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Compare 10 AI voice agents for real estate in 2026. Evaluate response time, CRM integration, multi-channel support, and scalability to find the right solution.

AI voice agents in real estate are all about response time, coverage and quick follow-through. If your system can't answer calls immediately, qualify intent, book tours and update your CRM without manual cleanup, it's not helping you win more deals; it's adding another layer for you to manage.

This guide isn't for browsing tools. It's for operators deciding whether to commit to AI voice agents in 2026 and ship something that actually helps you scale. We compare 10 platforms based on how they perform after signup, how fast you can go live, what breaks under real lead volume, and what it takes to keep them working week after week.

Top 10 AI Voice Agents for Real Estate (2026)

The goal here is simple: Helping you choose an option that you can launch confidently, not replace after the first integration headache.

1. Plivo

When aiming to build and scale AI voice agents for real estate, you care about two things: reaching prospects first and converting more inquiries into confirmed showings. Plivo excels here since it gives you production-ready AI voice agents that place instant callbacks, answer listing questions from your data, and book tours directly on your agents' calendars. They operate reliably across phone, SMS, WhatsApp and chat without stitching together telephony, AI models and messaging vendors.

Plivo is the AI agent builder platform for voice-first, omnichannel experiences—built on a carrier-grade telephony network trusted by Uber, Meta, Zomato, and thousands of businesses worldwide. Business teams can launch agents without writing code using Vibe agent. Engineering teams can orchestrate custom voice agents in code with full control. The foundation is Plivo's global communications infrastructure spanning 190+ countries: 15+ years of proven reliable infrastructure, low latency, and the call quality enterprises demand.

Core Capabilities:

Inbound & Outbound AI Voice Agents: Handle live calls end-to-end, qualify intent, route intelligently and escalate to human agents when needed.
Multi-Channel Agent Coverage: Run the same AI agent across phone, SMS, WhatsApp and chat with shared context across channels.
No-Code AI Agent Builder (Vibe): Build and deploy voice agents using plain-English instructions, no prompt engineering or coding required.
Build your way: Business teams launch with no-code tools; engineering teams build custom voice agents with full-code control. You're never forced into a single way of working.
Vertically Integrated Telephony (CPaaS): Voice runs on Plivo's own global telephony infrastructure, avoiding third-party carrier dependencies.
Low-Latency Voice AI Stack: Integrated TTS, STT and LLM orchestration enables sub-500ms response latency, critical for natural voice conversations.
Enterprise-Grade Reliability: Built on Plivo's proven CPaaS platform with 99.99% uptime, 15+ years of reliable infrastructure, and global carrier connectivity across 190+ countries.
CRM & Workflow Integrations: Pull customer context in real time and write call outcomes back to CRMs and support tools automatically. Connect Follow Up Boss, kvCORE, BoomTown, Salesforce, HubSpot, Google Calendar, Outlook, and your MLS/IDX feed.
You own the stack: You get to choose your speech-to-text (STT), text-to-speech (TTS), and LLM while keeping prompts and data portable and avoiding lock-in.

Best fit if you:

Need real-time voice agents that can operate continuously at scale.
Want to avoid stitching telephony, AI and messaging vendors together.
Plan to deploy across multiple channels, not voice alone.
Have defined workflows for lead qualification, routing or follow-ups.

Not a fit if you:

Only need a lightweight voice demo, basic IVR or short-term experiment.
Want a fully turnkey, real estate-specific tool with no configuration or workflow control.
Don't plan to integrate voice agents into your CRM, data stack or operations.

2. Luron AI

Luron AI is best suited for teams that need 24/7 AI voice agents that never miss calls and qualify leads automatically. It supports multilingual conversations and keeps pacing tight across accents and speaking styles. The system handles inbound and outbound voice conversations in dozens of languages and automates bookings and follow-ups without human staffing.

Core Capabilities:

Instant call answer & qualification: AI answers every call, gathers intent, and qualifies leads without hold times.
Multilingual support: Handles AI conversations in 45+ languages to cover diverse lead sources.
Inbound & outbound support: Manages both types of calls and can also run outbound follow-ups.
SMS, chat & email automation: Extends voice agents to text and messaging channels for a unified engagement approach.
CRM & integration options: Connects to existing phone systems via SIP trunking and can integrate with CRMs and ticket systems.

Best fit if you:

Want 24/7 lead capture and qualification without adding staff.
Need multilingual voice conversations for global or diverse markets.
Expect to automate bookings, follow-ups and reminders on voice and messaging channels.
Have a CRM or existing phone system you must integrate with.

Not a fit if you:

Only need a simple inbound answering or IVR replacement without automation.
Want a solution focused on voice only, with limited channel reach.
Prefer fixed, transparent pricing tiers publicly listed.

