twilio:

• Twilio developer documentation
• Twilio client libraries

Adding client libraries and third-party API keys to your app

To make client libraries available in your App Engine development and deployment environments, specify the library in your app's dependencies file. For example if you use Maven, specify the library in the <dependencies> section of your project's pom.xml file.

Most third party services use API keys to authenticate your app. You generate the keys on the third-party's site. To use those keys in your app, we recommend you do the following:

1. Add the key to the environment variables section in your app's app.yaml file.

   For example:

    env_variables:
        EMAIL_API_KEY: key-from-third-party
   

2. In your app's code, retrieve the key from your environment variables.

3. Pass the key as required by the third party's API.

Note that anyone with access to your app.yaml will also have access to your API keys. If you can't store app.yaml in a secure location, we recommend you store the API keys in a secure location such as Firestore in Datastore mode (Datastore) and retrieve the keys at runtime, or keep the keys in your code but encrypt them with a keystore, such as Cloud Key Management Service. To learn about the advantages of each approach, see Choosing a secret management solution.