Introduction to Azure Communication Services

Azure Communication Services Overview

Azure Communication Services (ACS) is a set of fully managed APIs and SDKs that enable you to integrate voice, video, chat, SMS, email, and telephony into your apps using cloud-scale infrastructure.

Some key capabilities include:

• Email, SMS, Chat, Voice, and Video Calling
• Cross-platform SDKs for JavaScript, .NET, Java, Python, etc.
• Identity integration (Azure AD or ACS identities)
• Global delivery and compliance support
• Easy connection with Microsoft 365 and Graph APIs

Azure Communication Services opens up a wide range of possibilities for integrating real-time, multichannel communication into apps and workflows—especially powerful for SMBs looking to scale client engagement, support, and automation.

Common Use Cases

Here’s how businesses and developers are leveraging ACS:

• Customer Support & Engagement
  • Embed chat, voice, or video into websites or portals for live support.
  • Enable SMS or email notifications for order updates, reminders, or onboarding.
• Virtual Appointments & Telehealth
  • Schedule and host secure video calls between clients and professionals.
  • Use chat and file sharing for pre-visit forms or post-visit summaries.
• E-commerce & Retail
  • Send transactional emails or SMS (order confirmations, delivery alerts).
  • Offer in-app chat for product questions.
• Mobile & Web Apps
  • Add real-time messaging and calling features to your mobile apps.

Here is a Basic Example

Let's suppose you have a contact form in a website. When submitted, the data is posted to an Azure Function that delivers it through a preconfigured ACS email service, which is connected to your business email domain. This is the basic (and simplified) code for this purpose:

// function.js

const { app } = require('@azure/functions');
const { EmailClient } = require("@azure/communication-email");

/**
 * Azure Function that gets triggered by making an HTTP request to its URL
 */
app.http('submitForm', {
    methods: ['POST'],
    authLevel: 'anonymous',
    handler: async (request) => {
        const { name, email, subject, message } = request.params || {};

        const msg = {
            to: 'you@<yourdomain>',
            subject: subject,
            html: "<p>From: " + name + " @ " + email + "</p>"
                + "<p>Message: " + message + "</p>",
        };

        const connection = process.env['COMMUNICATION_SERVICES_CONNECTION_STRING'];
        const client = new EmailClient(connection);

        sendMail(client, msg);
    }
});

/**
 * Sends the email via Azure Communication Services
 * @param client: The Azure Communication Services client
 * @param msg: The form submitted data
 */
async function sendMail(client, msg) {
    const emailMessage = {
        senderAddress: "donotreply@<yourdomain>",
        content: {
            subject: msg.subject,
            html: msg.html,
        },
        recipients: {
            to: [{ address: msg.to }],
        },
    };

    const poller = await client.beginSend(emailMessage);
    const result = await poller.pollUntilDone();

    console.log(`ID: ${result.id}: ${result.status}`);
}

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