We have a code that connects two target numbers in a conference to talk to each other.
We make two outbound calls, directing both to a unique conference via twiml.
Our logic is perfect when both of them answers or when one of the outbound calls gives up on ringing returning a webhook in a 'no-answer' status.
The problem is when the person rejects the call. In that case, the voicemail triggers the conference start, like if it was answered. It connects the voicemail with a person.
We need a way to stop this from happening or to identify a true human answer from an voicemail one. It is generating empty recordings, confusing the callers and in a not answered call we are sending an SMS, explaining who was trying to communicate. We need to identify all unsuccessful calls for that.
Anybody has a hint?
Twilio developer evangelist here.
You are looking for answering machine detection. Or, alternatively, you can use call screening as described on this page.
Related
I would like to have a tracking number in Twilio that will forward to my cell phone, provide a whisper message, record the call, and go to voicemail if I don't answer. Then I would like the voicemail recording emailed to me.
I've figured out how to use Twilio Studio and Twimlets to do everything, except the Whisper message.
I've found several threads that teach how to integrate a Whisper message using TwiML Bins, but I none of them include voicemail capability that I need.
I'm not a programmer and I want to be able to duplicate these functions on other tracking numbers that I own.
Can anyone assist me with this? Thanks!
Check out this blog post.
Outsmart Voice Mail with Human Detection Using Keypress Prompts
https://www.twilio.com/blog/voice-mail-human-detection-studio-functions
You can use <Say></Say> verb to whisper message and use the <Record> verb to record the call.
You'll get the recording of your call in an endpoint, which you can then email to your address with sendrid or whatever you want.
I am trying to integrate Twilio call and conference call, before that I have few doubts on it.
While conference call time one participants can able to see other participants real numbers or not? If possible, how to restrict that?
Twilio developer evangelist here.
With a conference call, your participants will only see one number, the Twilio number that they called or that you make calls from.
With regular calls, you have the option to set a callerId when you forward a call. If you don't set this, then the incoming caller ID is used and the number will be shared with the person being called. If you set the callerId to a Twilio number, then the person being called will only see the Twilio number.
If you are looking to build masked number/anonymous communications, then I recommend you take a look at Twilio Proxy which can handle all of this for you too.
I have a twilio app that provides an on-call list of phone numbers that our customer's can call and speak to one of our on-support developers.
I need to find a solution that will allow the caller to press a key to bypass the voicemail of a the calling party and be redirected to the next person in the on-call list. Right now, if I call my twilio app using my number and I get the calling party voicemail, I don't have an option to move onto the next person in the call list.
Is there a way to mimic the hangupOnStar feature when a caller gets a person voicemail in twilio?
Thanks,
I had a look into this and unfortunately it does not look like you can nest <Dial> within <Gather> otherwise this might be possible.
What I would recommend is when you receive an inbound call, play a message along the lines of "Please wait a moment while we connect an available developer", then <Enqueue> the call.
At this point your application can start calling the developers and when the line connects ask them to press #, when this happens you can <Dial> the developers call into the queue ID Twilio proved in the last call to you app, and the calls will be bridged. If the developer did not press # then you can assume that it went to voicemail, at which point <Hangup> and initiate a call to the next dev on call.
Hope that helps.
I have an app that creates outbound calls to set up simple conferences.
I am having difficulty dealing with dialing out to Google Voice numbers as I use IfMachine to be able to determine if the call goes to voicemail for one or more participants so that I can "fail" the conference call attempt.
Here's the issue that I am having...
Google Voice answers the call attempt and asks you to say your name before forwarding your call onto the configured endpoint for that user.
I can use IfMachine to detect this and I can automate this portion and get Google Voice to forward the call, but then I can no longer detect if the call ultimately goes to voicemail or if an actual person picks up on the other end.
any ideas?
Twilio Evangelist here,
I think given that there are 2 points you need machine detection, you may want to use a <Gather> as secondary call screening before connecting the person to a conference.
When you make the outbound call to a number, you're using IfMachine to find out if you get to Google Voice. So that's great. But because you're passed that hurdle, it won't be triggered again.
What you could do is to use call screening, to manually detect a human with some TwiML like this:
<Response>
<Gather numDigits="1" timeout="15" action="/some-conference-path">
<Say>Press any key to be connected to the Something Something Conference</Say>
</Gather>
</Response>
Then, if the call is answered by a human, they can press any key on their keypad and be redirect to the actual conference call, or if the Gather times out, you most likely got their voicemail.
You're basically combining automatic and manual machine detection as you need to do it twice at different points of the same call.
Hope this helps!
I'm wondering if the following is possible:
Caller rings Twilio number which gets answered and then automated message is played.
Caller is placed in a queue
In parallel to this, our system dials a number (using the rest API) showing the caller id of the incoming call, plays a gather to verify the user wants to pick up, and then connects the call.
I know that the easiest way to achieve something similar to this is to redirect the incoming call with a Dial verb, but for reasons that aren't really relevant to the question that isn't possible.
Twilio evangelist here.
Yes, this is possible, with the caveat that the initial callers phone number must be previously verified with Twilio. See this topic in the help center:
http://www.twilio.com/help/faq/voice/can-i-use-a-non-twilio-number-as-the-caller-id-for-outgoing-calls
Hope that helps.
Devin