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Introducing Our Ridiculously Simple Twilio SMS API

blog.twilio.com

11–20 of 45 posts

Re: Introducing Our Ridiculously Simple Twilio SMS API

#11
This looks excellent, although at the moment I can't think of a use aside from notifications (which is awesome either way).

But you NEED to go after sms payments. They're horrendous at the moment and completely unusable for most people because of the high fees. I'm really hoping some startup can tackle it and turn it into a viable payment solution.

Re: Introducing Our Ridiculously Simple Twilio SMS API

#12
Same pricing as Clickatell (http://www.clickatell.com/pricing/message_cost.php) -- which I consider to be an impressive fact.

What I like best about this API is that it sends and receives via a regular phone number that you own as part of your Twilio account. That's waaaaay less complicated -- and way cheaper -- than futzing around with shortcodes and the like (as anyone who has ever investigated shortcodes can attest).

Re: Introducing Our Ridiculously Simple Twilio SMS API

#14
This is hands-down game changing.

I personally can't wait to see what the competition does. I hope Twilio left some wiggle room in their $0.03 price in case they have to go into a pricing war with other providers (thinking Google).

To me this means I have no reason not to TXT enable all of my apps. It also offers a quick and easy way to make money for a lot of "freemium" services out there. Just enable TXT updates and up-charge per TXT (possibly).

Re: Introducing Our Ridiculously Simple Twilio SMS API

#15

This looks excellent, although at the moment I can't think of a use aside from notifications (which is awesome either way). But you NEED to go after sms payments. They're horrendous at the moment and completely unusable for most people because of the high fees. I'm really hoping some startup can tackle it and turn it into a viable payment solution.

You might check out http://venmo.com/ They have a dead simple SMS payments platform.

-evan (@twilio)

Re: Introducing Our Ridiculously Simple Twilio SMS API

#16

Am I the only one that thinks someone is going to build a killer service on top of Twilio? Something to become a household name and be totally disruptive.

I think i might base my next startup entirely off of using some twilio functions after this price lowering and some research. It's a business app, but it would trickle down to interact with a lot of consumers.

I have been playing around with it for personal use and it has contributed more business ideas to the notebook than anything else I've done. With SMS I'd give better than even odds of one of them being my next business.

Re: Introducing Our Ridiculously Simple Twilio SMS API

#17
post #13
post #3

It mentions 3c per message, is it the same price for international messages as well?

And also if it works internationally ... are there international phone numbers for inbound SMS?

From their FAQ, it says you can send to and receive from international numbers for the same pricing (subject to change in the future). However, you can only send from and receive to a US based local (not toll-free) Twilio number.

Re: Introducing Our Ridiculously Simple Twilio SMS API

#18
post #15

This looks excellent, although at the moment I can't think of a use aside from notifications (which is awesome either way). But you NEED to go after sms payments. They're horrendous at the moment and completely unusable for most people because of the high fees. I'm really hoping some startup can tackle it and turn it into a viable payment solution.

You might check out http://venmo.com/ They have a dead simple SMS payments platform. -evan (@twilio)

I checked it out, and it looks handy (requested an invite, but we'll see how it goes) although perhaps I worded it wrong.

I meant sms billing, services like zaypay/daopay. It's just that now the fees are so horribly high that it's almost pointless.

Re: Introducing Our Ridiculously Simple Twilio SMS API

#20
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think i might base my next startup entirely off of using some twilio functions after this price lowering and some research. It's a business app, but it would trickle down to interact with a lot of consumers.

I have been playing around with it for personal use and it has contributed more business ideas to the notebook than anything else I've done. With SMS I'd give better than even odds of one of them being my next business.

yup. the sms is a nice supplement. i really need to dig in deep and think of some use cases.

for the consumer side, i dont know if youve seen this chatroulette thing. might be fun for shits and giggles to do that with twilio. no clue how it could be sustainable though.

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