3. Callers AI

Callers AI is a platform for automating customer conversations with human-like voice agents that handle both inbound & outbound calls and messaging channels, powered by your brand's data and tone. It's focused on scaling high-volume voice interactions while maintaining contextual continuity across channels in a single branded voice experience.

Core Capabilities:

Omni-channel AI interactions: Voice agents run across phone, SMS, WhatsApp and chat from a central AI brain.
Human-like voice calls: Agents answer and place calls in a natural conversational style.
Lead workflows & use cases: Supports lead qualification, cold call automation, appointment confirmation, retention flows and more.
24/7 availability & language breadth: Designed to handle calls and messaging around the clock, in multiple languages.
Context remembering: Conversations carry context across voice and messaging so follow-ups feel continuous.
Integrations & automation: Connects to CRMs and tools (300+ integrations) so call outcomes can update your systems.

Best fit if you:

Want both inbound and outbound AI calling with consistent, natural-tone responses across channels.
Need an AI system that can qualify leads, confirm appointments and manage follow-ups automatically.
Are scaling high call volumes 24/7.
Prefer a central "brain" that keeps context across channels and workflows.

Not a fit if you:

Only want a basic voice or outbound dialer with limited cross-channel logic.
Need a tool focused exclusively on simple IVR or basic routing without AI conversation layers.
Prefer a product you can set up and forget in minutes without upfront configuration or workflow definition.

4. SquadStack AI

SquadStack AI is best suited for teams that want AI-assisted sales and voice engagement workflows supported by configurable human-in-the-loop automation. It blends automated outreach and qualification with options to escalate to human agents where needed, helpful for revenue teams that are focused on pipeline speed.

Core Capabilities:

Automated Lead Engagement: AI enabled workflows proactively contact prospects and qualify them using data-driven sequencing.
Voice & Messaging Channels: Supports outbound dialing, ringless voicemail, SMS and multi-touch sequences.
Human-in-the-Loop Escalation: Configurable handoffs to live agents when conversations need human judgment.
Sales Workflow Automation: Built-in logic for lead routing, prioritization and follow-ups across channels.
CRM Integration + Data Sync: Sync outcomes and engagement data back to CRMs like Salesforce, HubSpot, etc.

Best fit if you:

Want inbound and outbound automated voice interactions with natural conversation flows and multilingual capability.
Need AI that handles lead qualification, follow-ups and reminders as part of sales or customer engagement sequences.
Are automating sales outreach and conversational workflows alongside voice calls.

Not a fit if you:

Need an AI platform focused on low-latency, bespoke voice agent infrastructure tied tightly to your own telephony stack.
Are building a multi-channel bot with CRM/telephony hooks and developer control from the ground up at scale.

5. Telgent

Telgent leans into MLS and portal context. It is best for businesses that want always-on voice AI calling with automated scheduling, intelligent call handling and quick setup. Its platform emphasizes immediate activation, seamless integration with existing phone systems and natural AI responses that handle calls, schedule meetings and engage customers day and night.

Core Capabilities:

24/7 AI voice calling agents: Always-on call automation that answers and routes customer calls at any hour.
Lead engagement & scheduling: Automatically books appointments, meetings and showings based on natural language conversations.
Inbound call handling: AI answers incoming inquiries, qualifies intent and routes prospects with minimal human intervention.
Automated inquiry responses: Provides instant answers to property questions and responds to rental or sales leads.
Integration with real estate systems: Works with Zillow, Realtor.com, MLS platforms, Follow Up Boss, kvCORE, BoomTown, Salesforce and HubSpot for CRM continuity.

Best fit if you:

Need round-the-clock call handling that captures leads and books appointments without missing inquiries.
Want your voice AI to integrate with core real estate tools and CRM systems so client details are synced automatically.
Are focused on lead conversion and showing scheduling as part of your customer engagement workflows.

Not a fit if you:

Only require basic outbound calling with simple scripts rather than inbound + scheduling automation.
Expect a no-config, plug-and-play voice bot that requires zero setup or customization.
Want a platform that handles only one channel (voice only) without extending into SMS/WhatsApp/chat automation.

6. AIOnCalls

AIOnCalls is positioned as a virtual receptionist that never misses calls or opportunities. Best for teams that want an always-on voice AI assistant that handles inbound and outbound calls around the clock, engages callers in natural language, qualifies leads, books appointments and updates CRM data.

Core Capabilities:

24/7 Inbound & Outbound Voice Handling: AI answers and places calls around the clock across all hours and holidays.
Lead Qualification & Follow-Up Automation: Qualifies callers in real time and automates follow-ups via voice, SMS and email.
Appointment Scheduling & Calendar Invites: Books appointments and sends confirmations during calls.
CRM & Workflow Integrations: Integrates with CRMs like Zoho, HubSpot, GoHighLevel, Google Calendar for real-time lead syncing and activity logging.
Multilingual Conversations: Supports multiple languages and can handle simultaneous call sessions.
Live Agent Escalation: Transfers complex calls to human agents when needed.
Real-Time Analytics & Transcriptions: Provides live call monitoring, transcripts, sentiment analysis and dashboards.

