Twilio Launches Service to Simplify SMS Application Development

Feb. 9, 2010 - PRLog -- San Francisco, CA (February 9, 2010) – Twilio,  (www.twilio.com), provider of the simple, powerful, pay-as-you-go cloud communications service, today announced the launch of Twilio SMS to simplify the development of SMS-enabled applications.  Twilio SMS allows web developers to send and receive text messages via Twilio phone numbers for 3 cents per message with no contracts or minimums.

Previously, developing SMS applications required months of contract negotiations, carrier approvals, and lengthy contracts.  Starting today, developers can use Twilio to launch SMS applications in minutes, not months.  Twilio enables customers to use its website or REST APIs to purchase phone numbers in real-time, which are instantly ready to start sending and receiving text messages.  The company offers phone numbers in nearly every US area code, and all existing Twilio customers’ phone numbers have been upgraded to support Twilio SMS.

The company also announced today that it has lowered prices on Twilio phone numbers to $1 per month for US local and $2 per month for toll free phone numbers, a decrease from $5 per month.  The new pricing has automatically applied to all existing and new Twilio customer customers.

“We’re excited to give developers the fastest, easiest way to start building SMS-enabled applications,”  said Jeff Lawson, Twilio Co-Founder & CEO.   “Now that developers can get started building SMS apps for just a buck, the doors of innovation are open -- we can wait to see what they build.”

“By aggregating the demand of many applications, we are able pass the economies of scale to our customers,” said Evan Cooke, Twilio’s Chief Technology Officer.  “We’re always looking for ways to lower prices, our new phone number pricing is a great example.”

Twilio SMS builds upon the company’s pioneering voice application platform that allows developers to rapidly build scalable, reliable voice applications, including applications for Interactive Voice Response (IVR), Public Branch eXchange (PBX), pay-per-call lead generation, alerts & notifications, polling, political activism, and more.  Twilio SMS now extends the company’s simple APIs and pay as you go pricing to the world of SMS development.

Since its launch in late November 2008, Twilio has amassed a community of over 6,000 developers, representing Fortune 100 brands, leading social media websites, independent software vendors, national political parties and more.  Customers include Sony Music, the Democratic National Committee;  the National September 11th Museum & Memorial at Ground Zero, and Salesforce.com.  Developers can get started building voice and SMS applications in minutes a Twilio Free Trial account that includes $30 of free Twilio credit.

Twilio is currently hiring engineering, developer evangelism, sales, business development and marketing roles.  Interested candidates should email resumes to jobs@twilio.com.

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About Twilio Inc.

Twilio is reinventing telecom by merging the worlds of cloud computing, web services and telecommunications. Twilio hosts a telephony infrastructure web service in the cloud, allowing web programmers to integrate phone calls and SMS messages into their applications. Twilio's simple, powerful API minimizes the learning curve required to build advanced, reliable communications applications, and its Pay-As-You-Go pricing model means customers pay for capacity only when they need it, not before. The company is funded by Union Square Ventures, Founders Fund, Mitch Kapor and other prominent investors, and has offices in San Francisco, CA.