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Programmable Fax – API for sending and receiving faxes

twilio.com

21–30 of 174 posts

Re: Programmable Fax – API for sending and receiving faxes

#21

This has been kicked around for a really long time and I'm happy they finally launched it. Around 2013 or so, one of the junior engineers on the Twilio Voice team pitched his innovation week project with a single slide saying "Fax: The time is now." The time has finally arrived! Congrats John.

Guessing this will kill Phaxio. Compare the pricing:

https://www.twilio.com/fax/pricing

https://www.phaxio.com/pricing/

Re: Programmable Fax – API for sending and receiving faxes

#22

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'?

I've had to use fax to verify my identity in NYC when setting up a Con Edison account (electricity). I had no way of sending a fax physically so resorted to using some shit online service that tricked me and kept charging me every month after sending the original single page I needed. Horrible experience.

Re: Programmable Fax – API for sending and receiving faxes

#23
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 s…

Yes. I'm not skeptical that fax is safer than email. I'm skeptical that it's safe.

I see all sorts of things I shouldn't see when searching the pile of papers on the fax machine at a large company for my fax.

Re: Programmable Fax – API for sending and receiving faxes

#24
post #21

This has been kicked around for a really long time and I'm happy they finally launched it. Around 2013 or so, one of the junior engineers on the Twilio Voice team pitched his innovation week project with a single slide saying "Fax: The time is now." The time has finally arrived! Congrats John.

Guessing this will kill Phaxio. Compare the pricing: https://www.twilio.com/fax/pricing https://www.phaxio.com/pricing/

[deleted]

Re: Programmable Fax – API for sending and receiving faxes

#25
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Depends on the company, but this is the gist of it. There are frequently options outside of fax, as well. It's one of several.

Re: Programmable Fax – API for sending and receiving faxes

#26
If Twilio will sign a business associates agreement, this could be huge in the healthcare field. EMRs have terrible interoperability so doctors and health systems typically fax health records to one another. However, this service does not look HIPAA compliant based on the sparse documentation. It doesn't look promising that they will sign a BAA according to this document. https://support.twilio.com/hc/en-us/articles/223136467-Ensur...

Re: Programmable Fax – API for sending and receiving faxes

#29

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'?

I've worked at a company, targeting medical practices, where fax was/is by a very effective method of marketing.

Re: Programmable Fax – API for sending and receiving faxes

#30
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 s…

Yes. I'm not skeptical that fax is safer than email. I'm skeptical that it's safe. I see all sorts of things I shouldn't see when searching the pile of papers on the fax machine at a large company for my fax.

> I see all sorts of things I shouldn't see when searching the pile of papers on the fax machine at a large company for my fax.

That's not an issue of the security of fax as a transmission method, it's a problem with your company's security at the fax endpoint.

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