5 ms·

An Interactive Voice Response System for $0.00 in 10 Minutes

61 points by kyleburton 16y ago

korussian 16y ago
This is brilliant! I just wish Twilio supported international numbers.
- jeffiel 16y ago
  Drop a note to help@twilio.com, and we'll add you to the beta as soon as possible.
  - korussian 16y ago
    Awesome, thanks!
AretNCarlsen 16y ago
Nice 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 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)!
- kyleburton 16y ago
  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
jedsmith 16y ago
FreePBX/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.
- listrophy 16y ago
  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/ http://www.freeswitch.org/
  - chrishaum 16y ago
    I used FreeSWITCH extensively for the telephony for some spoken language processing research. It is easily customizable, but has sensible defaults and is quite full-featured. Awesome software - I highly recommend it.
- runT1ME 16y ago
  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?
  - jedsmith 16y ago
    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.

61 points by kyleburton 16y ago

korussian 16y ago

This is brilliant! I just wish Twilio supported international numbers.

jeffiel 16y ago
Drop a note to help@twilio.com, and we'll add you to the beta as soon as possible.
- korussian 16y ago
  Awesome, thanks!

AretNCarlsen 16y ago

Nice 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 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)!

kyleburton 16y ago
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

jedsmith 16y ago

FreePBX/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.

listrophy 16y ago
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/ http://www.freeswitch.org/
- chrishaum 16y ago
  I used FreeSWITCH extensively for the telephony for some spoken language processing research. It is easily customizable, but has sensible defaults and is quite full-featured. Awesome software - I highly recommend it.
runT1ME 16y ago
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?
- jedsmith 16y ago
  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.