Add-ons are available through the Twilio Marketplace. At a functional level, Add-ons package a publisher's APIs and annotate the content that Twilio provides by tapping into the publisher's data sources or by using the publisher's technology to analyze the content. Examples include Phone number based queries for demographic & marketing data, Number fraud/spam block list checking, Recordings Transcription processing, and Message sentiment analysis. For a full list of Add-ons and their functionality, check out the Twilio Marketplace in the Twilio Console.
Add-ons are currently available for Programmable SMS, Programmable Voice - Calls & Recordings, and Lookups. Further, Add-on data can only be presented in the form of text message bodies, phone numbers, and voice recordings. The table below matches the Twilio service to the acceptable Add-on input. For more information from the publisher side of things, check out the Add-on Publisher Guide.
Add-on Type | Available Integration Point(s) for Customers | Data available to Partners | Consumption Mode |
---|---|---|---|
Phone Number Add-on | Lookups, Incoming SMS, Incoming Voice | Phone Number (single, to, from) | Synchronous |
Message Analysis Add-on | Incoming SMS | Phone Numbers, Message Body | Synchronous |
Recording Analysis Add-on | Recordings | Audio File (single channel) | Asynchronous |
Developers select an Add-on and configure it for their account which makes it available for use. They can then specify that they want it invoked when using a supported Twilio API.
The figure below illustrates the timeline and flow of information between a developer, Twilio, and a publisher's Add-on. If a developer set up a recording Add-on to respond to voice calls, The voice call would be accepted by Twilio, and sent to the developer's webhook. Afterwards, the call could be recorded and the information sent back to Twilio. Twilio would then give the data to the recording Add-on for processing, and once the Add-on returns the relevant data to Twilio, Twilio would return the data to the developer.