The shocking thing about this is that there must still be enough Faxes being sent to actually justify this new product. Where are they still used at 'scale'?
manufacturing orders, sadly
Programmable Fax – API for sending and receiving faxes
11–20 of 174 posts
Re: Programmable Fax – API for sending and receiving faxes
#12The shocking thing about this is that there must still be enough Faxes being sent to actually justify this new product. Where are they still used at 'scale'?
A lot of the Uber-for-food-delivery startups use them for ordering at restaurants because there is no text-based API to restaurants and the UX of receiving an automated phone call is poor.
They're pervasive in finance, insurance, employee benefits, etc.
They're also a good one-to-many API multiplexer. So many businesses can take a fax and have a human operate on it that many software companies can use them to add actuators to their software without having to bizdev the company into adding an actual API integration.
Re: Programmable Fax – API for sending and receiving faxes
#13I just assumed from first glance that this was an early April Fools (I guess it must be April 1st in Australia by now) But after seeing full API docs... is this real? I'm so confused!
Why not both?
Re: Programmable Fax – API for sending and receiving faxes
#14Oh thank goodness! I've been waiting for this. Been looking for a quality alternative to efax for my wife and now I can build one for about 1/10th of the ongoing cost.
Re: Programmable Fax – API for sending and receiving faxes
#15This is pretty neat. From the API docs it looks like they've really reduced it down to, "Here's a PDF, send this to number XYZ".
Here's a fun side project for somebody: Make a network tunnel that uses faxes as a way to send packets back and forth. You can encode the packets as a QR code, ship it over via fax, and then reply back with another fax. Be cool to see that in action with a human doing the receipt / transport vs. a fully automated one (two computers using Twilio API).
Re: Programmable Fax – API for sending and receiving faxes
#16The shocking thing about this is that there must still be enough Faxes being sent to actually justify this new product. Where are they still used at 'scale'?
A lot of the Uber-for-food-delivery startups use them for ordering at restaurants because there is no text-based API to restaurants and the UX of receiving an automated phone call is poor. They're pervasive in finance, insurance, employee benefits, etc. They're also a good one-to-many API multiplexer. So many businesses can take a fax and have a human operate on it that many software companies can use them to add act…
To explain the typical workflow here, the restaurant receives a fax from the marketplace with a phone number to call to acknowledge the delivery. There is a short numeric code on the fax print out that the restaurant types into the IVR system.
This is how these marketplaces can confirm someone is there to actually receive the order and provide that feedback to the customer that their order has been received.
I think (but am not sure) that they can provide time estimates through the IVR system as well.
Re: Programmable Fax – API for sending and receiving faxes
#17The shocking thing about this is that there must still be enough Faxes being sent to actually justify this new product. Where are they still used at 'scale'?
Still used when placing order with a number of manufacturers, unfortunately.
They are viewed as "safe" for credit card information, as opposed to emails.
Unknown as to why these manufacturers don't provide an online payment system. I work with several that want faxes, and they aren't small companies.
I also saw this with companies that provide drug testing, background checks, etc. Same thing...viewed as a secure channel.
Re: Programmable Fax – API for sending and receiving faxes
#18The shocking thing about this is that there must still be enough Faxes being sent to actually justify this new product. Where are they still used at 'scale'?
Between hospitals, for instance when patient data is requested.
Re: Programmable Fax – API for sending and receiving faxes
#19The shocking thing about this is that there must still be enough Faxes being sent to actually justify this new product. Where are they still used at 'scale'?
Japan, for one, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/14/world/asia/in-japan-the-fa...
And Germany.
Also fax is apparently the only way to reserve a table for Oktoberfest in Munich. Or so says a German colleague.
Re: Programmable Fax – API for sending and receiving faxes
#20The shocking thing about this is that there must still be enough Faxes being sent to actually justify this new product. Where are they still used at 'scale'?
Still used when placing order with a number of manufacturers, unfortunately. They are viewed as "safe" for credit card information, as opposed to emails. Unknown as to why these manufacturers don't provide an online payment system. I work with several that want faxes, and they aren't small companies. I also saw this with companies that provide drug testing, background checks, etc. Same thing...viewed as a secure chan…
> They are viewed as "safe" for credit card information, as opposed to emails.
The odds of someone obtaining credit card information from a plaintext email is a lot higher than someone decoding a VOIP SIP/T38 stream over the public internet, and reading the secrets out of that.
And if its through a traditional carrier (not an Internet provider), its digital, but almost always over their internal network. It is more secure through obscurity alone than plain text email.