December 2014 Summaries

Twilio`, `Temboo`, and `Arduino` are used to create a Twilio-triggered light display. A user, VisionaryNutcases, created an instructable tutorial on how to make this possible. This hack is ahead of its time and was inspired by the idea of Clark Griswold's epic Christmas light display being triggered by his telephone in the movie "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation". The author thanks all hackers who made 2014 a fun year for Twilio, looking forward to seeing cool ideas come to life in the next year.

Ricky Robinett shares a clever solution to the frustrating problem of discovering wet clothes in a laundromat or shared laundry room with his SMS Laundry Alerts system built using Adruino+Twilio. The system sends reminders and alerts to users when their laundry is due for washing, helping to prevent forgotten loads from becoming soggy disasters.

In December 2014, a developer created a Mortal Kombat game that could be played over SMS using mk.js, extending the capabilities of an earlier version of the tool. The game allows two players to compete in a virtual fight, providing a way for people to work off holiday frustrations and get back into the holiday spirit. A live demo and code repository are available for those who want to try it out.

The author of the text, Jarod Reyes, is sharing a "12 Hacks of Christmas" series on social media platforms, with today's focus being on calling one's congressman. The tool called Call Congress was created by a taskforce of hackers to make it easy for campaigns to connect voters with their local congressperson based on zip code. This open-source tool can be easily deployed to any website and provides an automatic click-to-call solution, allowing individuals to quickly contact their representatives.

Today, we're happy to announce that v1.2 of our Twilio Client Android SDK is now available to all, bringing Global Low Latency (GLL) technology to the Android platform, and enhancing features such as debug logging verbosity and integration with Android Studio.` `The new release makes dynamic media routing decisions to minimize latency, ensuring the best possible call experience regardless of user location or distance from the data center.` `Android 1.2 also introduces tweaks for users, including increased control over debug logging and compatibility with Android Studio, as well as a new Mobile Quick Start feature released in November.

The author, Greg Baugues, created a Sinatra app in Ruby to provide Christmas carol lyrics via text message. He used Twilio for the texting functionality and built the app using Sinatra's stripped-down nature to quickly develop it. The app allows users to send a "carols" text to 907.312.1412 and receive a menu of song options, followed by the lyrics when selecting a song. The author started with a lot of hardcoded code but refactored it for better maintainability and readability. After testing and deploying the app on a VPS using Dokku, he made the production URL available to share with others.

As a seasoned software engineer with over half of his life dedicated to the field, Marcos Placona has traversed various roles, including freelance development, working for agencies, private companies, and government sectors at the EU quarters in Brussels. His journey began in the 1990s when he developed an interest in computers after receiving a Commodore 64, which sparked a lifelong passion for learning and innovation. Through his involvement with multiple tech communities around London, Placona found a supportive network that helped him grow both technically and personally. He credits these communities for providing him with valuable connections, skills, and motivation to branch out into new areas of expertise. Now as a Developer Evangelist at Twilio, Placona aims to leverage his experience to focus on community services and collaborate with developers to build killer applications using the Twilio platform.

Ricky Robinett, a developer, created a Christmas hack that uses littleBits, Laravel, and Twilio to play a holiday song whenever someone sends a text message to a specific number. The device is powered by the cloudBit module, which interacts with the cloud using the cloudBit API. The mp3 player module plays an SD card containing a single Christmas song, which loops continuously when the switch is toggled. A Laravel application receives data from Twilio and makes requests to the littleBits API to trigger the device's output. When an SMS message is received, the Laravel application responds with a TwiML response that triggers the device to play music. The hack can be deployed on Heroku or ngrok for public access.

TalkLocal uses Twilio's call tracking data to log which vendor's calls convert into business, and charges them a fee for that connection. The company has raised 2.6 million in funding and is expanding its services to gather new customers on both the consumer and vendor side. TalkLocal aims to provide consumers with vetted vendors, allowing them to make informed decisions before choosing a service provider.

Twilio Plays 2048 is a hackathon project that won the Twilio prize at the Hack the North event in Waterloo, ON. The game was built by Tejas Manohar, Jocelyn Lee and Cheng Wanli Peng using the Twilio platform to enable text message play of the highly addictive game 2048. The team posted their code on GitHub for others to see and build upon. This hack is a clever example of how developers can use innovative technologies like Twilio to create engaging experiences.

