Twilio, a cloud-based platform for adding voice calls and text messaging to apps, has launched Twilio Connect so that developers can get authorization to make calls, purchase phone numbers and integrate other API functions into their apps without worrying about pricing.
Much like Facebook Connect, Twilio Connect is a new set of features and APIs that lets customers authorize an app to access billing data from their Twilio account, making it easier to directly charge customers.
"One of the most frequent pieces of feedback we've received from our developer community is that maintaining a usage-based billing system requires a significant investment in development resources," says the company blog post.
LAUNCH contacted Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson for comment. We will update when we hear back.
Developers can set their app permissions to read all account data to let the app access call, SMS and other logs for analytics. If developers set the app permission to "Charge account for usage," for example, the app would be able to create phone numbers, make phone calls and send text messages that would be directly charged to the user's Twilio account.
The Connect App lives within the developer's account dashboard. Developers must also embed the Connect Button for users to give authorization.
Companies already using Twilio Connect include MobileCommons, Good Data and Optimizely.
Twilio was founded in 2007 by Jeff Lawson, Evan Cooke and John Wolthuis. The company has received a total of $16M+ from investors including Union Square Ventures, David Cohen, Dave McClure and Chris Sacca.
CONTACTS & LINKS
Jeff Lawson, CEO
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jeffiel
Twitter: @jeffiel
Evan Cooke, CTO
Twitter: @emcooke
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/evan-cooke/1/738/50a
John Wolthuis, Lead Engineer
Twitter: @thuddwhirr
Union Square Ventures
Website: usv.com/
CrunchBase: http://www.crunchbase.com/financial-organization/union-square-ventures
David Cohen
Twitter: @davidcohen
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidgcohen
Dave McClure, Founding Partner at 500 Startups
Twitter: @davemcclure
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/davemcclure
Google+: https://plus.google.com/116388668762198604003/posts
Chris Sacca
Twitter: @sacca
Google+: https://plus.google.com/114790574178411061829/posts