July 2022 Summaries

This tutorial provides a comprehensive guide on how to add voice interaction to an existing text-only chatbot using Vonage Voice API for speech recognition and text-to-speech capabilities. The application uses the Node.js server SDK '@vonage/server-sdk' and supports over forty language locales for both Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and Text-to-Speech (TTS). The tutorial covers a two-phase approach, starting with a local deployment on a computer to illustrate how to voice-enable a text chatbot, followed by an optional deployment to Heroku-hosted environments. The second phase involves updating the source code of the Voice API application to integrate with the actual chatbot for text requests/responses. Throughout the tutorial, developers can learn how to use Vonage Voice API to enable their chatbots to listen to callers' spoken requests and playback replies, making it a valuable resource for those looking to enhance their chatbot's functionality.

In this proof of concept, integrating Zendesk with Vonage Messages APIs enables the creation and update of tickets via WhatsApp, providing an additional communication channel for customer support departments. The integration involves deploying webhooks to perform logic for inbound WhatsApp messages and updates, utilizing the Zendesk Search API and Messages API to interact with the platform. By connecting WhatsApp with Zendesk, users can receive notifications about ticket updates and create new tickets based on incoming messages. This tutorial provides a customizable approach for businesses to tailor their workflow according to their specific needs.

Vonage has simplified its services, including a unified API status page for all services and direct access to the Messages API from their SDKs. The company has also introduced new features for mobile applications, such as support for Flutter 3 and Quick Apps. Additionally, Vonage's Video API feature called "Experience Composer" is now in general availability, allowing developers to add customized video streams to existing sessions. The company has also released a plugin for WordPress that provides Two-Factor Authentication without requiring any coding. With many new releases and tutorials planned for Q3, developers can stay up-to-date by joining the Community Slack or following Vonage on Twitter.

Michael Crump is joining Vonage's Developer Relations Team as a Developer Advocate, focusing on the company's Communication APIs such as Messaging, Voice, and Video to help developers discover and implement these APIs. Michael has been in advocacy roles since 2011, working with various technologies including .NET, XAML, ASP.NET, Node.js, Python, and Go. He enjoys sharing best practices and methods with the developer community, learning from them, and helping others overcome challenges. As a coder, YouTuber, and frequent speaker, Michael is passionate about providing no-nonsense explanations of the benefits of different technologies.

The Vonage Video API with the ml-transformers and media-processor libraries can be used to create a video call that automatically zooms and centers the publisher's face, allowing for a deeper diagnosis by clearly monitoring patients' facial reactions during a medical consultation session. To achieve this, developers need to initialize and connect to a generated session ID, JWT, and API key, then use the mediaPipeHelper library to detect the publisher's face and send the webcam image periodically. The detected result is passed to the web worker for post-processing, where it is used to calculate the cropped dimension applied to zoom the video. Additionally, the media-processor library is used to generate a new video stream with the desired dimensions, which can be published to the session.

The Vonage Experience Composer API provides an API-driven cloud service that captures and publishes the entire experience of a web application using the Vonage Video API, allowing developers to record, broadcast, and publish streams with custom elements such as brand overlays, Google calendars, and data tables. This enables richer video call experiences by providing users with multiple streams, including the host's video feed, guest video stream, calendar, overlay, and data table. The Experience Composer API can be integrated with Node.js, Bootstrap, and CSS grid to speed up development time. The application demonstrates how to use the Experience Composer API to create a sample application that allows hosts and guests to interact with each other through multiple streams, including archiving and broadcasting capabilities via HLS or RTMP.

The retail industry is facing significant challenges, including showrooming, diminishing foot traffic, supply chain disruptions, and hiring issues. To combat these challenges, retailers are turning to digital engagement in physical spaces, enabling new experiences such as video interactions, remote sales assistants, and instant price matching. Vonage APIs can help retailers meet their customers' needs, minimize revenue leakage, and improve the overall shopping experience. The Vonage APIs enable features such as live communication with a remote store representative, sentiment measurement, and gauging hesitation. By integrating Vonage APIs into retail applications, executives can enhance customer satisfaction and drive business growth.

This summer Vonage's internship program will be hosting three aspiring DevRel professionals for 10 weeks, Elena, Rushil and Zoe, to work on real-life projects, learn from the team and colleagues across the company, and connect with other interns. They will gain hands-on experience in technical writing, project management, APIs, web design, and product development knowledge within Vonage. The three interns are based in different locations, including Erie, Pennsylvania, California Bay Area, and Blue Ridge, GA. During their internship, they will work on projects using JavaScript and APIs, learn about product development processes, and contribute to the developer community through social media and blog posts. They are looking forward to learning from firsthand experience, understanding how third-party feedback is incorporated into product updates, and immersing themselves in Vonage's world. The interns enjoy reading, playing music, hiking, writing poetry, photography, creating digital art, and playing video games in their free time. They will be working with the APD team to focus on technical skills, project management, and product development knowledge within Vonage.

Vonage has introduced Server SDKs that support its Messages API, allowing developers to integrate messaging functionality into their applications across multiple channels such as SMS, MMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Viber. The new SDKs simplify the process of using the Messages API by handling low-level details for developers, enabling them to focus on building their applications. The Vonage Messages API offers various features including sending SMS messages, sending multimedia content via MMS, and supporting multiple messaging channels such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Viber. Developers can now easily incorporate these messaging functionalities into their applications using the provided SDKs and code examples in the Vonage documentation.