Twilio Labs is where additional features for the Twilio core platform are published.

Twimlets

The projects accessed through Twilio Labs are called Twimlets.  Twimlets are small web applications that implement basic voice application functionality.  They are open source so you can modify Twimlets to suit your needs; they are also stateless so you can pass the URL parameters of execution in when you call them.

Using Twimlets

You can wire up a phone number to the URL of a Twimlet, and they can be combined with your own applications. Twimlets can also be chained based on what happens during their execution.

The Twimlets currently available are:

Forward	will forward a call to another phone number and can forward to a new URL if the call isn’t answered
Find Me	will ring up to 10 phone numbers in order until someone answers the call
Simulring	will dial 2-5 phone numbers simultaneously and the first person to answer is connected to the caller
Voicemail	will ask the user to leave a message and will email the audio recording to a specified email address
Simple Menu	will play a message for the caller and wait for them to press digits that will launch them to a new URL or twimlet based on their selection
Simple Message	will play one or more audio files, say one or more text blocks, or any combination of both
Call Me	a simpler version of Simulring or Find Me that only rings one number and will forward to another URL or Twimlet if no one answers
Echo	outputs TwiML passed in via the URL, which is useful for building completely stateless apps that place outbound calls
Conference	allows you to build a simple conference line
Hold Music	plays hold music indefinitely based on music stored in an S3 bucket

Twimlet Generator

Twilio Labs provides a Twimlet Generator where you can build up and test a Twimlet URL on the website.

Below is the Forward Twimlet Generator and its Configuration parameters using Twilio’s Try It Out! section found in each Twimlet example:

Twilio Sample File in FileMaker

Within FileMaker, Twimlets can be utilized by HTTP requests and the “Insert From URL” function.  Revolution 11 developed a sample file to send text messages shown in the blog “Twilio Sample PHP & Instructions.” In this blog, we integrated the Hold Music Twimlet.

By entering a phone number in the “To Phone Number” section and pressing Send SMS button, the phone number you entered receives this SMS text message:

When we enter the phone number we want to reach and press “Call 1,” the phone number receives a call with music playing.

Download a PDF of this blog here: Introducing Twilio Labs…