April 2016 Summaries

PTI, a Pittsburgh-based technical institute, switched from a SIP-based call center to Twilio's Elastic SIP Trunking in 2015, enabling them to scale their communications hub and improve security. The move was sparked by a school art show project in 2012 where PTI used Twilio's SMS API to build a simple app, planting the seed for future innovation. With Twilio, PTI gained a reliable connection, reduced latency issues, and improved security, allowing them to integrate their CRM with live chat and enable staff to answer student questions via text message. The switch has enabled PTI to revolutionize its communication channels, meeting students where they feel most comfortable communicating - through mobile devices.

Node.js version 6.0.0 has introduced three significant features: default function parameters, rest parameters, and destructuring of objects. These features allow developers to write more concise and expressive code, reducing boilerplate and improving readability. Default function parameters enable the automatic assignment of values to function arguments if not provided, while rest parameters simplify the process of passing variable numbers of arguments into a function. Destructuring of objects enables the automatic extraction of properties from an object into variables, making it easier to work with configuration options in functions.

Human Utility, a non-profit organization, crowd funds to help underserved communities in Detroit and elsewhere with their water bills. To address the need for immediate assistance due to the complexity of the issue, Tiffani Bell, the founder, used Twilio's programmable IVR feature to create an authentication system that allows users to quickly check their application status and benefits via phone call. This approach enables efficient communication and reduces the risk of users not knowing which number to call. By leveraging this technology, Human Utility aims to strike a blow against the historical "tedium" of helping people and bring sustainable access to water for those in need.

Twilio has announced the beta launch of its revamped console, designed to simplify account management and provide a more intuitive user experience. The new console is a significant update from Twilio's original portal, which was not designed to accommodate the company's growing breadth of functionality. Through extensive usability testing, including 1-on-1 sessions with users, Twilio refined the design to prioritize simplicity and ease of use while adding features. The new console includes a dashboard, left-side dock for quick access to products, and a Developer Center with tools for building and debugging apps. Users can freely switch between the beta version and the existing account portal for several weeks, with new products and features added exclusively to the new Console as it evolves.

The developers behind Network Effects built a Slackbot using Twilio that allows users to text a company's phone number, which then populates in a Slack channel, enabling companies to respond directly to customers' messages. This hack allows for contextual interaction between companies and their customers, as evident in the case of Justin Jackson, who uses his own Slackbot to engage with fans of his podcast. Additionally, Network Effects is hosting a sub-conference within SIGNAL dubbed /bots, which focuses on various types of bots, including Slackbots and chatbots.

Twilio has appointed Dominik Kundel as its newest Developer Evangelist in Berlin, Germany. Kundel, who is passionate about inspiring developers and teaching them new coding skills, co-founded the first public edition of jacobsHack!, a hackathon he attended in 2013. He gained his skills from being taught by fellow developers and now wants to give back by helping other developers and those who want to become one. Kundel has experience teaching coding workshops for kids at HackerSchool and CoderDojo, and is excited to meet people at meetups, conferences, and hackathons in Berlin and across Europe. He will be available on Twitter as @dkundel and can reach out to him via email at [email protected].

Dominik Kundel, a developer evangelist at Twilio, shares his journey from being fascinated by technology as a child to becoming a passionate advocate for coding and innovation. He recounts how he started building web applications with friends during his studies, eventually leading him to organize his own hackathon, jacobsHack!, which became a platform for inspiring others to work on projects outside of classes. Kundel's experience in organizing the event led him to realize that he wanted to help inspire others to learn coding and create cool projects, ultimately turning his hobby into a career as a developer evangelist at Twilio.

To send an SMS message with C# using the Twilio API, you need to install the Twilio helper library for .NET and initialize the Twilio REST Client with your Account SID and Auth Token. You then need to provide the sender's and recipient's phone numbers and the body of the message to be sent. The MessageResource.Create method is used to send a text message, which can be done in just 30 seconds once you have set up the necessary configuration.

Twilio Radio is a podcast that features interviews from speakers presenting at SIGNAL, Twilio's developer conference for communications. The podcast covers topics such as text messages and SMS, including why SMS is an effective communication medium for businesses, technical differences between SMS and MMS, and best practices for scaling a Twilio messaging app. Additionally, the podcast discusses developer culture and project management, with insights from Karen Cohen-Zellner on building strong developer culture and autonomy within teams at large companies like Wix. The podcast also addresses topics such as job searching and negotiation, providing practical advice for developers looking to start or change their careers.

You can send text messages using the Twilio Python library, which allows you to create a REST client with your account SID and auth token. To get started, import the TwilioRestClient, instantiate it with your credentials, and then use the `create` method to send a message to a specified number, from a specified Twilio number, with a body of text. The process is quick and easy, and you can customize the code to suit your needs, such as by using environment variables or storing your credentials in a file. Once you've installed the Twilio library and run the code, you'll be able to send text messages and explore further features and tutorials provided by Twilio.

