What are some common pitfalls to avoid when integrating external APIs, like the SMS gateway in this script, into PHP applications?

One common pitfall to avoid when integrating external APIs into PHP applications is not handling error responses properly. It is important to check for error codes or messages returned by the API and handle them accordingly to prevent unexpected behavior in your application.

// Check for error response from the API
$response = send_sms($phone_number, $message);

if ($response['status'] == 'error') {
    // Handle error response
    echo "Error sending SMS: " . $response['message'];
} else {
    // Process successful response
    echo "SMS sent successfully!";
}