June 2014 Summaries

By applying multivariate testing to their phone tree using Twilio, a company can gain insights into various aspects of their IVR system, such as the clarity of options, caller completion rates, and user experience. They can scientifically test hypotheses about their menu structures and content, making data-driven decisions to improve customer service. The process involves creating a new Content class to separate structure from content, modifying the Step class to use this new approach, and updating the call_handler.rb script to accommodate variant selection and metric updates. With these changes, the company can iterate on their IVR system, applying continuous improvement and optimization techniques to enhance the overall customer experience.

The text discusses the use of Natural Language Processing (NLP) to improve SMS interfaces in Twilio apps, with a focus on creating more human-like experiences for users. The author uses Python and the TextBlob library to analyze user input, detect sentiment, correct spelling errors, and identify languages used by customers. By leveraging NLP, developers can create more personalized and effective interactions with their users, leading to improved customer satisfaction and engagement.

We replaced our data pipeline with zero downtime by addressing the in-flight and post-flight problem, optimizing for high write throughput and read throughput, shared ownership, scaling limitations of a single MySQL cluster, and choosing what to fix. We solved these issues by splitting the data into separate stores, using sharding, and implementing services between clients and databases. The rollout was planned in multiple phases with minimal risk, utilizing tools like Shadow and Account Flags. By making slow and steady progress, we ensured the new system was stable and reliable, avoiding major problems and delivering a successful outcome.

The Twilio Cookbook is a new edition with recipes and code samples to build various projects, including picture messaging and call queuing using Twilio. The cookbook aims to provide a one-stop shop for developers building their own Twilio projects. To win a copy of the book, participants must share their favorite Twilio recipe on Twitter or GitHub, along with a snippet of code that helped them in a previous project.

You are invited to watch the US vs Germany World Cup game with Twilio and fellow Google I/O attendees at a watch party on Thursday, June 26th at Mars Bar. The event will feature breakfast from Specialty's, coffee, and mimosas, as well as four TVs for optimal viewing. Registration is recommended to secure a seat, but can be done at the door if needed.

A Go developer, Ricky Robinett, shares a step-by-step guide on how to build a basic Go app that sends an SMS message using Twilio. The process begins by setting up the necessary dependencies, including installing Go and creating a Twilio account. Then, the code is written to make a POST request to the Twilio API with the required parameters, such as the sender's phone number, recipient's phone number, and the body of the message. After sending the SMS, the response from Twilio is handled by checking the status code and parsing the JSON data to retrieve the message SID. The final code is presented, which can be run using `go run twilio.go` to send an SMS message.

The Garduino Phone is a project that utilizes an Arduino, Twilio, Sinatra, and Pusher to create a remote monitoring system for a garden. The system consists of two sensors: one to measure temperature and another to detect moisture levels. When the sensors detect abnormal conditions, such as high or low temperatures or insufficient watering, they send alerts to the user's phone through Twilio. The Arduino code connects to the WiFi network, reads sensor data, and sends HTTP requests to a Sinatra server to update the alert status. The Sinatra server handles incoming requests from the Arduino, processes the data, and sends SMS notifications to the user's phone using Twilio.

Vengo Labs is a startup founded by Brian Shimmerlik after winning the NYC Next Idea competition in 2012, with the goal of re-inventing vending machines using new technology and Twilio SMS to power sales. The company's initial idea was to install software-powered vending machines in taxis, but it expanded into other types of vending machines with touch screens that offer a wide range of products, including discounts on Uber rides. Vengo Labs took control of hardware manufacturing after finding contractors who couldn't meet their standards, and now focuses on design and software as its core competency. The company has partnered with Uber to launch a marketing campaign using Twilio SMS to attract users and offers 10% off first Uber rides to Vengo customers.

Twilio is utilizing WebRTC technology, allowing businesses to scale their support teams quickly and efficiently. With the ability to run a fully functional call center from a laptop, companies can now provide customer support across multiple platforms, including video, social media, in-browser calls, and chat. Twilio customers are using WebRTC to save money, keep customers happy, and scale fast. The company will be hosting talks at WebRTC World, where attendees can learn more about the technology and its applications. LiveOps and HomeDepot have successfully implemented WebRTC and Twilio, allowing them to provide customer support across multiple channels in a short amount of time. By leveraging WebRTC, businesses can gain a competitive edge and drive innovation in their industry.

Twilio has introduced SMS enabled toll-free numbers to simplify and scale customer interactions, allowing customers to receive real-time support on-the-go via text messaging. This feature enables businesses to offer automated and live agent support, build virtual holds, create seamless voice-text transfers, brand each interaction, reduce call center volume, and send and receive messages at three times the speed of local 10-digit numbers. Toll-free numbers can be leased for $2/month at $0.0075 per message, with standard text messaging rates applying for users sending messages to and from a toll-free number.

Building an agent chat utility that connects customer service departments to mobile customers via SMS on Toll-free numbers using Twilio's powerful Messaging API. The application will have functions such as displaying incoming and outgoing text messages, internal agent communication, and collaboration. The tutorial uses XAMPP, ngrok, and PHP to build the basic chat functionality, which is then enhanced with Twilio's toll-free SMS feature. The system displays incoming text messages in a chat window, allows agents to reply using the @ symbol followed by the phone number and message text, and integrates with Twilio's Messages resource to send outgoing messages. The tutorial provides a step-by-step guide on how to set up the system, including configuring a Toll-free number, handling incoming texts from customers, and sending text messages back to customers.