Best fit if you:

Need an AI voice agent that never misses inbound calls and engages leads immediately, 24/7.
Want automated lead qualification, booking and follow-ups in voice, SMS, and email without human staffing.
Are integrating call outcomes and engagement data into CRM or calendar workflows.
Operate in industries where speed-to-lead matters and missed calls are costly.

Not a fit if you:

Only need simple IVR or on-premise call routing without conversational automation.
Prefer a pure telephony or developer API platform without built-in AI conversational layers.
Are looking for a voice agent with deep, specialized industry templates.

7. Brilo AI

Brilo AI is a business-focused AI phone and voice call agent platform that enables teams to automate real-time voice interactions across industries like real estate. It promises fast setup, natural human-like voice responses, 24/7 coverage, integration with business tools and built-in analytics, all without needing a technical team to get started.

Core Capabilities:

24/7 AI voice call agents: Always-on AI phone agents handle inbound calls and customer engagements at any hour.
Human-like voice interactions: Conversational voice responses built to sound natural and engaging.
Appointment booking & scheduling: Voice agents can book appointments with synced calendars and handle reminders.
CRM and business integrations: Integrates with a broad range of business apps (6,000+ app connections claimed) to sync customer context and outcomes.
Real-time analytics & insights: Live call transcripts, sentiment analysis, intent tracking and topic detection support actionable insights post-call.
Lead qualification automation: Agents engage prospects, capture intent and route high-value leads in real time.

Best fit if you:

Need 24/7 automated voice engagement that never misses inbound or high-volume calls for lead capture, scheduling or support.
Need a platform that books appointments, manages follow-ups and drives customer engagement without manual management.
Plan to integrate the voice agent with CRM, calendar tools and analytics pipelines to maintain context across systems.

Not a fit if you:

Simply need a basic phone tree, IVR or traditional call routing system.
Are focused solely on developer-centric API telephony without AI built in.
Require industry-specific compliance guarantees (HIPAA, PCI, etc.) documented publicly.

8. VocalDesk

VocalDesk is an AI-enabled voice and contact automation platform that helps teams automate calling, lead follow-up, support interactions and scheduling. Its focus is on automated voice conversations and multi-channel engagement with CRM integration and configurable workflows that replace manual outreach tasks.

Core Capabilities:

Automated Voice Conversations: Handles inbound and outbound calls using AI to engage, qualify, and route callers.
AI-Driven Lead Qualification: Automated conversation flows that marks lead intent and priority.
Appointment Booking & Reminders: Schedules meetings and sends reminders as part of automated flows.
Multichannel Messaging: Engages customers across voice, text and messaging platforms.
CRM & Workflow Sync: Connects with CRM systems and business tools to log interactions and maintain records.

Best fit if you:

Want to automate call handling and lead follow-up without manual dialing.
Need a solution that combines voice and messaging outreach with CRM context.
Are focused on lead qualification and scheduling as part of broader sales engagement.

Not a fit if you:

Only need basic call routing or IVR without AI handling.
Require explicit developer control over telephony APIs.
Rely on hard metrics like latency, concurrency limits or multi-region telephony SLAs.

9. Calldock

Calldock is an AI voice agent platform intended for instant lead engagement, automatic qualification and scheduling. Its system calls leads within seconds of form submission, conducts natural conversations and integrates with calendars and workflows to automate follow-ups and booking.

Core Capabilities:

Instant lead callbacks: Calls website leads within ~60 seconds of a submission, boosting early engagement.
Calendar booking: Agents can book appointments directly to your calendar during live calls.
Multi-channel follow-up: Agents send SMS and email follow-ups as part of the call workflow.
Seamless handoff & callbacks: You can trigger human handoffs in natural language and schedule intelligent callbacks.
API, webhooks, & integration ecosystem: Support for APIs and pre-call webhooks lets you fetch context before calls and connect with Gmail, Google Calendar, Slack, Zapier and thousands more.
Developer playground & documentation: Provides API documentation and code examples for triggered calls and automated workflows.

Best fit if you:

Want immediate lead engagement that happens in seconds.
Need voice agents that qualify, book and follow up automatically across voice, SMS and email.
Plan to integrate voice engagements with calendar and business workflows.
Need a voice agent that works with easy templates for common industries with minimal setup.
Want a low-code or no-code setup that goes live with simple configuration.

Not a fit if you:

Need proper inbound/outbound calling with API integration.
Require deep telephony infrastructure control or enterprise telephony SLAs.
Are building highly custom dialogue systems that need proprietary LLM tuning beyond the existing templates.

