This is technical overview of Twilio's messaging capabilities and a deep dive into the newly released features at Twiliocon 2013. This talk was given by: - Patrick Malatack, Director of Product Management @ Twilio - Gowri Rao, Product Manager, Messaging @ Twilio

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Twilio Messaging - Overviewand New
Feature Deep Dive
PATRICK MALATACK, DIRECTOR OF PRODUCT MANAGEMENT @ TWILIO
GOWRI RAO, PRODUCT MANAGER, MESSAGING @ TWILIO

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Hi. I’m Gowri.
I’m a Product Manager at Twilio.
gowri@twilio.com

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Hi. I’m Patrick.
I’m a Product Manager at Twilio.
patrick@twilio.com

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By the end of this talk,
1. Why is SMS so important?
you’ll be able to answer these questions.
2. How do I send an SMS using Twilio?
3. What is Concatenated Messaging and how do I use it? (new)
4. What is Twilio Picture Messaging and how do I use it? (new)

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What is SMS & why does it matter? A brief review.
Let’s take a quick look at the history of SMS and where we are today.

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What exactly is SMS?
Short Messaging Service (SMS) lets you send a message
(up to 160 characters) from a phone number you own
to any SMS enabled number in the world.

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Why should you care about SMS?
Twilio just lowered its
pricing to 3/4¢ per
message.
CHEAP
A lead contacted within
5 minutes is 100x more
likely to convert.
INSTANTTeenagers (18 - 24)
send 109.5 messages
per day on average.
POPULAR
Twilios APIs make it
super easy to integrate.
EASY
People send 41.5 SMS
messages per day on
average.
FAMILIAR

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of all humans use SMS
85%
messages to communicate.
140 Million
iOS users
480 Million
Android users
2.4 Billion
Internet Users
6 Billion
SMS Subscribers
Android Image Credit: Jan Sebastian bach, from The Noun Project

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Current SMS offerings. The State of the Union.
How can I use the existing Twilio services to send SMS updates?

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Sending SMS Messages: Phone Numbers
• Person-to-Person Messaging
• Self-service
• Local Experience
• Prohibited from High Volume
• Available in US, UK, & CA

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Sending SMS Messages: Short Codes
• Person-to-Person Messaging
• Self-service
• Local Experience
• Prohibited from High Volume
• Available in US, UK, & CA

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Where can I send to?
EVERYWHERE!
1300+ CARRIERS
200+ COUNTRIES

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How Stuff Works: Incoming Messages
!
GSM/CDMA
HTTP
Request

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!
GSM/CDMA
HTTP
Request
How Stuff Works: Outgoing Messages

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Sending a MessageExample:
POST
https://api.twilio.com/2010-­‐04-­‐01/
Accounts/AC123/SMS/Messages.json
From='894546'
To='16505766372'
Body='Come
check
out
our
new
fall
fashions
http://www.twiliofashions.com/'

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Brevity is overrated. Introducing Concatenated Messages.
Let’s take a look at how Twilio helps you overcome the 160 character barrier.

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Previously: Break apart large messages
Each message was limited to 160 characters. Messages
larger than that had to be manually broken up into smaller
chunks.

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Today: Enter Message Concatenation
Twilio now supports messages up to 1,600 characters. No
more worrying about getting cut off mid sentence or
dealing with manual chunking.

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#1
#2
#3
#4
#3
#2
#4
#1
Message Concatenation: How does it work?
We use the new NumSegments property to keep track of the number of SMS
messages used to deliver your content.

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Seeing is believing. Introducing Twilio Picture Messages.
Let’s take a look at how Twilio helps you send rich media using the Universal
Messaging API.

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What does Twilio Picture Messaging look like?
Picture messaging (available on short codes) lets you display
media to directly to the user.
Before Now

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Twilio Picture Messaging: The Gritty Details
Currently available on US
Short Codes and to / from
US numbers.
USA ONLY
Pricing starts at 2¢ per
outbound message & 1¢ per
inbound message.
PRICING
You can attach a maximum
of 10 images per message.
UP TO 10 PHOTOS

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Twilio Picture Messaging: The Definitive Guide.
MEDIA
MESSAGES Similar to SMS, there is now a Message Resource. There
is also a corresponding <Message> TwiML verb which is
similar to <Sms>.
Messages now have a Media Sub-Resource which contains
any attached Pictures. There is also a corresponding
<Media> TwiML Noun for generating new Media Resources.

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Example #1: Sending a Picture
Let’s take a look at how to use the Messages endpoint to send a Twilio Picture
Message.

25. Copyright © twilio Inc. 2013PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL
POST to /Messages List Resource
• From
• To
• Body - can now be up to 1600 characters long
• MediaURL - The URL(s) of the image(s) you want to send with your message. If you wish to send
more than one image in your message, simply provide multiple MediaURLs

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Sending a Photo MessageExample:
POST
https://api.twilio.com/2010-­‐04-­‐01/
Accounts/AC123/SMS/Messages.json
From='894546'
To='16505766372'
Body='New
Dress
in
Stock'
MediaUrl='http://images.com/dress.png'

27. Copyright © twilio Inc. 2013PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL
/Messages/{Sid} Resource
• From
• To
• Body - can now be up to 1600 characters long
• NumSegments
• NumMedia - The number of media associated with the message. For instance, if you sent a message
with two images, this would be 2. If your message contained only text and no media this is 0
• /Media - Represents the set of media elements included with a given Message

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Example #2: Receiving a Message
Let’s use the Messages webhook to receive a picture message and take a
closer look at some of the new parameters that come along with it.

29. Copyright © twilio Inc. 2013PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL
/Messages Webhook
Backwards
Compatible
• From
• To
• Body - can now be up to 1600 characters long
• NumSegments
• NumMedia
• MediaURL {N} - URLs
• MediaContentType{N}

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New Param: MediaUrl#
Ex. MediaUrl0 → MediaUrlN
“MediaUrl0”:
“https://api.twilio.com/2010-­‐04-­‐01/...",
“MediaUrl1”:
“https://api.twilio.com/2010-­‐04-­‐01/...",
Each media attachment gets its own MediaUrl# parameter pointing
to the image hosted on the Twilio CDN.

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New Param: MediaContentType#
Ex. MediaContentType0 → MediaContentTypeN
“MediaContentType0”:
“image/png",
“MediaContentType1”:
“image/jpeg",
Each media attachment gets its own MediaContentType# parameter telling
you what kind of media it is (using the standard HTTP content types).

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Example #3: Replying to a message in TwiML
Let’s use TwiML to respond to the messages we receive with a Twilio Picture
Message.

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Example #3: Replying to a Message in TwiML
<?xml
version="1.0"
encoding="UTF-­‐8"?>
<Response>
<Message>
<Body>I'm
hungry!</Body>
<Media>http://www.images.com/cheesesteak.png</Media>
</Message>
</Response>

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Example #4: RESTfully Fetching Media
Let’s use the Twilio REST API to fetch the Media attachments for a message.

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GET
https://api.twilio.com/2010-­‐04-­‐01/Accounts/AC123/Messages/MM1234/Media.json
Example #4: RESTfully Fetching Media
We can issue a GET request to the Media sub-resource to get any Media objects.

37. QUESTIONS?