Twilio is hosting a sub-conference called `/bots` at their developer conference SIGNAL in May 2016, where experts from top companies like Slack, IBM Watson, Facebook M, and Microsoft will gather to discuss the future of messaging and bot technology. The event aims to answer tough questions about building intelligent bots and deploying them across different platforms. Sessions will cover topics such as building good Slack bots, getting started with the Microsoft Bot Framework, and using IBM Watson for cognitive apps. The conference promises to be an exciting event for developers and bot enthusiasts alike.

The Simple Postcard is a text-based service that allows users to send postcards via text message, with the option to include a photo and pay for it via Stripe. The service was created by Jason Strauss, who was motivated by his own experience of wanting to send letters to his long-distance girlfriend in a more tactile way than digital messages. After building the service, Jason learned new tools and technologies, including Python libraries like US Address Parser, which uses NLP to parse address strings. The postcard manufacturing process involves Lob, Twilio, and Stripe APIs. Users can interact with the service through a simple text-based interface, and Jason has received positive feedback from users after it was featured on HackerNews.

This post explains how to integrate Twilio into a new Ruby on Rails application for handling inbound and outbound SMS messages. The process involves creating a basic controller with a default method/action called "reply", adding the twilio-ruby gem, configuring Twilio credentials and phone number in credentials.yml.enc, skipping CSRF verification and authentication token verification, instantiating the Twilio client, sending an SMS response to the user's phone number, and setting up a publicly accessible webhook using ngrok. The example demonstrates how to receive and reply to an SMS in Rails with Twilio.

The sharing economy and on-demand economy have become increasingly intertwined, with the latter encompassing a broader scope of services beyond just peer-to-peer transactions. The evolution of the sharing economy has been marked by its transition from an altruistic concept to one that prioritizes efficiency, deliveries, and services that can be booked instantly. This shift has led to a rise in venture capital influx and startups claiming stake in the sector. Traditional e-commerce models differ significantly from new-generation marketplaces, with the latter offering access to a larger supply of resources, trust between strangers facilitated by technology, and systems where strangers can feel safe doing business with one another. Many fortune 500-type companies are transitioning to this new model, considering how they might emulate or integrate with existing marketplaces for labor or resources, and adapting to offer equivalent timing and personalization. Traditional companies are advised to consider what products could become services, look at the industry as a whole, and think about connecting everyone in order to thrive in the new economy.

Product Hunt is a platform where developers showcase their projects, often with impressive results. Developers like Matt Joseph of Locent have built marketing platforms that deliver messages directly to customers' phones, increasing customer loyalty and engagement. Another example is Magic, which allows users to order items via text message, including a helicopter. Shuffle helps organize phone activity by creating separate numbers for different areas of life, while Kanye Texts provides a fun way to hide from angry friends with randomly generated quotes from the singer. These projects demonstrate creativity and commitment to shipping, inspiring others to build their own innovative ideas.

Sonar, a company backed by the TwilioFund, has been named an official Facebook platform partner. This partnership allows businesses to send and receive messages from Facebook using the API, enabling them to have conversations with their customers wherever they want, at scale. The company's goal is to make communications more conversational, fostering trust and addressing immediate needs through messaging. With this new feature, Sonar aims to help businesses like Bohemian Guitars increase sales by 98% by providing a seamless and efficient customer experience.

This article discusses how to integrate Twilio with Kentico's EMS Marketing Automation process to send order details via SMS notifications when a purchase is completed on the site. The integration was made possible by leveraging Kentico's E-commerce demo site and utilizing a custom Marketing Automation action named "Twilio Notification". This reusable component can be used throughout the site to send SMS notifications, and it accepts parameters such as Twilio API key, sender number, and message content. The process also logs event details in the Kentico Event Log. The author demonstrates how easy it is to empower a Kentico site with Twilio and a few lines of code, making it a great new channel for communication with customers.

Twilio's messaging API provides a simple REST interface for sending SMS and MMS messages, allowing developers to build communications into their apps. The protocol used is SMPP, which is a store and forward protocol that routes messages through multiple servers before reaching the recipient's phone. Despite its limitations, such as character encoding issues, Twilio's API has proven to be highly effective in delivering powerful results for businesses using SMS. With over 100 carriers worldwide, Twilio provides connectivity into all of these carriers, allowing developers to send and receive texts globally. The company's goal is to make customers successful, and its APIs have been instrumental in achieving this by providing a reliable and efficient way to communicate with users around the world.

