An Interactive Voice Response System for $0.00 in 10 Minutes
asymmetrical-view.com
An Interactive Voice Response System for $0.00 in 10 Minutes
1–10 of 14 posts
Re: An Interactive Voice Response System for $0.00 in 10 Minutes
#2This is brilliant! I just wish Twilio supported international numbers.
Re: An Interactive Voice Response System for $0.00 in 10 Minutes
#3This is brilliant! I just wish Twilio supported international numbers.
Drop a note to help@twilio.com, and we'll add you to the beta as soon as possible.
Re: An Interactive Voice Response System for $0.00 in 10 Minutes
#4Nice tutorial on tying these pieces together!
Title is misleading. Heroku is genuinely $0.00, but after the trial period Twilio goes to $1/month (for the phone number reservation) and $0.01/minute for voice calls. A bit like saying "Big-Screen TV at Best Buy for $0.00", because, after all, you can return it for a refund within 30 days.
@korussian: Tropo is a nearly identical service that offers local numbers in 40 other countries. See their FAQ: https://www.tropo.com/docs/scripting/faq.htm They will also host basic scripts on their own site (Python/PHP/Javascript/Ruby), so you can do without Heroku altogether. And the best part is, they cost three times as much ($3/month + $0.03/minute)!
Re: An Interactive Voice Response System for $0.00 in 10 Minutes
#5Re: An Interactive Voice Response System for $0.00 in 10 Minutes
#6FreePBX/Asterisk is a good alternative to this, if a pain to administer. Twilio seems great for a request/response Web app, but going much further than that seems like it'd be a challenge (by design; Twilio seems to emphasize that model and simplicity).
Rather than have Twilio hand off to your 'office number' for extensions and voicemail and such, you could just have both in the same place, which is the Asterisk approach.
I'd be interested to hear if anybody has pulled off extensions and voicemail using the Twilio system. I've never used it, but based upon a quick glance at the API, it seems like it'd be doable...also, thank you for the inspiration to do something with Twilio. Signing up tonight.
Re: An Interactive Voice Response System for $0.00 in 10 Minutes
#7FreePBX/Asterisk is a good alternative to this, if a pain to administer. Twilio seems great for a request/response Web app, but going much further than that seems like it'd be a challenge (by design; Twilio seems to emphasize that model and simplicity). Rather than have Twilio hand off to your 'office number' for extensions and voicemail and such, you could just have both in the same place, which is the Asterisk appr…
Another option is FreeSWITCH, an open-source telephony platform with development led by a Barracude Networks guy. I only learned about it yesterday, so I can't make a recommendation. http://www.freeswitch.org/
Re: An Interactive Voice Response System for $0.00 in 10 Minutes
#8Nice tutorial on tying these pieces together! Title is misleading. Heroku is genuinely $0.00, but after the trial period Twilio goes to $1/month (for the phone number reservation) and $0.01/minute for voice calls. A bit like saying "Big-Screen TV at Best Buy for $0.00", because, after all, you can return it for a refund within 30 days. @korussian: Tropo is a nearly identical service that offers local numbers in 40 ot…
Thanks!
You're correct, you can set it up for free but you can't maintain it indefinitely for free. I think you only need the $1/mo if you reserve an actual phone number, if you stick w/the sandbox I think it stays as $0.01/min until you deploy for real - Heroku is kinda the same, it's only free if you use minimal resources. That's what I was shooting for: a prototype for effectively free.
Regards,
Kyle
Re: An Interactive Voice Response System for $0.00 in 10 Minutes
#9FreePBX/Asterisk is a good alternative to this, if a pain to administer. Twilio seems great for a request/response Web app, but going much further than that seems like it'd be a challenge (by design; Twilio seems to emphasize that model and simplicity). Rather than have Twilio hand off to your 'office number' for extensions and voicemail and such, you could just have both in the same place, which is the Asterisk appr…
I'm curious why you feel the request/response model doesn't scale to more complex apps. SIP itself is request/response based, and telecom in general also is.
Their API may be lacking certain features, (I'm not sure you can do fine grained control of individual call legs) but is there a reason you don't like the request/response model?
Re: An Interactive Voice Response System for $0.00 in 10 Minutes
#10FreePBX/Asterisk is a good alternative to this, if a pain to administer. Twilio seems great for a request/response Web app, but going much further than that seems like it'd be a challenge (by design; Twilio seems to emphasize that model and simplicity). Rather than have Twilio hand off to your 'office number' for extensions and voicemail and such, you could just have both in the same place, which is the Asterisk appr…
I'm curious why you feel the request/response model doesn't scale to more complex apps. SIP itself is request/response based, and telecom in general also is. Their API may be lacking certain features, (I'm not sure you can do fine grained control of individual call legs) but is there a reason you don't like the request/response model?
I didn't mean that I don't like the request/response model. I meant going beyond that, by which I meant voicemail, hold music, extensions, conference calls, and so on, seems like it would be difficult to implement with the Twilio model. That's all.
If you don't need those, this looks killer. Otherwise, might as well just bite the bullet and set up Asterisk.