Twilio: a resourceful utility

Twilio is used to create communication/telephony applications like SMS appointment reminders or real-time chat applications. By providing an easy-to-consume RESTful API – as well as SDKs for most major programming languages– developers can create applications that let businesses engage and reach their customers direct to their mobile device and in more intuitive ways. Because Twilio allows developers to consume its web service REST API in their application, developers do not need to dedicate servers to support those services. In terms of real-world implementations, Salesforce used Twilio to capture feedback from its conference attendees. They leveraged Twilio’s simple HTTP API to SMS their 19,000 plus attendees with questions about what were the best applications they had seen that year. The HTTP API, which also allows XML, enabled Salesforce engineers to leverage their own platform, APEX programming language, and databases, without having to create a custom server or network. This meant that the application was created in hours, rather than weeks or months.

Streamline real-time communication with Twilio

Twilio is used to create a wide variety of applications and services such as mobile customer service functionality, in-app real-time chat services, automated surveying systems through SMS, SMS alerts, call automation, two-factor authentication, and more traditional VOIP systems such as call centers. The relative straightforwardness of Twilio’s API and ease of development are other reasons that Twilio has rapidly gained popularity over more traditional telephony and communication systems such as Asterisk. Using Twilio’s capabilities, you can create highly interactive communication applications without extensive Linux system administration, server development, scripting, and network programming. One of the rapidly growing areas of interest with Twilio is creating real-time communication applications that connect mobile devices to URLs. Leveraging services such as Pusher, you can create web applications that can receive calls and SMS messages through Twilio’s API, and display and include that functionality in real time through Pusher’s API. Leveraging these two APIs, you could create a real-time chat application that allows people from around the word to contribute by sending SMS and MMS messages. One of the more attractive features of Twilio’s API is the ability to effortlessly create two-factor authentication to any application or communication system. Functioning in a similar way to Gmail, an application could require users to enter a password that is sent directly to their phone before authenticating their account. By reducing the ability for unauthenticated access to data, Twilio enables enterprise security features without costly servers and the development of complicated in-app functionality. With Twilio, you can send picture messages meaning you can build in the functionality required to replicate applications such as Instagram and Flickr. In terms of possible applications, your e-commerce site could allow your customers to take a photo of the product they wish to sell or return, indicating real wear-and-tear and problems. TwiML is Twilio’s XML-like syntax that creates a set of instructions for Twilio applications, how to handle data, and what HTTP requests to make (POST, GET). With TwiML, you can therefore create interactive voice and SMS applications by ensuring text is read to the caller, record the caller’s voice, and other essential functionality. Twilio’s efficacy is built on allowing developers to bypass the outdated and disorganized telephony systems to build phone functions with modern programming languages.

Twilio: the way forward

Twilio has recently announced the integration of WebRTC into its client library, with which you can incorporate real-time connections in the browser rather than plugins, enabling you to build browser-based VOIP applications without much effort. With its collaboration with Windows Azure, developers can build powerful apps that use Twilio’s communication platform and leverage the scalability, reliability, and versatility of Azure. With Twilio’s voice and messaging API being integrated with platforms such as Google App Engine and Amazon Web Services, Twilio is a popular choice for cloud communications.