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
Related
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.
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-
So, a little context for you first: Our app only has forwarding and text messaging capabilities for our clients. Basically, we just set up a forwarding number in twilio for our client and they use that as their public number (on websites, advertisements, Google, etc.). Then when their customers call that number we ask them a quick question using the phone menu before forwarding the call onto their regular land line and sending them a text message later.
What do you suggest we do when someone wants to keep their current number (land line or otherwise) as the main phone number (online, website, ads, etc.) instead of using a new forwarding number?
Would they port their current number over to twilio, and then just get a new number with their main phone provider that we'd forward the ported number to?
I'm sure this is a common problem, so wondering what the best way approach it would be.
Thanks!
Twilio evangelist here.
If they want to continue using their POTS equipment then what you described is the only option. If they were able to move over to a pure VoIP system then there are more options.
You could use Twilio Client to build web and/or mobile VoIP apps for them. Or you could stand to a VoIP server (like Astrisk or FreeSWITCH) for them to connect VoIP phones to.
Of course they would still have to have an internet connection with for either of the VoIP options.
Hope that helps
This is an old question but it was at the top of my search for questions about porting for sms capabilities. Having worked 20 years in B2B telecom I can answer the last part of this in case anyone else needs to know.
If you go to any provider and request a number to be ported from the existing provider, the "losing carrier" cannot refuse to port the number as long as the number is active. I stress this point because if they are past-due, they still have to port it. But if the service is temporarily or permanently disconnected they don't and usually won't port it. The port has to come from the company winning the business. Don't contact the existing carrier about it because they can't "push" the number out. Instead, the new carrier will have you fill out a Letter of Authorization (LOA) to port it that gets submitted with the port request. Its very important that all of the details on this form match the billing record or it will get declined. So normally you would provide a copy of the current bill with the LOA.
I'm running a Ruby on Rails application that I'm looking for a method to send some notifications via SMS (not many, just on critical failures).
It seems like this may be possible via google talk or google voice. Does anyone know how to do this?
Have a look at Twilio. They might not be entirely free, but if you want to reliably send SMS on critical errors that might be worth more than a free option that might not work that reliable.
What's more, they have an excellent twilio-ruby gem that allows you to send SMS very nicely from any app.
Pricing with Twilio depends on the country you're sending your text to, for the U.S. it would be 1 Cent for each outbound SMS.
If you get to know any free solution let me know.
Disclaimer, I do developer evangelism part time at Nexmo.
If you're only sending notifications to yourself, you may be able to just use an email alias for your cell number.
But if you're doing anything significant, the best solution is likely an SMS API. There are a few providers (this list isn't complete, but it's what I'd consider using) - pricing is in cents per message (depends on the API and destination, but hovers around a cent or two). You may be required to provision a virtual number depending on your country - pricing there is generally dollars/month (again, depends on API and destination, hovers around a dollar or two).
Nexmo
Twilio
Tropo
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.