November 2025 Summaries

Amanda Cavallaro discusses the importance of the Mean Opinion Score (MOS) in assessing video quality in real-time applications, emphasizing its role in bridging the gap between technical metrics like jitter and latency and the actual user experience. MOS is a subjective measure that evaluates video and audio stream quality, with scores ranging from 1 to 5, indicating levels from "Bad" to "Excellent." By monitoring MOS trends, developers can proactively manage and improve user experience, responding to potential issues before they affect user satisfaction. The article highlights tools provided by Vonage, such as the Video API and Session Inspector, which help developers detect and address video call quality issues in real time. By focusing on MOS, developers can enhance application performance and user satisfaction, ultimately leading to a more seamless and engaging user experience.

James Seconde, a Senior PHP Developer Advocate, demonstrates how Laravel Nightwatch simplifies the process of monitoring application events and performance for PHP developers. Unlike third-party Application Performance Monitoring tools like Datadog and New Relic that primarily focus on cloud-side reporting, Laravel Nightwatch offers a built-in, Laravel-native solution that reduces configuration complexities. Through a tutorial, Seconde guides developers in setting up a simple webhook receiver using Vonage RCS messages and employing mock server requests to visualize application data in the Nightwatch dashboard. He emphasizes Nightwatch's user-friendly setup, which involves minimal steps to achieve comprehensive application monitoring, making it particularly useful for applications generating large volumes of webhooks.

Jeremy Foster has joined Vonage as a Developer Advocate, focusing on creating video content for the Vonage Developer YouTube Channel. With a background that includes nearly 14 years at Microsoft, Foster brings a wealth of experience in software engineering, teaching, and video production. Based in the Pacific Northwest, he is passionate about teaching and helping developers learn and innovate using APIs for voice, video, messaging, and more. Foster encourages developers and creators to connect with him and subscribe to the VonageDev YouTube channel to explore new content aimed at enhancing their development skills.

Vonage has announced that its Reports API now supports Video API data, but this feature is limited to Vonage API Dashboard (Unified) users, excluding those on the OpenTok Dashboard. Previously, developers relied on the Insights API for detailed session analytics of the Video API, but with this update, they can now access comprehensive usage and reporting information across various Vonage services like SMS, Messages, Voice, and Verify through a single platform. The Reports API offers a unified approach to tracking usage, billing, and compliance data, streamlining the reporting process by consolidating information from multiple Vonage APIs into a consistent format. The API is accessible only via REST API requests using tools like cURL or Postman, and it supports both synchronous and asynchronous report generation depending on dataset size and reporting needs. This enhancement is part of Vonage's broader effort to provide more robust analytics capabilities and encourages users to consider migrating from OpenTok to Unified for enhanced reporting benefits.

The November 2025 release of the Vonage Video API, version 2.32.0, introduces enhanced monitoring capabilities and greater control over video quality across its Web, Android, iOS, Linux, and Windows SDKs. Key updates include the addition of the Sender Bandwidth Insights feature, which allows monitoring of network statistics during video sessions, and the ability for developers to configure preferred video codecs for session negotiation, thereby optimizing stream quality and compatibility. This release also addresses numerous stability and performance issues, particularly for Web and iOS clients, such as fixing video orientation glitches on iPads and resolving connection problems with Single Peer Connection in Chrome. The update ensures improved predictability and performance, offering developers the tools needed to enhance user experience in video sessions.

Vonage has launched the first aggregated Network APIs in the U.S., providing unified access to mobile networks of major carriers like Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile through a single integration. This innovation allows developers to build applications with network-level identity and security features, using real-time data and carrier-verified insights without the need to manage separate protocols and compliance for each carrier. Utilizing open standards such as CAMARA, Vonage simplifies the developer experience by offering features like Silent Authentication and SIM Swap Fraud detection through APIs, enabling faster development from prototype to production. The company encourages developers to start testing these Network APIs using their sandbox environment and offers comprehensive guides and a supportive community for seamless integration.

Jamil Gocan has joined Vonage as a Community Manager, bringing his experience in supporting developer and tech communities through events and partnerships. Passionate about fostering environments for developers to connect, learn, and grow, Jamil focuses on community-driven innovation and the exchange of ideas. Outside of work, he enjoys traveling and engaging in cultural activities, with a particular interest in fashion and culinary experiences that highlight the connection between food and culture. Through his role, Jamil aims to strengthen the Vonage Developer community by hosting events and celebrating the contributions of developers, while enjoying the personal fulfillment of connecting people and sharing knowledge.

