November 2016 Summaries

Authy is a 2-factor authentication (2FA) platform that provides a simple and secure way for developers to add 2FA to their applications. With Authy, users can receive verification codes via SMS or voice calls, making it easy to implement 2FA in NodeJS applications. The platform offers various features such as push notifications, app-agnostic TOTP, and scalable infrastructure, making it suitable for startups and multinationals alike. By integrating Authy into a NodeJS application, developers can enhance security while reducing the complexity of implementing 2FA. The platform is evolving towards the Verify API, which provides improved developer experience, new features, and better support for SMS, voice, and email one-time passcodes.

Twilio has announced that its Programmable Voice WebRTC Client now supports private network connections through Twilio Interconnect, providing enterprise-grade quality and security for businesses. With this feature, organizations can connect directly to the Twilio cloud without traversing the public internet, ensuring low latency and high call quality. This is particularly useful for businesses with strict policies regarding voice traffic over the internet, such as call centers and hosted PBX systems. By using private connections, enterprises can adopt more agile and cloud-based communication solutions while maintaining control over their network infrastructure.

Twilio's social impact program, Twilio.org, has learned that social responsibility must be as critical to the company's success as any other initiative. Integrating social impact into the business has created a virtuous cycle between the two, where increased social impact leads to increased business value and vice versa. The Pledge 1% initiative provided a clear precedent for Twilio's commitment to equity in social impact, reinforcing this cycle. As a result, Twilio.org has reassured clients and employees, increasing trust and employee engagement, while also demonstrating the company's reliability and ability to handle complex challenges. By putting the full weight of the company behind social impact initiatives, businesses can experience significant benefits for their business, customers, and employee culture.

Twilio` is a platform that allows users to build and deploy SMS forwarding services in under 5 minutes using its `TwiML Bin` and templating functionality. To set up this service, users need to create a new TwiML bin, configure their phone number, and write a simple XML code snippet to forward incoming messages to any SMS-capable phone. With just a few lines of code, users can receive SMS messages sent to a Twilio number on their own cell phone, providing an additional layer of security for online accounts or sales transactions. The capabilities of `Twilio` extend beyond SMS forwarding, offering various applications and resources for developers to explore, including tutorials and documentation.

The Stranger Things rope lights hack uses Firebase, Twilio, and Zapier to bring the iconic interdimensional telephone to life in a home setting. The project is powered by a Twilio phone number that sends messages to Firebase, which then triggers the display of corresponding letters on the rope lights using hardware tinkering. This allows users to send text messages to their Twilio number, and the corresponding letters will be displayed on the lights, providing an easy way to communicate like the characters in the show.

This article provides a detailed guide on how to add Authy two-factor authentication (2FA) to a NodeJS application. It covers the registration process with Twilio and obtaining an Authy API key, implementing Authy in a NodeJS stack using the npm library, extending user schema to support Authy, sending TOTP tokens via SMS, verifying OneCode tokens, and protecting routes with two factors. The article also provides links to GitHub repositories for cloning the entire implementation or trying cURL examples.

Talkus has built a customer helpdesk platform using Twilio SMS and Slack, allowing customers to send text messages that open a Slack conversation with relevant information in one place. The platform aims to simplify customer service by providing an omnichannel contact centre between live chat, emails, phone, and text messages in a single location: Slack. Talkus founder Vianney Lecroart built the integration using 100% Javascript, Node.js, and MeteorJS, leveraging Twilio's simple API for SMS integration. The platform has been adopted by various clients, including restaurants and laundry services, who use it to streamline customer communication and requests. With its simplicity and ease of use, Talkus aims to bridge the gap between technology and customer service.

To implement secure authentication for Twilio requests in a Sinatra application, an Authentication Token must be set by exporting it as an environment variable or passing it through the Rack middleware. This token is used to validate incoming requests and ensure that they are genuine. The application can then use custom validation logic to determine whether to process the request or return an error response. To test this setup, a mocking library should be used in tests to avoid failures due to Twilio request validation.

You can hang up all currently in progress, ringing or queued Twilio phone calls using Python with the following steps. First, install Virtualenvwrapper to manage virtual environments and then create a virtual environment for your project, installing Twilio inside it. You'll need to set your Account SID and Auth Token as environment variables before running the script. The script uses `TwilioRestClient` to iterate over calls in different statuses (queued, ringing, or in progress) and hang up each call using the `hangup()` method. To make this process more convenient, you can turn it into a shell command that runs the script with a virtual environment activated.

To send an SMS from a new Twilio number using the C Shell, first set up your Twilio credentials by logging into your account and copying the `account_sid` and `auth_token`. Then, use the `curl` command to query Twilio's REST API for available phone numbers, purchase one, and store its value in a variable. Next, modify the `your_number` variable with your verified Twilio number and send an SMS using another `curl` command, specifying the required parameters such as `Body`, `From`, and `To`. This process allows you to automate sending SMS messages without leaving the C Shell, streamlining prototyping and development time.

To send an SMS from a new Twilio number using bash or zsh, start by setting your Twilio credentials in the shell, then find and purchase a Twilio phone number with available numbers. Next, use curl to execute commands to query and purchase the number, and finally, use another set of curl commands to send an SMS message to a verified Twilio number, specifying the sender's number as the received number, the recipient's number, and the message body. With these steps completed, you can now explore the Twilio API using built-in shell tools and expand your command-line scripting capabilities.

