Twilio Announces Proxy -- Next Generation API for Building Private and Moderated Conversations with Customers

Also announces Twilio Engagement Cloud, a suite of Declarative APIs for rapid development of customer engagement applications on the Twilio communications platform

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - May 24, 2017) - Twilio (NYSE: TWLO), the leading cloud communications platform for developers, today announced Twilio Proxy, a new API to power private text and voice conversations between a customer and a mobile worker. Any business with a mobile workforce can now enable workers to connect with customers using their own device, while providing a layer of privacy and security to both the worker and the customer. Twilio Proxy is the latest addition to the newly-announced Twilio Engagement Cloud, a collection of Declarative APIs that provide a business with all of the logic needed for building multi-channel communications with customers. To learn more, visit http://twilio.com/proxy.

The success of on-demand marketplaces has created a new standard in how delivery people, hosts, drivers, tutors and other mobile workers use their own devices to engage directly with consumers. For the companies facilitating these communications, it is crucial to protect the privacy of both parties and filter inappropriate content out of the conversation. Before today, building these capabilities required a significant amount of software development to get right, especially at global scale. Now, with just a few lines of code, developers can use Twilio Proxy to manage communications at any scale. Twilio Proxy handles the underlying communications logic such as real-time phone number provisioning, time-bounded routing of calls and texts between the parties, content moderation, and logging communications for security purposes. Proxy capabilities include:

Multi-Channel Masked Communications: Twilio Proxy allows developers to specify the two parties involved in a conversation and takes over from there to automatically route all calls and messages, keeping a log of communications. Twilio Proxy supports two-way communications over voice, SMS, and messaging services such as Facebook Messenger, Slack, WeChat, Twitter, Viber, Line, BlackBerry Messenger, HipChat and Kik.
Phone Number Management: For voice calls and SMS, Twilio Proxy handles the communication logic to set up intermediate phone numbers for text and voice conversations between two people, so personal phone numbers and user IDs are kept confidential. Proxy automatically prioritizes the selection of the most appropriate numbers, taking into account geographic considerations and individual number capabilities to ensure effective routing.
Content Moderation: Twilio Proxy allows developers to moderate the content of text conversations between the two parties. By configuring rules for filtering and redacting messages, they have the ability to filter out profanity, or sharing of information like phone numbers and credit card numbers.
Time-Bounded Sessions: Twilio Proxy provides the ability to manage every active communication, for example, the length of time a customer can contact a mobile worker, or swapping out a mobile worker with another based on shift schedules and personnel changes.

"Enabling 23 million teachers, parents, and students to communicate privately without revealing their personal contact information is critical," said Jason Fischl, VP of Engineering at Remind, whose SMS privacy features built on Twilio extend through 70% of K-12 schools across the US. "Twilio's Proxy API abstracts away the complexity of private text and voice conversations, making them easy to build and scale."

Twilio Engagement Cloud
Twilio Proxy is part of the Twilio Engagement Cloud, a new suite of Declarative APIs that are embedded with logic for common multi-channel customer experience uses cases. Declarative APIs retain the flexibility of Twilio's programmable APIs, with added business process and logic already built in. These next-generation APIs enable developers to build more rapidly with less coding, and are designed to help businesses get to production scale faster than ever before.

The Twilio Engagement Cloud also includes Twilio Notify, software for orchestrating automated notifications across messaging channels; Twilio TaskRouter, routing software to create smarter contact center workflows; and the Twilio Two-factor Authentication service for stronger account security. To learn more, please visit http://www.twilio.com/engagement-cloud.

"Today, developers are increasingly relied on to help create the best possible experience for customers. As the demands on a developer's time grows, one of our goals is to build new APIs that free up developers to focus on the more creative aspects of coding," said Jeff Lawson, Twilio CEO, Co-Founder and Chairman. "The Twilio Engagement Cloud and its Declarative APIs are built to help developers spend less time reinventing the wheel. We can't wait to see what developers build next using these new APIs!"

About Twilio
Twilio's mission is to fuel the future of communications. Developers and businesses use Twilio to make communications relevant and contextual by embedding messaging, voice, and video capabilities directly into their software applications. Founded in 2008,Twilio has over 800 employees, with headquarters in San Francisco and other offices in Bogotá, Dublin, Hong Kong, London, Madrid, Malmö, Mountain View, Munich, New York City, Singapore and Tallinn.