The release of version 1.3.0 of the Vonage Video Reference App for React introduces significant enhancements, including background replacement and effects for privacy and professionalism during sessions, alongside a new configuration file for easy UI customization. The app now supports localization with a built-in Language Selector, allowing users to switch languages instantly, and improvements to screen sharing with scroll and zoom functionality. This update also focuses on stabilization and bug fixes, addressing issues like the "ghost participant" bug and camera LED concerns. These improvements aim to provide a more flexible, stable, and globally accessible platform for building video applications, with further details and updates available on the project's GitHub repository and various Vonage community channels.

The tutorial explains how to build an AI chatbot using Anthropic's Claude API and the Vonage Model Context Protocol (MCP) API Bindings Server, enabling it to interact with external services like checking account balances via the Vonage API. It outlines the process of setting up the chatbot's core components, connecting to MCP servers, and configuring the Vonage MCP Server for API access. The architecture leverages Claude's capabilities to decide when to utilize tools, while MCP provides a standardized interface for tool integration, allowing the chatbot to execute complex tasks beyond simple conversation. This approach emphasizes the separation of concerns, extensibility, standardization, and intelligence, making it possible to add new functionalities without altering the core code, thus creating a scalable and flexible platform for building AI assistants that can engage with diverse services.

James Seconde, a Senior PHP Developer Advocate, explores the integration of AI into Laravel development, particularly for implementing RCS messaging functionality. Despite initial skepticism about AI's role in coding, Seconde acknowledges its growing relevance in PHP development, highlighted by recent advancements such as the PHP Foundation's MCP framework and Laravel Boost for AI development. The article delves into using Cursor AI, a VSCode-based IDE, to automate tasks like migrations and models creation, though it finds that AI often fails to adhere to Laravel conventions, leading to potential inefficiencies and errors. Seconde emphasizes treating AI like a junior developer, offering the right tools to improve its output, and notes that while AI can handle mundane tasks, it often requires substantial debugging and adherence to Laravel’s best practices to ensure performance and scalability. The article concludes with the anticipation of further improvements in AI-assisted development through tools like the PHP MCP server and Laravel Boost, which promise to enhance the developer experience by providing AI with better context and capabilities.

Amanda Cavallaro's blog post explores the application of the Gemini Nano Banana tool, officially known as Gemini 2.5 Flash Image, to virtually try on clothes using RCS messaging technology. Participants can send a selfie and an image of clothing to a server via Vonage's Messages API, which uses Gemini and Imagen to overlay the garment onto the person's image and then returns the result as an RCS Rich Card. The guide provides a setup process that involves cloning a project, configuring a Node.js server, and utilizing ngrok for tunneling. It highlights potential extensions, such as adding specific RCS message types and refining image details using Imagen, while encouraging experimentation with AI for various creative projects and connections through the Vonage community.

Amanda Cavallaro, a Developer Advocate, provides a detailed guide on integrating Rich Communication Services (RCS) into authentication workflows using the Vonage Verify API. The tutorial highlights the enhanced features of RCS, such as read receipts and delivery over mobile data or Wi-Fi, making it a robust alternative to traditional SMS. It explains how businesses can utilize RCS for two-factor authentication (2FA), with a fallback mechanism to SMS if RCS is unavailable. The guide includes setting up a Node.js project, configuring environment variables, and using the Vonage API to send verification codes through RCS, with a failover to SMS. The post encourages engagement through various channels, including Vonage Community Slack and a Developer Newsletter, to stay updated on the latest tutorials and events.

Amanda Cavallaro's blog post explores the integration of Google’s Vertex AI Lyria model and the Vonage Messages API to generate and send music tracks based on user prompts via RCS messaging. The process involves using a text prompt describing musical preferences, which is processed by the Lyria model to create an MP4 file, subsequently delivered as a Rich Card through RCS to the user's device. Essential components for this setup include a Vonage API account, an RCS Business Messaging agent, and a Google Cloud Project with Vertex AI enabled. The tutorial provides a detailed walkthrough of setting up the necessary environment, including configuring webhooks using ngrok and managing dependencies through Node.js. The blog emphasizes the seamless experience of sending and receiving music tracks through RCS Rich Cards, while also offering an alternative method of sending audio files as attachments, and it encourages engagement with the developer community through various platforms.