March 2023 Summaries

The Vonage Video API Audio Connector feature allows developers to send raw audio streams from a Vonage Video session to external services for further processing, enabling various applications such as live captioning, content moderation, and media intelligence. The feature is designed to work with the Vonage Video /connect REST endpoint, which starts streaming the audio from the specified session to the designated WebSocket URI. Developers can customize the experience by manipulating the video feed or sending multiple audio streams to a single WebSocket URL. The Audio Connector also supports processing of multiple audio streams simultaneously, allowing for more efficient and scalable solutions. By integrating the Audio Connector with external services like Symbl.ai, developers can create applications that provide enhanced accessibility features, such as live transcription and translation, improving user experience in various contexts.

This article discusses the importance of understanding open-source licenses when using various projects in software development, as they can affect derivative works and have specific requirements and obligations. Open-source licenses are legal contracts that regulate relationships between authors, contributors, and users, including terms of use, responsibilities, and features of use. Using open-source projects without checking their licenses can lead to problems such as license conflicts, negative press coverage, and loss of reputation. The article highlights popular licenses like Apache 2.0, which is a permissive license that grants permission to use patents related to contributions, and the ISC License, which is functionally identical to the MIT License but with some wording differences. It also mentions automatic licensing applications and the importance of delivering license text with software when distributed. Furthermore, it shares interesting facts about open-source licenses, such as applying multiple licenses to one project and the existence of "The Unlicense". Understanding open-source licenses is crucial for developers to avoid legal issues and ensure compliance.

The Vonage APIs allow developers to send text messages from a virtual number, but they don't provide information on whether the message has been delivered to the recipient. To overcome this limitation, Vonage offers a webhook endpoint that can be used to track the delivery status of SMS messages. The tutorial guides developers through setting up ngrok to expose their local development server to the internet and configuring the Vonage Developer Portal to send delivery receipts to the ngrok forwarding URL. This allows the developer's Node.js application to handle incoming requests from the Vonage API, parse the request body, and log the receipt to the console window. The tutorial concludes by providing a sample code snippet for handling delivery receipts using Express and body-parser in an index.js file, which can be run using the node command.

You can build high-quality programmable voice applications in the cloud with Vonage Voice API and Python, allowing you to manage calls, record and store them, create conference calls, send text-to-speech messages in many languages, and more. The NCCO (Call Control Objects) builder provides a simple way to construct valid NCO actions using Python code snippets as an example, with supported actions including Record, Conversation, Connect, Talk, Stream, Input, Notify, and others. To use the NCCO builder, you need to install Vonage SDK and import necessary packages, then build into an NCCO using the `Ncco.build_ncco` method, which returns a list of dictionaries representing each action, allowing for validation and error handling.

The pandemic has accelerated the shift to remote work, increasing demand for features that enhance video conferencing privacy and focus, such as background blur, noise reduction, and speaker tracking. To address this need, Vonage has developed AI/ML tools and frameworks that can benefit developers working with its Video API. The Media Processor is a feature that simplifies the use of webRTC Insertable Streams API for custom video transformers, while the ML transformers library incorporates machine learning algorithms from proprietary and open-source libraries like MediaPipe and TensorFlow Lite. These solutions enable developers to create AI-powered visual effects, such as background blur and virtual backgrounds, and integrate them into their video conferencing applications.

We are excited to invite London-based developers to a meetup event on 30th March 2023, from 18:30 - 20:00 GMT at The Angelic in Islington, featuring two live talks and networking opportunities. The first talk will discuss Vonage's Communication API suite and lowcode tools for creating delightful customer interactions, while the second talk will introduce "Durable Execution", a programming model concept that ensures reliable code execution. Attendees will also receive exclusive coupon codes and swag, as well as a chance to win prizes in a raffle.

Mastodon is an open-source social media platform that operates as a decentralized network, allowing users to choose their own instance while still being able to see content from other users across the platform. It has gained significant popularity with over a million new users in November 2022 alone. To interact with Mastodon's API, Laravel can be used with Vonage's Messages API to receive incoming SMS messages and send them as "toots" on Mastodon using Expose to expose the local server to the internet and obtain a public HTTPS URL for configuration purposes.

