February 2017 Summaries

The Twilio next-generation C# helper library is now available, offering improved productivity with its novel approach to making the libraries more consistent, enabling faster iteration, and improving the libraries by having a shared foundation across languages. The new library features full cross-platform .NET Core support, async/await, automatic paging when requesting a list of resources, and addition of helper classes to generate TwiML. It is compatible with all the way back to .NET Framework version 3.5 and targets .NET Standard, allowing it to be used with cross-platform .NET Core applications. The new library also includes asynchronous methods for creating, fetching, reading, updating, and deleting resources, as well as helper classes to generate TwiML for voice and messaging responses.

The Programmable Video team has released a series of improvements to their SDKs, including the Rooms API, which allows developers to build flexible call models for mobile video applications. The new API simplifies the process of creating different calling experiences, such as social media apps and business collaboration apps, by providing a standardized way to initiate and manage video sessions. Additionally, the team has improved performance in iOS rendering, added support for CallKit and Extensions in iOS, and introduced advanced camera controls in Android. Other features include new guides for screen sharing, network handoff in IPv4 environments, and enhanced display and performance capabilities.

Hoxton Mix solves the problem of affordable office space for startups by offering virtual offices with a physical address and handling inbound calls through Twilio-powered call forwarding. This allows startups to feel like they're based in Shoreditch, but can work from anywhere. The receptionists don't have to be physically present either, thanks to Hoxton Mix's built-in call suite with screen pops and intelligent call escalation. With the help of Twilio's customer support, Hoxton Mix was able to quickly build out their solution using just a few lines of XML in a TwiML bin. As a result, they've seen significant growth, now serving over 6,000 companies with a 3% month-over-month expansion rate.

The ESP8266 sends SMS or MMS messages through AWS IoT, Lambda, and Twilio APIs by publishing messages to the 'twilio' MQTT topic, which triggers a Lambda function that extracts necessary fields and sends an SMS or MMS message. The ESP8266 connects to AWS IoT using MQTT over WebSockets, and uses a Twilio account for sending and receiving messages. To set up this application, users need to create a new Twilio account, purchase a SMS-enabled number, add the AWS IoT policy and IAM user, subscribe to the 'twilio' topic, and configure the Lambda function with Python code. The integration allows devices to send SMS or MMS messages using AWS services, enabling low-power IoT applications.

The Debugger Webhook is a new feature that allows developers to receive real-time notifications when their Twilio applications encounter errors. This enables them to troubleshoot and resolve issues more quickly, reducing aggregate error rates. The webhook can be configured easily and sends HTTP requests with error information to the developer's specified URL. Developers can then use this data in various ways, such as publishing it to industry-standard monitoring services like New Relic or Rollbar.

The guide provides a serverless solution for receiving and replying to SMS and MMS messages using an ESP8266, Amazon AWS IoT, Lambda, and API Gateway. The architecture involves the ESP8266 communicating with AWS IoT, which forwards incoming messages to Lambda, where they are processed and sent back to the ESP8266 via MQTT. The guide covers setting up AWS IoT, creating a mock API with API Gateway, exercising the ESP8266, sending messages, receiving messages, and allowing Lambda to post to MQTT topics. It also provides an example of how to trigger Lambda with API Gateway and configure Twilio webhook URLs.

TwiML Bins now supports Mustache templates, allowing developers to build more kinds of Voice and SMS experiences without the need for a web server. This feature makes it easier to create customized voicemail experiences and other use cases such as call forwarding and SMS forwarding. The new built-in e164 function enables developers to bridge SIP endpoints with PSTN by extracting phone numbers from SIP URIs. With these enhancements, Twilio aims to provide a powerful set of tools for building reliable communications experiences without the need for web infrastructure.

The TODAY Show` partnered with `Twilio` and `Front` to build a messaging service that allowed viewers to ask celebrity coaches personal questions privately, creating a safe space for users to interact with the coaches without sharing their cell phone numbers on a national broadcast. The feature was a success, with many questions pouring in and coaches receiving more requests than they could answer during their shifts. The service was built using Twilio's cloud communication platform and Front's messaging inbox, allowing coaches to respond from their laptops, working remotely with ease. This collaboration demonstrates the potential of SMS as an area for experimentation, especially following this successful pilot.

Using the Background Sync API from Service Workers, developers can replicate the behavior of sending SMS messages in the background even when the user is offline. By registering a Service Worker, intercepting form submit events, saving messages to IndexedDB, and implementing the sync event, developers can create network resilient message sending that allows users to send messages without keeping the web application open. With this implementation, users can receive their sent messages immediately upon reconnecting to the internet, providing a seamless user experience similar to native applications.

This tutorial uses Anton Burnashev's excellent `gspread` Python package to read, write, and delete data from a Google Spreadsheet with just a few lines of code. To programmatically access the spreadsheet, a service account and OAuth2 credentials must be created from the Google API Console. The process involves creating a new project, enabling the Google Drive API, and granting the service account edit rights on the desired spreadsheet. With these credentials in place, Python can easily interact with the spreadsheet using `gspread` and `oauth2client`. The tutorial demonstrates how to extract data from the spreadsheet, insert, update, and delete rows, and provides additional information on the full range of functionality offered by `gspread`.

The Twilio team has released an updated version of their API Explorer, a web-based tool that allows developers to make requests to Twilio's REST API. The new API Explorer Beta is built on top of automation tools used by Twilio to generate its Next Generation Helper Libraries, ensuring it stays up-to-date with the company's rapidly expanding product lineup. Users can select from a list of Twilio products and resources, then customize parameters and request formats before making calls to the API. Language support currently includes PHP and Java, but will expand as Twilio releases its Next Generation Helper Libraries for other languages. The tool has already seen positive feedback among developers, who are using it to learn about new products like Programmable Chat and make their first API calls.

