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Installation ​

Requirements ​

  • PHP 8.3 or higher
  • Laravel 12.x or higher

Install via Composer ​

shell
composer require samuelmwangiw/africastalking-laravel

Publish the Config File ​

shell
php artisan vendor:publish --tag="africastalking-config"

This creates config/africastalking.php:

php
return [
    'username' => env('AFRICASTALKING_USERNAME', 'sandbox'),
    'api-key'  => env('AFRICASTALKING_API_KEY'),

    'sms' => [
        'from' => env('AFRICASTALKING_FROM'),
    ],

    'payment' => [
        'product-name' => env('AFRICASTALKING_PAYMENT_PRODUCT'),
    ],

    'voice' => [
        'from' => env('AFRICASTALKING_VOICE_PHONE_NUMBER'),
    ],
];

Configure Your Environment ​

Add the following variables to your .env file:

dotenv
AFRICASTALKING_USERNAME=sandbox
AFRICASTALKING_API_KEY=your-api-key-here

# SMS sender ID (optional — uses shortcode if omitted)
AFRICASTALKING_FROM=MyApp

# Payments product name (required for payment features)
AFRICASTALKING_PAYMENT_PRODUCT=MyPaymentProduct

# Voice caller ID (required for outbound calls)
AFRICASTALKING_VOICE_PHONE_NUMBER=+254700000000

Sandbox Testing

Keep AFRICASTALKING_USERNAME=sandbox while developing. The sandbox environment is free and does not send real SMS messages or charge real money. Switch to your live credentials only when going to production.

Verify the Setup ​

Option 1 — php artisan about ​

The package registers itself with Laravel's about command. Run it to confirm your credentials are loaded and the API is reachable:

shell
php artisan about

Look for the Africastalking section in the output:

  Africastalking ...............................................................
  SDK Version ................................................. 1.x.x
  Username ................................................... sandbox
  SenderID ................................................... MyApp
  Voice Phone # .............................................. +254700000000
  Payment Product ............................................ MyPaymentProduct
  App Balance ................................................ KES 1,000
  Payments Product Balance ................................... KES 5,000
  • If App Balance shows a value (even KES 0), the API key and username are correct.
  • If it shows FAILED in red, double-check your AFRICASTALKING_API_KEY and AFRICASTALKING_USERNAME in .env.
  • Payments Product Balance will show Not setup in yellow if AFRICASTALKING_PAYMENT_PRODUCT is not configured — that is expected if you are not using the payments API.

Option 2 — Fetch the balance in code ​

php
use SamuelMwangiW\Africastalking\Facades\Africastalking;

$balance = Africastalking::application()->balance();

echo $balance->amount;   // e.g. "100.00"
echo $balance->currency; // e.g. "KES"