One-Time User Authentication with SMS Using Django and Twilio

Question

I am writing a back-end in Django for a mobile app I am creating. I need to authenticate a user the first time they open the mobile app through SMS to verify it is a real person

Answer 1

Twilio evangelist and maintainer of django-twilio here.

What you're looking to build is something very easy to do, I can outline the steps for you here:

• Create a Django model that stores a user's number and a generated passcode
• When a new user is created, take their number and SMS them the code using the Twilio REST API
• When they enter the passcode you sent them, cross reference it with the one stored in the database.
• If the number is right: verify them, if not, tell them it is wrong and offer to send them an SMS again.

I hope that is clear, if you have any more questions, feel free to get in touch at paul@twilio.com