The Vonage Voice API is a Cloud-based service that enables developers to build high-quality voice applications, with features such as inbound and outbound call control, recording and storage, conference calls, and text-to-speech messages in multiple languages. To use the API, developers need to create a Vonage Application from the developer portal, set up webhooks using Node.js, and configure the application's settings. The tutorial covers how to receive inbound calls by implementing a webhook using Node.js, and provides an example of how to handle incoming requests and send text-to-speech messages. The Vonage Voice API is designed to be scalable and easy to use, making it suitable for building voice applications that can grow with the user's needs.

The Vonage DevRel team invites users to participate in the 2023 Developer Census to provide feedback on their products and help improve them. The goal is to understand community priorities, needs, strengths, and weaknesses, as well as categorize users to cater to different development communities. The survey includes questions about product usage, opinions on Vonage, tooling, and development strategies, with optional responses that will be used only for internal analysis and summarization of results. Anonymized data will be aggregated and published on the developer blog, while individual information will be governed by the Vonage Privacy Policy.

The Vonage Voice API allows developers to play audio streams into calls, providing various use cases such as playing caller on-hold music, conference call scenarios, and pre-recorded messages, by utilizing the Call Control Object (NCCO) or Voice API (VAPI). The NCCO provides a convenient way to control an inbound call, while the VAPI offers more flexibility in streaming audio into conferences. Developers can implement these features using Vonage's starter applications and code samples, which provide a step-by-step guide on deploying the apps and setting up the necessary credentials.

ChatGPT is a state-of-the-art conversational language model developed by OpenAI, based on transformer architecture and trained on diverse internet text, enabling it to generate human-like responses to various questions and prompts. It can write computer programs, compose music, and more. ChatGPT is used in Vonage AI Studio's Low-Code/No-Code conversational AI platform to create a FAQ answering service, utilizing GPT 3.5 Turbo as a base model, which reduces training time for an Agent by allowing developers to input bulk text and set custom responses. To use this setup, developers need a Vonage Developer Account, an OpenAI account with API Key, ngrok, Python installed, and pip. A server application is created using Python to start a server on port 9000 using OpenAI credentials. The application is then exposed to the Internet using ngrok, allowing it to be accessed through AI Studio. The setup uses webhooks to trigger the Agent, which responds with answers from OpenAI, enabling multi-intent handling and supporting business savings in time spent collecting data and creating responses.

The Video API broadcast sample app is a powerful tool for building live streaming applications on the web, utilizing the Vonage Video API's broadcasting capabilities to stream live video to multiple viewers. It is built using the Video API JavaScript SDK and allows developers to create real-time communications applications with features such as video chat, voice, and messaging. The app can scale to handle hundreds or thousands of viewers and provides customization options for developers to tailor the experience to their needs. It has roles defined for host, guest, viewer, and experience composer, allowing for flexibility in building live streaming applications.

Vonage collaborated with Datadog Japan for a developers' meetup at WeWork Tokyo Square Garden, where several developers and startups from the communities were invited to learn about Vonage APIs and Datadog services. The event featured talks by Vonage representatives and a demo of Communications APIs and AI Studio, as well as an overview of Datadog services. Attendees had opportunities for networking and learning, which was made even more enjoyable with sponsored food and fun activities. The meetup was a success, and Vonage is looking forward to their next event, encouraging community involvement through various channels.

This application creates an instant traffic alert through SMS notification, utilizing Vonage's SMS API and Google Maps API in Node.js. The system receives an SMS with source and destination locations from users, extracts the information, gets the traffic details using Google Maps API, processes the response to generate a readable string containing traffic details, and sends back the information to the same phone number via Vonage's SMS API. The application can be set up by installing necessary dependencies, setting up ngrok, configuring environment variables, and integrating with Vonage's SMS API and Google Maps API.