July 2015 Summaries

Twilio is now accepting applications for its $50 million dollar fund, which provides resources such as VC investors, guidance, marketing support and technical advice to help successful companies use Twilio-powered communications tools. The fund supports companies of all sizes and focuses on initiatives like data analytics, API exposure, two-factor authentication and video solutions.

The Full Stack Python Guide to Deployments` is a new book by Matt Makai, a former Twilio Developer Evangelist who embarked on a journey across America to learn about coding and Python from fellow developers. After 3 years of running the popular `Full Stack Python` site, which addressed common Python-related questions, Makai created a comprehensive guide to deploying Python web applications, covering highly technical content in 10 chapters. The book is now available as an e-book with bonus content, and can also be accessed through DeployPython.com.

Introducing Multiple Origination URIs for SIP Trunking: Load balancing and failover made easy. We are providing this feature through Multiple Origination URIs, which can be configured in the account portal and API. This feature is designed to make it easier to manage load-balancing and resilience strategy on Twilio Elastic SIP Trunks. It allows users to distribute calls across different Origination URIs, providing a mechanism to handle scaling and fault tolerance across their voice infrastructure components. The feature also enables seamless failover by allowing users to design how Twilio will react to outages of their infrastructure. This is achieved through the use of Priority settings and weightings, which enable traffic to be redirected to alternative premises before failing over to Disaster Recovery.

Docker Workflow on OSX in 60 Seconds` Getting started with Docker can feel overwhelming due to the multiple applications involved, including boot2docker and docker. To set up Docker on OSX, one needs to download and install Boot2Docker, then run specific commands such as `pip install -U docker-compose` and `boot2docker init`. The most basic workflow for working with Docker includes using `boot2docker up`, `docker build`, `docker run`, and `docker stop` commands. Additionally, one can use `docker-compose` to manage multiple containers, allowing for a more streamlined experience when building and running applications. To clean up, one can remove images and containers using `docker rmi` and `docker rm`, as well as stop and delete the Boot2Docker VM.

This article explains how to build an application using .Net MVC 5 and Twilio to make and receive phone calls. The author starts by setting up a new ASP.Net Web Application, adding a controller, and configuring ngrok to expose the local environment to Twilio. Then, they hook up a Twilio telephone number to their application, creating a webhook that will trigger when someone calls the number. They also implement a handler for receiving calls and making outgoing calls using the Twilio Rest API. The author provides code examples throughout the article, including how to store account information as environment variables and how to create an IVR system with the Gather verb.

The company Twilio has closed a $130 million Series E round of funding led by Fidelity and T Rowe Price, along with investments from Altimeter Capital Management and Arrowpoint Partners. Amazon.com and Salesforce were also significant participants in the round. The new investors are excited about Twilio's business opportunity to serve developers and will increase the company's ability to provide communications tools. With this investment, Twilio plans to develop products that enable global-scale customer experiences, such as its Real-time Communications Suite with Twilio Video and IP Messaging.

The text discusses building a GroupMe clone using Meteor, MongoDB, and Twilio. The application allows users to create groups of phone numbers and blast a text message to every member of that group. The project uses ES6 syntax and Meteor's publish-subscribe paradigm to manage data subscriptions and updates between the client and server. The code covers various aspects, including setting up Meteor, installing dependencies, creating templates for the front-end, defining helper functions for the back-end, and integrating Twilio for SMS functionality. The application also includes features like toggling group and number selections, deleting groups and numbers, and sending messages to selected phone numbers via SMS. The tutorial concludes with deployment instructions and important considerations for production environments.

The Stagefright vulnerability is a remote code execution exploit that can be triggered by sending a malformed media file via MMS. It affects Android phones using default SMS clients like Google Hangouts or Messenger, and can allow hackers to gain access to the device's microphone and camera, as well as copy data or delete it. To mitigate this threat, users can disable automatic downloading of media files sent via MMS by going to the Messages app settings on their device. This will prevent an attack from automatically executing on the phone, but does not fix the exploit entirely until a patch is released.

This article describes a Ruby-based solution to record phone calls made to a Twilio phone number and send the recording as an SMS to the caller's phone number. The code uses Sinatra, a lightweight web framework, and the Twilio Ruby gem to interact with Twilio's REST API. By setting up a local development machine with ngrok, a publicly accessible URL can be created for the recorded call. When a call is made to the Twilio number, it triggers a POST request to the `/call` route, which generates TwiML and starts recording the call. After the call is finished, the `after-record` callback is triggered, which sends an SMS with a link to the recorded call using Twilio's REST API. The code was built using only 30 lines of Ruby, making it a concise solution for consumer protection against bad customer service.