You're building a Node app and need to send text messages, it takes only 30 seconds to get started with Twilio. To begin, install the Twilio helper library for Node using npm, then require the library in your Node session. Instantiate a REST client using your account sid and auth token, which can be stored in environment variables or hardcoded for security reasons. You'll need three things: the recipient's number, the Twilio number to send from, and the message body. With these, you can send a text message by calling client.sendMessage() and wait for the magic to happen! After sending the message, check out the Twilio REST API documentation and Node helper library documentation to explore more features.

Twilio is extending its Messaging API to support Facebook Messenger, allowing developers to send and receive messages from inside the Console using existing Twilio API construct, docs, and developer tools. The integration enables businesses to use one platform across messaging apps, reducing ongoing maintenance and eliminating the learning curve. With minimal code changes, developers can add messaging apps as a new channel without rewriting a ton of code, speeding up time to market. The Facebook integration is free during early access, with no additional charge for using the Twilio API construct, docs, and developer tools. The company plans to integrate even more messaging apps over time and enhance the API to automate conversations across various communication channels.

You're building a Rails app and want to send SMS messages, but you think it might take some time. However, with Twilio's Ruby helper library, you can start sending SMS messages quickly. To begin, install the library using `gem install twilio-ruby`, then open an IRB session and require the library. Next, instantiate a REST client using your account sid and auth token, which are available in your Twilio account portal. You'll need to provide three arguments: the recipient's number, the sender's Twilio number, and the message body, wrapped in a hash and passed to the `client.messages.create` method. Once you've done this, you can send an SMS message and explore more possibilities with Twilio's REST API documentation and Ruby helper library tutorials.

Send A Job is a field service management and communication software company founded by Erez Marom and Idan Kadosh, former locksmiths who experienced firsthand the challenges of managing calls, scheduling, and customer communication in their own business. After struggling to find a suitable solution from six different vendors that cost $35,000 to set up and $2,000 per month, they created a Twilio-powered platform specifically for field service businesses like theirs. The platform provides real-time SMS updates, phone number masking, and automated call recording to ensure quality customer service and compliance. With their customers now logging over 1 million SMS and 500,000 calls monthly, Erez and Idan have finally built the software they needed to solve the industry's communication challenges.

The Stamplay team has provided a step-by-step tutorial on building a daily SMS news service using NodeJS, Twilio, and Stamplay. The service allows users to subscribe to receive inspirational quotes by sending an SMS with the word "subscribe" to a designated Twilio number. Once a day, the system processes active subscriptions, fetches quotes from the database, and sends them to subscribers via Twilio. The tutorial covers the setup of Twilio credentials, subscription tracking, task automation, code block execution, and scheduling triggers for daily execution.

MHacks Rewind: 36 Hours To Ship` is an article about the experience of attending the MHacks hackathon, where participants aim to develop and ship a project in just 36 hours. The event has consistently produced impressive engineering feats and hustle from participants over the years. This year's highlights include innovative projects such as an Alexa integration and an SMS-based travel service for budget-conscious travelers. The article also mentions a future event called `SIGNAL` which promises to be another code-party celebration for developers, taking place on May 24th and 25th.

David Roberts is a software engineering mentor who shares expertise on data management and user experience, particularly in React.js and Rails. He will be showcasing how to build a call center using AWS Lambda, React.js, and Twilio Lookup at SIGNAL. Jeff Sloyer, Developer Advocate for IBM's Bluemix, focuses on educating developers about utilizing Bluemix for various applications such as machine learning and video chats. Genevieve Nielsen, CTO of mRelief, aims to streamline social services by offering eligibility determination through accessible mediums like voice and text messaging, aiming to improve public assistance in the US.

SIGNAL Conference highlights three exciting speakers for developers and makers interested in Internet of Things (IoT) technology, including Katy Moe, who will showcase the possibilities of open hardware for the human body, Kristin Salomon, an electronics engineer at littleBits, who will demonstrate hardware hacking using electronic building blocks that connect to the internet via WiFi. Kassandra Perch, a NodeBots expert, will share her experiences with robots controlled by Node.js and how they can be used in various applications such as gaming tables. The SIGNAL Conference aims to bring together 2,000 developers and 100 speakers to discuss the future of communications on May 24th and 25th in San Francisco.

VoiceIt is a company that specializes in providing voice biometrics technology to enhance security measures against modern cyber attacks. The traditional methods of security are no longer sufficient and VoiceIt offers an innovative solution by utilizing voice recognition as a key to access restricted data or spaces, making it difficult for hackers to breach. This technology integrates seamlessly with Twilio's platform, allowing developers to easily incorporate it into their existing systems. VoiceIt supports various frameworks and languages, making it accessible to builders of all sorts. The company is sponsoring the SIGNAL Conference this year and continues to innovate its technology to improve its integration with developer solutions.