Here's a neutral and interesting summary of the text in one paragraph: Michael Jordan, the CEO of Gifted, created an artificially intelligent hack to help people express their love through personalized poems on top of images. Inspired by the 2013 film Her, where a character works as a letter writer, Michael used natural language processing techniques to analyze popular computer vision tags and generated thoughtful sentences for each tag. When users send a picture to Gifted's V-day phone number, the app returns a customized poem based on the image's surroundings, using AWS Lambda Twilio and Clarifai. The project was completed in just 15 minutes, and Michael shared some of the code used to analyze the most popular tags and build the love letters.

You've built a Slack bot using PHP in just 5 minutes, which reads incoming messages and repeats them back with minor adjustments. You then upgraded the bot to use the Twilio Lookup API, allowing users to find out who's calling them by sending "!lookup" followed by a phone number. The bot handles errors and edge cases, such as when it can't find the caller's name or when an invalid phone number is provided. With this upgrade, you've created a more useful Slack bot that enhances user experience.

We're expanding our global coverage by introducing local and mobile phone numbers in Malaysia, which allow businesses to have a locally-relevant identity and customers to communicate at local call rates. Additionally, we're launching local phone numbers in 11 new countries, including South Africa, Denmark, Italy, Latvia, Mexico, Portugal, Chile, Colombia, Norway, Panama, and the Philippines, offering mobile dual (voice + SMS) capabilities in some of these locations. These new numbers have undergone rigorous testing for performance and reliability, and are available as a developer preview by request to help verify their quality before being made widely available.

A developer created an artificially intelligent Shakespeare bot using Node, Express, Twilio Add-Ons, IBM Watson, and Love. The bot aims to help users with their romantic prose by analyzing the sentiment of messages, generating custom sonnets on demand, and creating shareable images of those poems. To achieve this, the developer used APIs such as PoetryDB and Twilio's sentiment analysis feature to analyze user input and generate responses accordingly. The bot also uses Watson's AI capabilities to determine whether a message is positive or not, providing users with uplifting or discouraging messages based on their romantic dexterity.

To better manage the timing of outbound messages, Twilio now offers a validity period feature. This allows developers to set a specific time frame for how long Twilio will attempt to deliver messages before failing with an error. By configuring this feature, developers can prevent late-arriving messages from being sent and ensure that their users receive timely notifications or alerts. The validity period is particularly useful in situations where messages may arrive late due to high message volumes or service outages, and it also helps avoid unnecessary messages being sent when the user has already received the information they need. With this feature, developers can take more control over their messages and ensure that their users receive timely and relevant notifications.

When a business pays excessive monthly bills for phone services, they may be motivated to find alternative solutions. One such solution is using Twilio and Intercom to build their own software and integrate it into their existing systems. By porting their number to Twilio, setting up an Asterisk server with a SIP trunk, and building browser-based SIP phones, businesses can cut their bills by 94% or more. The integration between Twilio and Intercom produces a lot of data that can be used to improve customer experience and streamline business processes. This can lead to increased efficiency, cost savings, and improved patient satisfaction in the case of Farid's dental practice, which has quadrupled its new patient intake without hiring additional staff.

Today we are excited to announce that Twilio has acquired Beepsend, a Sweden-based application-to-person (A2P) messaging provider with extensive global connectivity, expanding Twilio's Super Network and providing customers with more delivery options for their messaging needs.` `The acquisition adds redundancy and resiliency on top of the global telecom network, further optimizing the quality and cost of communications that flow through the Twilio platform.` `Twilio's Super Network continually analyzes data to optimize these qualities, ensuring proper routing of both routine messages like credit card bill reminders and urgent messages like texts from drivers, regardless of time or location.

Twilio has upgraded its Short Codes in the US, Canada, and UK to 100 messages per second (MPS) from their previous default rate of 30 MPS. This increase allows for faster sending of high-volume messages, which is ideal for applications such as marketing, alerts, and two-factor authentication. Long codes are not suitable for high-volume messaging due to carrier restrictions, while Twilio automatically queues long code messages in the US at a slower rate to ensure compliance. Existing short codes have been upgraded to 100 MPS at no extra cost, enabling customers to send more messages quickly and efficiently.

The Code for America team successfully implemented a solution to reduce failure to appear (FTA) rates in Salt Lake County's criminal justice system by leveraging asynchronous communication, specifically text messaging, between case managers and clients. By providing a 24/7 SMS inbox, clients could communicate with their case managers outside of traditional office hours, building trust and relationships. The tool, ClientComm, has seen significant success, with an 80% increase in client engagement rates and a reduction in FTA rates from 50% to over 80%. The project's impact extends beyond the county, with Code for America planning to expand the tool to local courts and probation departments nationwide.

Twilio allows developers to build serverless apps using only TwiML Bins and a few lines of XML, eliminating the need for localtunnel or server setup. With a Twilio account, users can create three simple apps: an SMS forwarding app that forwards incoming calls to another number, a conference line that connects multiple callers, and a Rick Roll app that plays a prank call when a specific number is dialed. These apps can be built using the Twilio Console, where users can select "TwiML Bins" and add code to create their own apps. With just 4 lines of code for SMS forwarding and a few more lines for the conference line and Rick Roll app, developers can start building these apps without any additional setup or downloads.