Joseph Tinsley, an SEO specialist, used Twilio SMS to create an alert system for his niece when her college's registration page was down. The site had been down for hours and thousands of students were vying for the same class, making it a first come first serve situation. Joseph set up a cron job to ping the school's website every 5 minutes and text him when it was back up, allowing his niece to register for classes as soon as the site came back online. Without Twilio SMS, they may not have been able to take advantage of this small window of opportunity.

Apartment List, a real estate company, uses Twilio for its Renters Operations Center (ROC) in San Francisco. The company's customer service staff use phone numbers powered by Twilio to connect with potential renters. Prior to switching to Twilio, Apartment List used Salesforce and InContact, but found the solution to be clunky and proprietary. After a change, the company now has better documentation and a scalable communication platform that allows it to make its own decisions about technology. With Twilio, Apartment List is able to scale its communications and grow its business with ease.

Noam Zomerfeld, a design student at California College of the Arts, built a rudimentary telegraph using Arduino and Twilio to demonstrate basic communication systems. He created a Twilio number that interfaces with an Arduino to translate text messages into morse code, which is then tapped out by a traditional telegraph. The setup allows anyone to send messages through the old-school system, making it a unique means of communication. Noam's project showcases his interest in understanding how basic communication systems work, and his creative approach to repurposing old technology with modern tools.

The author of this text is Kyle Kelly-Yahner, and he shares his personal experience with creating a complex sign-up process for an app. He explains that even though he created a dream app, he wouldn't download it if the sign-up process was too complicated. The good folks at Parse developed Anyphone, an easy phone number based login service powered by Twilio, to address this issue. Fosco Marotto, a Parse Developer Advocate, will guide users through building this open source app that sends confirmation codes via text using Parse Cloud Code and Twilio.

Ricky Robinett, a developer, shares his experience building a random friend dialer application using Rust and Iron. He starts by installing Rust and creating a new project with Cargo, the package manager for Rust. After setting up a basic "Hello World!" application, he introduces Iron, an extensible web framework for Rust, to build a web application. With Iron, Robinett creates his first web app, which displays "Hello World!", but struggles to implement routing. He adds Router as a dependency and uses it to create routes for different pages, including one that will eventually be used for the dialer functionality. The article concludes with Robinett having fun learning Rust and invites readers to join him on this journey, promising to integrate a database in the next part of the series.

At Twilio's Signal Conference, GMunk showcased a 25-foot interactive chandelier called Twilio Beacon, powered by custom LED lights, sensors, data sentiment analysis, and cameras. The chandelier responded to attendees' text messages, changing colors to reflect their emotions, creating a dynamic and immersive experience. This installation aimed to demonstrate the power of a single text message and invited participants to interact with each other through the chandelier's visual representation.

You’ve completed the final tutorial in our Choose Your Own Adventure Presentations series. You now have a fully functional web-based voting system that allows your audience to cast their votes using either SMS or their web browser. The new web browser-based voting functionality is built on top of Flask, Reveal.js and WebSockets and provides an engaging user experience for both the presenter and the audience. With this upgrade, you can now easily add a new decision point to any presentation that allows your audience to vote with their web browser while still using SMS-based voting as a backup option. The system also provides a clean design and is easy to navigate, making it perfect for use in live technical talks or other presentations where audience participation is key.

Peach uses Twilio MMS to send daily meal offerings to its users via text message, allowing them to simply reply "YES" to receive their lunch at a designated time. The service aims to simplify the process of deciding what to eat for lunch by leveraging the immediacy and brevity of picture messaging. With tens of thousands of messages sent each day, Peach relies on Twilio SMS to track user responses and deliver meals in a timely manner.

Abe Diaz created a service called Pridefy that allows users to share their pride by sending a photo with a rainbow filter added via Twilio MMS. The service uses web requests and Azure Blob Storage to achieve this. Abe followed several steps to create the service, including changing the opacity of an image, scaling it, and overlaying it on top of another image. He then created an MVC controller to handle incoming images and return TwiML markup with a link to the uploaded image in Azure Blob Storage. The service allows users to share their pride and adds a rainbow filter to any image sent via MMS.

Twilio has released its first transparency report detailing government requests for customer information, providing visibility into the company's compliance with these requests. The report covers 268 requests received in the first half of 2015 and outlines how Twilio responded to each request, including notifying users when possible. The report aims to inform users about the total volume of government requests and provide transparency around Twilio's data security practices. As part of its commitment to privacy, Twilio will continue to produce reports on governmental information requests twice a year, making them publicly available on its website and GitHub repository.