A rundown of Twilio and Zoom
There are a ton of great communication platforms on the market but we’re going to focus on our preferred platforms, Twilio and Zoom, as their ability to integrate into apps as modules offer businesses substantial flexibility in building custom communication solutions.
Twilio overview
Twilio is a popular communication system that’s used around the globe by larger businesses for video, voice, and messaging. As such, the platform is designed to cater to large user bases which makes it perfect for apps with large user bases that need a communication platform.
Like many other teleconferencing service providers,
Twilio offers a wide array of communication tools for text messaging between users, outbound messaging, voice calling, video calling, automated email, and much more. Like their competitors Zoom, Skype, GoToMeeting, and others, every communication tool you can imagine is available through Twilio.
The Twilio
pricing model is transparent, albeit, a little confusing if you haven’t priced out other VoIP solutions. For developers and decision-makers, this can give an outline as to how much the projected costs could be for using Twilio as an integration.
Getting started with Twilio is considered easier than some other platforms as developers simply need to
sign up for an account to get access to the SDK and API. From here, developers can take advantage of the REST API to begin programming a custom integration for their platform at no cost.
Zoom overview
The
Zoom platform has become quite popular in recent times – it’s a tool that we use here at Blue Label Labs to chat among ourselves as well as with clients.
Zoom allows users to easily connect through their video conferencing app or over the web. Like Skype and other solutions, users can message while connected, use the voice and video features, share files, send messages, and also share screens.
Developers can build Zoom into an application by taking advantage of the
Zoom API. Developer
access to the API and SDK can be obtained by signing up for the Pro account at $14.99 (or a higher tier) which provides access to all the tools they need. This gives access to all the features that Zoom offers, enabling the integration of any (or every) feature offered by Zoom.
It’s important to note that the Zoom API isn’t all that powerful. It mostly allows you to mirror what the Zoom app does meaning it basically becomes a UI replacement. The Zoom API provides the capability to build tailored experiences for automating the creating of meetings and provisioning of resources from within your own app.
Twilio or Zoom?
Both communication platforms have a lot to offer but we prefer to use Twilio for the digital products we build at Blue Label Labs.
The Zoom API is mostly centered on integrating meeting functionality into an app. This is ideal for an app that requires users to frequently call each other or conduct video meetings in a conference like model. They also offer other tools like instant messaging and automation for tasks like auto receptionists and chatbot messages.
Zoom gives developers access to protocols like
OAuth 2.0 or JWT that enables user authentication using a backend identifier made available to the API which works with access and refresh tokens to secure a session. This makes activating and using this feature of an app for end-users secure and seamless. From here, devs can get started on building a Zoom-based integration for their app based on the needs of their users.
Twilio is a one-stop-shop for communication platform, offering all the same tools as Zoom but through a more developed, rock-solid API. For starters, their Programmable Video and Programmable Voice modules act as drop-in solutions for video and voice calling, respectively. Programmable SMS makes it easy for developers to build a solution for sending and receiving messages where the complexity of the mobile carrier side is handled on the backend by Twilio.
Twilio owns
SendGrid which enables developers to program automated, transactional messaging for marketing email campaigns. Their ownership of Authy means that users can seamlessly and securely log in to use communication features.
Finally, Twilio isn’t build around the concept of meetings and conferences, rather it enables streaming through an independent model. If you’re looking to build something similar to Facetime or Google Hangouts then it has Zoom beat in this area as well.
Both platforms offer a ton of communication modules through the API, more than we discuss in-depth here. We urge anyone considering building an app to explore available options to select the best platform for their app’s needs.