The author, Kyle Kelly-Yahner, created a hack to send files from feature phones using Twilio and Kloudless. He built upon an existing project called txt.us, which allows sending WhatsApp-like messages, by adding the ability to send files via SMS using a link. The code uses Flask and the Kloudless Python SDK to interact with cloud storage accounts, allowing users to list and download files from their connected accounts. With Twilio's SMS functionality, the author was able to create an app that can send files without requiring a smartphone. The hack is relatively simple, with only about 150 lines of code, making it accessible for developers to build upon and customize further.

As a comic book enthusiast and programmer, Ricky Robinett shares his journey from being obsessed with Marvel's Age of Apocalypse as a 5th grader to discovering the power of programming and building his own "what if" scenarios. He explores how the Internet and programming allow individuals to challenge assumptions and answer their own questions, citing hackathons as a key experience in his career growth. Robinett highlights the importance of community and collaboration in the hacker space, particularly through his work with Ordr.in and now as a Developer Evangelist at Twilio, where he aims to empower developers to build their own "what ifs" and make a positive impact on the world.

You can find Twilio at Call Center Week in Las Vegas, where they will be showcasing their expertise on building agile contact centers. Twilio partners with companies like Wix to help them scale their customer support and deliver great customer experiences. By using cloud communications and software solutions like Twilio's Agile Contact Center platform, businesses can increase efficiency, reduce costs, and gather more data on customer interactions. This is achieved by adopting principles such as scalable architecture, automation, and real-time analytics. The event will feature sessions on WebRTC 101 and the power of agile contact centers, with opportunities to network and learn from industry experts.

The Parkinson’s Voice Initiative is a non-profit organization that uses Twilio's communications technology to help diagnose and treat Parkinson's disease through the analysis of human voice recordings. The initiative was founded by Dr. Max Little, who discovered that voice disorders can be key indicators of Parkinson's disease. With the help of Twilio, the PVI system compares voice samples of Parkinson's sufferers to healthy individuals and analyzes the difference between the two, identifying abnormal vocal fluctuations associated with the disease. Participants in the study simply need to make a phone call using any cell phone or VoIP client to provide their voice data, which is then analyzed by the platform. The initiative has already recorded 17,000 voices in under six months and is working to improve medical research and treatment for Parkinson's disease.

Twilio has announced that it has upgraded its public-facing production infrastructure to protect against OpenSSL vulnerabilities disclosed on June 5th, 2014. The upgrades were completed in response to the vulnerability disclosure and are sufficient to mitigate the risk for Twilio customers. Additionally, Twilio has released updated versions of its Client SDKs for iOS and Android to address the vulnerability. However, it is recommended that customers upgrade their production hosts for their Twilio applications as well. Further resources, such as detailed analysis and patch information, are available on the Twilio website or through distribution's package manager.

Airenvy aims to simplify the experience of short-term renting by automating common problems such as managing cleanings, check-ins, and key hand-offs, while also providing a concierge service for guests. The company uses SMS to facilitate transparency and communication between renters and guests, enabling them to stay on the same page and avoid misunderstandings. This approach not only streamlines the booking process but also adds a personal touch by incorporating text messages that can be easily accessed through an intuitive dashboard.

For companies looking to scale or scale quickly, choosing the right communications plan is crucial. At the Engineering The Customer Experience Roadshow, a panel discussion between Matt Robinson of GoCardless and Andrew Peck of Citigroup explored the pros and cons of building vs buying a communications platform. Both companies opted for Twilio to power their customer experience, with Matt implementing a custom call queue system to improve support efficiency and Andrew highlighting the importance of flexibility in a contact center to accommodate growing customer bases. As the #CXRoadshow continues, upcoming stops include Chicago, New York, Santa Monica, and San Francisco.

Voice biometric authentication is becoming increasingly accessible, with APIs like Twilio making it easier for organizations to implement this technology. Unlike traditional passwords, voice biometrics use digital sampling to verify a speaker's identity, which is harder to replicate and thus more secure. While large institutions such as banks and government departments have traditionally adopted voice authentication, the technology is now available to a broader audience through services like VoiceIt, which offers integration with Twilio for a seamless user experience. The process involves creating a voice print through enrollment, where a user repeats a phrase multiple times, and this print is then used for future authentication. The system can be set up to use users' phone numbers as identifiers, simplifying the process, and is particularly useful for two-factor authentication scenarios. Through a REST API, businesses can fine-tune the matching algorithms to adjust the strictness of authentication, making it a versatile tool for enhancing security in various applications.

JDBI is a library that provides an improved interface over JDBC for working with SQL databases in Java, offering two different style APIs: fluent style and object style. The fluent style API is similar to the JDBC interface, while the object style API provides an idiomatic Java interface for executing queries. JDBI uses cglib, a code generation library, to create dynamic proxy objects and intercept field access. However, this can lead to issues with concurrent execution, as seen in the case of using `JdbcConnectionPool` instances concurrently. To fix this issue, it is recommended to only intercept methods on the instances created from a Factory, but due to an upstream bug, this approach was not feasible. Instead, it is suggested to avoid using the generated DAOs entirely and use jOOQ, which provides a builder interface for safely constructing SQL queries. This allows for greater flexibility in crafting queries while avoiding direct manipulation of raw SQL.