The podcast Reply All, hosted by PJ Vogt and Alex Goldman, decided to let fans call their cell phones for 48 hours straight, expecting around 10,000 calls but receiving over 105,000. The team needed an engineer to build a system that could handle the high volume of calls, which was successfully done using Twilio's technology. However, they encountered unexpected issues such as two callers being connected to each other instead of the hosts, and they had to rely on their community for help in resolving these edge cases. Despite the challenges, the team reported many heartwarming conversations with fans, including some intimate discussions about relationships and personal struggles. The experience allowed them to build a deeper connection with their audience and demonstrated that even with large numbers, human interaction can be incredibly meaningful.

Intercom's customer messaging platform helps businesses respond to website visitor inquiries intelligently by providing data-driven insights and using Twilio Messaging for scalable, personal prospective customer outreach. This enables businesses to improve lead collection, connect with 43% of site visitors, and boost closed conversation loop completion rates. Intercom empowers businesses to answer leads quickly via web chat or email, or receive notifications via SMS, while also providing contextual support in situations where context matters. The platform's straightforward philosophy drives its Acquire product, which seamlessly adopts various channels for lead conversion, including web chat, email, and SMS. By using React JS and Twilio, Intercom can iterate, scale, and adapt quickly to meet the needs of businesses with global customer bases.

Rise Science is a company that helps professional athletes improve their performance by using sleep science and text messages. The company was founded by Jeff Kahn, Jacob Kelter, and Leon Sasson after they discovered the importance of sleep for athletic performance in college. They started studying sleep patterns and performance of the Northwestern Football team, finding that texting reminders to go to bed at their "biological night" improved player performance. Since then, Rise Science has scaled its operations using Twilio, a cloud communication platform, sending text messages to NFL and NBA athletes at optimal times to enhance their performance. The company's results include faster reaction times, reduced injuries, and improved practice performances, with players sleeping 7-8 hours per night reporting significant improvements.

VotePlz is a website that helps users find their polling locations and voting information for the United States. The service uses Twilio's SMS capabilities to deliver voting information directly to users' phones via text message. By entering their address, users can find out where they can vote early or on Election Day, and receive this information via SMS.

Lisbon is set to host Web Summit, a highly successful tech conference, for the first time, attracting thousands of Europe's and world's tech elite. The event, which was previously based in Dublin, marks a significant coup for the Portuguese capital and could be a game changer for Lisbon's tech scene. With an impressive lineup of speakers, including leaders from top tech companies, Web Summit is expected to retain its unique atmosphere and elements that have contributed to its rapid growth since its launch in 2010. The event will feature 21 conferences within a conference, broadening its appeal beyond its startup ecosystem roots. With estimated attendance of 50,000, the show promises to be chaotic but also an exciting experience for attendees.

By creating a Bottle web application with the Twilio Voice API, developers can easily make and receive phone calls using Python. The application can read a snippet of text, play an MP3 file, or gather input from the number pad. To get started, developers need to install the required dependencies, including Bottle and Twilio, and create a new virtual environment. They then write code to define three endpoints: one that returns a simple message, another that responds with TwiML instructions for handling phone calls, and a third that sends an outbound call using Twilio's Voice API. To make the application work, developers need to obtain a phone number from Twilio and configure it in their code. They also need to use Ngrok to create a localhost tunnel to their local development environment. Once deployed, the application can be tested by dialing its own phone number or sending an outbound call using a different phone number. With this tutorial, developers can learn how to integrate voice capabilities into their web applications using Python and Twilio's Voice API.

SMS messages with Twilio using Crystal` is a tutorial on how to send SMS messages using the `Twilio` API and Crystal programming language. The tutorial starts by introducing the Crystal project, its goals, and syntax, which are similar to Ruby's but faster. It then guides readers through installing the Crystal compiler, setting up a Twilio account, and making HTTP requests to the Twilio API using Crystal. The tutorial concludes by showcasing improved JSON parsing in Crystal.

To send SMS from an iOS app using Swift, it's recommended to create a backend application that implements the Twilio REST API and wraps up your credentials to avoid security issues. Using Python on the backend, you can use Flask or another server-side library to build a small application that handles webhooks and sends SMS messages. The iOS app can then send requests to this backend using Alamofire, specifying the correct headers and parameters for the POST request. This design allows you to reuse your Python code on other platforms and tackle various communication challenges with Twilio's services, such as IP Messaging, Video, or Client.

Tesseract.js is a JavaScript Optical Character Recognition (OCR) library based on the world's most popular OCR engine, enabling easy use both client-side and server-side with Node.js. Currently, Tesseract.js only works with local images, but it can be used to download remote images from a URL and then perform OCR on them using a combination of Node.js and the request package. The process involves downloading the image from a URL, saving it locally, and then using Tesseract.js to recognize the text in the image, which can be achieved with just 15 lines of JavaScript code.

Deploying a Vapor application to Heroku is a straightforward process that requires a few basic tools and setup. A working Vapor web application, Git, and a free Heroku account are necessary prerequisites. The Vapor CLI tool simplifies the deployment process by automating the installation of Swift on the Heroku instance before building the app. Once the deployment is initiated, users can monitor its progress and launch their browser to view the deployed app in the cloud. After successful deployment, users can push new changes using Git and the Vapor CLI tool, making it a seamless experience for continuous development and deployment.