In Twilio how could I get the usage of only active phones - twilio

I was just wondering if there is any endpoint in the Twilio API to get the usage filtered by Active Phone Numbers.
I've been going through the docs but can't seem to find a solution other than checking the calls endpoint for each one of the phone numbers in my account which is not ideal.
If I check the usage endpoint and filter by category phone numbers since the account was opened it says I've had 300 phones so far, but I can't seem to find how many of those are active or not.
Updated
Also, is there a way to filter the usage per phone number? For example I'd like to see the usage for a specific phone number but I don't want to call the Calls endpoint I just want the Usage.

Twilio developer evangelist here.
You can check how many currently active phone numbers you have with the Incoming Phone Numbers resource.
I'm afraid there's no way to separate your usage records by phone number within the one account.
However, you can do this by subaccount. If you are trying to measure different users' usage within your system then the best thing to do is to create subaccounts for each of those users. Your main account can still view usage records for all subaccounts, but the subaccounts can also be viewed individually.
Let me know if that helps at all.

Related

Use own number to send SMS in Twilio

I have had a couple of customers wondering if they can use their own phone numbers to send out SMS using Twilio.
I am wondering if this is possible?
What are the carrier charges in this case and do I need to verify this number before enabling this functionality for an individual user?
The number you want to send messages from (or to) needs to be controlled by Twilio. However, it is possible to port your number from your current provider over to Twilio and thus give Twilio control over that number. This is possible, at least in some countries.
This support article here describes how this can be done for US numbers.

Twilio SMS to Multiple Countries

So I'm using Zapier to send text messages to people added to a MailChimp mailing list. A lot of the subscribers are from other countries so I'm just wondering how the interaction works with Twilio.
Will I need a separate number for each country?
Twilio developer evangelist here.
You don't necessarily need another number, Twilio numbers can send internationally (mostly, check the individual settings on the number to be sure, UK landline numbers, for example, can't send internationally).
However, receiving a message from an international number may not be a good experience for your users as they might expect a local number. Good news is that it is easy to build this.
You can create yourself an SMS messaging service. Messaging services are a combination of a number pool along with smart uses of the number pool. You can start your messaging service with one number and add others later. When you add more than one number the messaging service will geomatch between the people you are sending to and the numbers available in the pool, picking the best number for the user.
I'm not entirely sure how this works with Zapier, whether you can set a messaging service ID for your Zap. If that's not possible, you could use Zapier to send a webhook to something like a Twilio Function which you could set up to send the message.
Let me know if that helps at all.

How to Add CNAM to Twillio

We want Caller ID to display our company name on outbound calls.
According to Twilio, numbers purchased from them cannot have Caller ID/CNAM added.
If we transfer numbers from another service that can add the numbers, will the CallerID/CNAM be maintained.
Should we Port the Number or have Twilio host the number? What is the difference?
Tried to purchase numbers on Twilio and have CNAM added.
Have purchased numbers from another vendor and they were able to add CallerID
Based on my experience recently migrating several numbers to Twilio:
If we transfer numbers from another service that can add the numbers, will the CallerID/CNAM be maintained?
Supposedly yes, mine did not. I had three Spectrum landlines, with working outbound caller ID. At some point after porting them to Twilio, the caller ID disappeared. What's worse is that some cellphones will try and "guess," and show random people's names instead of my business name (or at least, nothing).
What is the difference between porting and hosted numbers?
Hosted SMS provides a method for customers to use Twilio’s Programmable Messaging, Functions and Studio products to send and receive messages on voice-enabled numbers they already own as part of an established voice application.
(from https://www.twilio.com/docs/phone-numbers/hosted-numbers)
So porting is moving the number entirely to Twilio as the carrier for the number - voice, SMS, possibly fax (although Twilio's fax support is minimal). A hosted number would just enable SMS through Twilio for a non-Twilio landline number.
I have been looking for a way to get my numbers listed back in the CNAM database(s), today I tried a company called TrueCNAM (https://www.truecnam.com/) who will let you list up to five numbers for free. I went ahead and listed mine, I'll update my answer if I verify that it's working. Currently the CNAM lookup for my numbers is blank, so we'll see what happens.
Edit: I also tried verifying my number at https://listyourself.net, but I'm still not seeing the number in a couple searches I've done on it. It looks like the changes may take a while to propagate to the downstream third-party CNAM databases, based on this: https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r26461709-

Twilio: Integrate existing number?

Twilio newbie here. Is it possible to integrate with a customer's existing VoIP (or even landline) number? I've searched, but haven't been able to find substantial information on the topic. I'm interest in grabbing call data from the API for use with an existing SaaS application I've built, but my customer base cannot change their phone number. Thanks for your time.
You do have the option of transferiing your phone number to Twilio if you client is open to that idea:
https://www.twilio.com/help/faq/phone-numbers/i-already-have-a-phone-number-i-love-can-i-port-it-to-twilio
Painless and free process.
and, almost as important, if you need to, you can take the number back with you to another carrier:
https://www.twilio.com/help/faq/porting/how-do-i-port-my-numbers-away-from-twilio

Twilio Voice: Tracking a user from website to twilio phone call?

I'm trying to see if this is even possible in twilio. I'm hoping maybe someone's had a similar challenge and came up with a creative solution...
Our company has a unique phone number that's only displayed on our website. I've been asked if it's possible to find out not only how many calls we're getting (which is simple enough to track in twilio), but also who's calling. Basically, they want to follow the details of a users activity. From website to phone call.
Theoretically, they'd like something like this:
A user, lets call him John, comes to the website & is assigned a unique id of "12345". The id is stored in a cookie for returning users (this I can already handle).
If John calls the phone number displayed on the website, we...somehow through the use of twilio...know it's user #12345.
We can then create monthly reports stating user #12345 called the phone number 7 times this month for a total of 18 minutes.
There's so many "what if's" that go into this, that I'm just not sure it's even possible, but perhaps someone knows of a creative way this can work? A few things I've considered, but none of them are foolproof:
Tracking a combination of John's geographical location while browsing the website and the time of web browsing, then using twilio voice to track the geographical location & time of the phone call, to make a best guess. The problem is it sounds like twilio voice isn't always great at providing geo location.
Tracking mobile click to calls on the website, then matching the time of the click to the time of the phone call. Several problems with this, including multiple users calling at the same time, and we'd only be tracking those who browsed the website via mobile, then clicked to call.
For mobile click to call, passing the user's id via a phone extension, which twilio then reads (not sure if this is even possible in twilio). But again, this would be limited to mobile users.
So, I'm just not sure if this is even possible. Any idea's on how this could be implemented?
Thanks so much for any help.
Twilio developer evangelist here.
Have you considered making it possible to make the calls through the website itself? If you implemented Twilio Client you would be able to directly track users who called from the website and they'd be able to do so without picking up the phone too. That direct connection would allow you to make the calls more personal too, as you'd know exactly which user was calling.
Check out the tutorial on implementing browser calls in Twilio and let me know what you think.
I can't think of any straightforward ways to connect a user's browsing session to a phone call made with a different device though. You could ask the user to input their ID in order to start the call, using <Gather> to receive the input and tie that call to the user and whether they currently have a live session on the site. That might be an unnecessary barrier to people calling though, so you'd have to weigh up that option.

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