Abine is a company that aims to put privacy back in the hands of consumers by masking their personal digital information, such as phone numbers, credit card details, and email addresses, allowing users to share this information with businesses without risking their personal data or finances. The company offers a range of services, including masked phone numbers and SMS numbers, which can be used to protect users' privacy in everyday transactions, such as shopping and business communication. Abine's goal is to provide a one-stop-shop for privacy needs, making it easier for consumers to manage their online presence without compromising their personal data. The company has already rolled out several services, including masked phone numbers in 2012, and is continuously working on new features and tools to enhance its offerings.

The author of this article is Jarod Reyes, and it's a holiday-themed tutorial on a unique project that combines hardware and software to create a smart garage door system. The project uses Raspberry Pi, a webcam, and Twilio to enable video monitoring and access control for the garage door. The system allows users to remotely monitor their garage doors and grant access to friends, family, or house-sitters, making it a convenient solution for car owners who struggle with traditional garage door mechanisms.

The author, Greg Baugues, shares a two-part tutorial on using the Gmail API and Twilio SMS to send alerts for important emails. The first part of the tutorial covers authenticating with the Gmail API using Omniauth, while this part focuses on retrieving labels, messages, and message details, as well as sending SMS alerts. The author guides readers through creating a new filter in Gmail to apply an SMS label to certain messages, retrieving an OAuth access token, and using it to make API requests against Gmail. They then write rake tasks to list labels, check the inbox for messages with the SMS label, retrieve message details, parse the convoluted JSON returned by Google, and send SMS alerts for each message. Finally, they add a method to remove the SMS label after sending an alert, and provide guidance on deploying and automating the script.

Twilio is introducing a new Personalized support plan that offers proactive anticipation of needs and provides more personal support. This plan includes having one's own named support engineer who knows their apps, deployment, and programming languages. The company has also upgraded its entire support offering with across-the-board service improvements, including notifications for Twilio platform status updates. Twilio now offers four plans: Personalized Support, Premium Support, Bootstrap Support, and Free Support, each catering to different needs and requirements. These plans provide a range of support services, from email support to named support engineers, allowing customers to choose the level of support that suits their business needs.

In this Christmas-themed blog post, developer Aaron Schooley shares an updated version of his brother's meme generator, a Twilio-based project that allows users to send memes to friends and family via text message. The project is part of the `#12HacksOfChristmas` series by Twilio, which showcases innovative uses of their platform. To use the updated meme generator, users can send specific texts to designated phone numbers in the US or Canada. The post highlights the importance of collaboration and community involvement in the development process, as Aaron's contributions improved his brother's original code.

Twilio Elastic SIP Trunking is a way to connect SIP gear to the world through Twilio, offering scalable and resilient connectivity with transparent pricing. To get started, users need a Twilio account, FreeSWITCH installation, and a registered SIP endpoint. The process involves gathering information, securing the project, provisioning a Twilio Elastic SIP Trunk, connecting FreeSWITCH to the trunk, and configuring dial plans. Common gotchas include firewall settings, dial plan location, inbound calls, and Access Control Lists. With an Elastic SIP Trunk working on their FreeSWITCH install, users can explore additional features such as recording, international dialing, and conferencing.

Jarod Reyes, a parent, created a command-line tool called Santa CLI to interact with the North Pole. The tool uses Ruby-gem, Thor, and Twilio to send secret messages to festive recipients. The tool has several commands, including "begin" to register as a parent, "ping" to see what Santa is up to, and "telegraph" to send a message as one of Santa's helpers with a time delay. The tool uses Thor's actions to save input to disk and can be extended by the community. Jarod provides instructions on how to build the tool from scratch using Bundler, Twilio, and Thor, and encourages users to modify and extend the tool to make it even more magical.

The author of the text, Ricky Robinett, shares a Christmas-themed hack for training a dog using Twilio, WebRTC, Tessel, and JavaScript. The hack involves receiving text notifications when the dog is on the couch, triggering a robot to encourage the dog to get back up. This project showcases various technologies like Node.js and WebRTC, making it accessible to developers with different skill levels. Chad Hart's tutorial provides a step-by-step guide for building this project, which can be found on WebRTCHacks.com.

The author of this text, Jarod Reyes, is sharing a holiday hack from Twilio's favorite hacker Will Dages. The hack involves building a "texting Christmas tree" that changes its lights when receiving different colored texts. This was inspired by the desire to control Christmas lights in a novel way and make it accessible to more people, as not everyone has a Twitter account. The hack uses Twilio's text messaging service to enable this functionality, allowing users to interact with the tree through their phones.

