Twilio Announces New APIs to Enhance Developer Experience

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- At the second annual TwilioCon conference in San Francisco, Twilio (http://www.twilio.com) announced three new APIs, Test Credentials, Usage, and Usage Triggers, significantly enhancing the developer experience. The new functionality allows Twilio developers to build even more rock-solid applications and more easily retrieve and show usage information.

"At Twilio, we focus on delivering a great developer experience," said Jeff Lawson, CEO and co-founder of Twilio. "These new APIs let developers focus on building value for their users by making development faster and more reliable. We can't wait to see what they build."

Specifically, the new APIs meet the following needs:

Testing:

With new Test Credentials for the Twilio API, developers can test their code against the Twilio API without placing calls, sending SMS messages, or spending a penny. Telecom is full of edge cases, and the new set of Test Credentials gives developers the tool they need to test those edge cases safely. Developers can use the same code to talk to the same Twilio API in their tests as they do in their production environments, but by using Test Credentials they'll no longer worry that a runaway test might result in a significant cost. Most importantly, Test Credentials enable new functionality to be added to existing apps with confidence--developers never have to think twice about adding innovative features that might have been too daunting were it not for the ease of testing.

Usage:

The Usage API gives developers a REST endpoint to query any type of Twilio usage with a single API call. The API supports slicing and dicing usage over any date-range and by any time-interval. Developers can query high-level aggregate metrics like call-minutes and sms-messages, or dive down to specific call, message, and phone-number types. With these tools, developers can build dashboards and usage-based billing systems more easily than ever before.

Usage Triggers:

The Usage Triggers API allows developers to create triggers that webhook to their application when it crosses usage thresholds. Usage Triggers can fire, based on any type of usage from a specific call-type to the total price of all usage. Developers can even create recurring triggers that automatically reset every day or month. This powerful concept allows developers to offload the heavy-lifting of monitoring usage caps and costs to Twilio's cloud infrastructure.

"As developers on Twilio's platform, we love seeing new API features like this," said Greg Cohn, CEO of LA based AdHoc Labs and maker of popular iPhone app Burner. "Not only do the Usage and Triggers APIs replace code we previously had to build manually, but they also increase reliability and accuracy by moving critical functions closer to the source."

Documentation for the new APIs can be found here:

Test credentials: http://www.twilio.com/docs/api/rest/test-credentials

Usage: http://www.twilio.com/docs/api/rest/usage-records

Usage Triggers: http://www.twilio.com/docs/api/rest/usage-triggers

About Twilio

Twilio (www.twilio.com), the cloud communications company, is reinventing telecom by merging the worlds of cloud computing, web services and telecommunications. Twilio provides a telephony infrastructure web service in the cloud, allowing web developers to integrate phone calls, text messages and IP voice communications into their web, mobile and traditional phone applications. The company is privately held and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

SOURCE Twilio