Twilio
Features
Twilio is a third party service that provides programmable SMS and Voice telephone services. Via its REST API's and Webhooks you can receive and place phone calls, use NLP API's to process voice input, send computer generated responses in addition to send and receive text messages. Twilio works with a global set of carriers, and gives you a real phone number to use for incoming and outgoing interactions from any nation or to any phone number.
Twilio also offers services such as programmable wireless, a service where SIM cards on various networks can be activated via programmatic REST interfaces, in addition it provides direct M2M API access.
Plans
| Small | Medium | Large | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $50/mon | $100/mon | $200/mon |
| Voice Minutes | 2500 | 5000 | 10,000 |
| SMS Messages | 3000 | 6000 | 12,000 |
| M2M Messages | 1000 | 2000 | 4,000 |
| Dedicated Phone | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SIM Limit | 40 | 80 | 160 |
IMPORTANT SIM Cards: Physical SIM cards (if needed) can be purchased through the Twilio API. For physical SIM cards a limit is in place to prevent provisioning more than your plan may allow. Additional costs ($40/mon + $5 per SIM card) apply, the SIM cards are shipped to your administrators address on file with Twilio. Physical SIM cards are not necessary for using the Twilio API.
IMPORTANT SendGrid Features: Sending emails via SendGrid through Twilio's API's are not supported.
Provisioning the add-on
aka addons:create twilio:small -a [app-space]
Once provisioned this will add the environment variables TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN which contains the authorization token for twilio, TWILIO_PHONE_NUMBER which contains the provisioned phone number in the format of +(international code)(area code)(local code) e.g., +18015556666 and TWILIO_SID which contains the account number. All interactions can be done via the REST API, if a console account is needed for reporting or administration needs please contact your administrator who can generate an account.