=` The key points covered in this text are that WebRTC enables real-time peer-to-peer communication between browsers, and it requires servers to handle some work for us. The three main parts of the application are network configuration, presence, and signalling. To build a WebRTC application, you need to use tools like Node.js, Socket.io, and Twilio's NAT Traversal Service. You also need to set up a server to handle the signalling process and relay messages between browsers. The client-side code sets up peer connections, requests media streams, and handles ICE candidates and offer/answer negotiations. Additionally, you can implement features like video streaming, audio conferencing, and data channels using WebRTC.

DriveNow, a car-sharing service, partnered with Twilio to power its SMS communications for a seamless customer experience from sign-up to car drop-off. To ensure timely and reliable communication, DriveNow leveraged Twilio's 24/7 capabilities to deliver mission-critical texts to customers worldwide. By utilizing local German numbers through Twilio, DriveNow enhances its hyper-local approach, making each customer's rental experience easy and efficient.

Twilio is announcing the introduction of new local numbers in Germany, offering both voice-capable local numbers and dual-function mobile numbers that support both voice and SMS. The company aims to provide a familiar local experience for customers around the world with recognizable phone numbers and high-quality call and messaging services. With direct carrier connectivity and low latency, Twilio promises to deliver high-quality voice calls and predictable messaging in Germany. The new localization features also include language conversion, regulation compliance, cost controls, and APIs for usage-based triggers, allowing developers to build applications that cater to the specific needs of German-speaking customers.

The Prime Minister of Estonia, Taavi Rõivas, visited Twilio HQ to discuss Estonia's E-Residency card program, which allows digital authentication and document signing for non-residents. The program aims to eliminate geographic barriers that prevent entrepreneurs from establishing companies abroad. At Twilio, Rõivas met with Ott Kaukver, who discussed the parallels between shipping new features at Twilio and managing the E-Residency program. Kaukver emphasized the importance of small, empowered teams in delivering great customer experiences and gathering feedback. The Prime Minister's visit is part of efforts to scale and iterate the program, aiming to double Estonia's current number of companies with e-residency, from 80,000 to 160,000. Key benefits of the program include controlling one's money, avoiding tariffs, and accessing EU residency, which unlocks opportunities in both public and private sectors.

We're introducing secondary Auth Tokens at Twilio, allowing users to access backup credentials in seconds with zero downtime, ensuring data privacy and security. Consider Auth Tokens as keys to secure sensitive Twilio data, giving users an added layer of protection when primary credentials are compromised. The process of creating a secondary token is seamless, without affecting uptime, and can be done at any time, making it easier for users to keep their castle safe. This feature demonstrates Twilio's ongoing commitment to bringing a trusted cloud communication platform that keeps data secure and apps running smoothly.

WRI is using NASA satellite imagery, GIS satellites, Twilio SMS, and ESRI to spot and stop illegal forest fires in Singapore and Indonesia. The goal is to drive change by adding transparency to the supply chain of palm oil, a $40 billion dollar market used in various products. By replacing fax notifications with SMS updates, WRI has reduced response time from 30 hours to four hours, enabling them to hold corporations responsible for sourcing palm oil in a more efficient manner. The solution is part of a larger mission to build tools for lawmakers to enforce proper sourcing, and ultimately aims to save lives by reducing the impact of toxic haze produced by forest fires.

Short codes have proven to be powerful communication tools for businesses, but they can also be complicated and misunderstood. According to Twilio, one of the largest providers of short codes, customers who use short codes must navigate industry regulations and carrier requirements, which can be daunting. To help make the process more accessible, Twilio offers a team of experts who shepherd customers through the application process, providing support with compliance advice, implementation assistance, and deliverability insights. By understanding when to use short codes versus long codes, avoiding common deliverability roadblocks, and leveraging Twilio's resources, businesses can unlock the full potential of their short code messaging capabilities.

The Address API by Twilio allows developers to easily provide addresses for their business applications, enabling the purchase of local phone numbers in countries with address requirements. The API provides a simple way to manage addresses and satisfy country-specific address requirements. A .NET MVC application demonstrates how to use the Address API to create an address management system that allows users to add, view, update, and delete addresses. The application also includes a search feature for available phone numbers in countries with address requirements. By using the Twilio Addresses API, businesses can provide a first-class experience to customers worldwide while meeting country-specific regulations.

Twilio has introduced Mexico mobile phone numbers as part of its public Beta, expanding Twilio's global reach to nearly 100 countries with SMS-enabled local voice-capable numbers. This allows customers to build voice and SMS capabilities into their web and mobile apps for the Mexican market, providing a local identity leading to higher response rates, lower costs, and improved deliverability. Additionally, Twilio is introducing a new Addresses API endpoint that streamlines address association requirements in countries like Mexico, Australia, and Ireland, allowing users to instantly provision local numbers with minimal effort or infrastructure.