10. Ylopo

Ylopo is a digital marketing and lead gen platform built for the real estate industry. It combines lead capture, nurturing, AI voice calling, AI texting, branded websites and marketing automation into one system that integrates with CRMs and helps real estate teams generate and convert leads.

Core Capabilities:

AI Voice Follow-Up: Automatically calls new and existing leads to qualify interest and connect them to agents.
AI Text Conversations: Runs two-way SMS conversations to nurture leads until they're ready to talk.
AI² Voice + Text System: Combines calling and texting into one coordinated follow-up engine.
Automated Appointment Transfers: Delivers live transfers or booked appointments when leads are qualified.
Lead Generation & Nurture: Includes PPC ads, remarketing and IDX websites to capture and feed leads into AI follow-up.
CRM & Website Integration: Syncs AI conversations and lead activity with CRMs and branded real estate websites.

Best fit if you:

Want lead capture with nurturing as a unified system rather than isolated voice interaction tools.
Are a realtor or team that wants AI to automatically engage leads by text and phone, not just manage manual contacts.
Need branded websites with IDX search and integrated lead capture feeding into automated follow-up.
Plan to keep leads engaged over longer time horizons (e.g., 90-day voice follow-up).
Value combined marketing + AI follow-up rather than a single channel (voice only).

Not a fit if you:

Are looking for pure AI voice agent infrastructure like a telephony-first CPaaS platform.
Need tools focused on enterprise-grade telephony performance, low-latency voice systems or custom telephony workflows.

What Matters Most in AI Voice Agents (Beyond the Basics)

1. Telephony Ownership vs. Vendor Stitching

Many AI voice tools rely on third-party telephony stitched together with AI layers. This often introduces latency, call drops and limited routing control at scale.

What to prioritize:

Built-in telephony with direct carrier connectivity
End-to-end control over call routing and quality
Fewer external dependencies

Plivo runs on its own global CPaaS and carrier-grade telephony stack, removing third-party voice dependencies.

2. Real-Time Performance (Latency & Uptime)

Voice conversations break down quickly when responses lag or calls fail. Sub-second latency and high uptime aren't "nice to have"—they're mandatory.

What to validate:

Sub-500ms voice response latency
99.99% uptime or better
Real-time STT, TTS, and LLM orchestration

Plivo's vertically integrated Voice AI stack is designed for low-latency, real-time conversations on proven infrastructure.

3. Multi-Channel Context, Not Disconnected Bots

Leads move between calls, SMS, WhatsApp and chat. Treating each channel as a separate bot creates broken experiences and duplicate work.

What to look for:

Shared context across voice and messaging
Unified conversation history
Seamless handoffs between channels

Plivo supports multi-channel agents that share context across phone, SMS, WhatsApp and chat from a single system.

4. Integration Depth (CRM, Calendars, Workflows)

Voice agents don't operate in isolation. Without deep integrations, they become another silo your team has to manage.

Prioritize platforms that:

Read from and write to CRMs in real time
Trigger workflows during live calls
Integrate cleanly with calendars and support tools

Plivo integrates directly with CRMs and business systems, allowing agents to act on live data and update records automatically.

5. Built for Scale, Not Just Launch

Many tools work well for pilots but struggle under sustained call volume or multi-region deployment.

Ask:

Can this run continuously without degradation?
Are pricing and performance predictable as usage grows?
Will this still work when channels or regions expand?

Plivo's AI agents are built on infrastructure that already powers enterprise-grade voice and messaging at global scale.

FAQs

What's the fastest way to go live without breaking existing operations?

Start with a single, contained flow like after-hours inbound calls or instant lead callbacks. Connect your phone numbers, CRM and calendar, define escalation rules and launch! You can expand coverage once live data validates the flow.

How do I ensure voice quality doesn't feel robotic or laggy?

Voice quality depends on latency and telephony control. Platforms with integrated telephony and real-time STT/TTS orchestration keep responses sub-second, which is critical for natural conversations that callers don't hang up on.

How does the agent stay accurate and compliant with real estate data?

The agent should pull from a restricted, curated knowledge source (MLS, IDX, listings) and operate within defined guardrails. When questions exceed scope like pricing nuance, legal terms, fair-housing-sensitive topics, it escalates to a human automatically.

What happens when call volume spikes or multiple leads call at once?

Calls don't fail—they should queue. High-intent conversations can be routed to live agents, while others are qualified, scheduled or followed up asynchronously. Every outcome is logged so nothing gets lost.

How does this fit into my CRM and follow-up workflows?

The agent reads live CRM data during calls and writes outcomes back automatically in the form of notes, disposition, next steps and booked appointments. Your team picks up conversations with full context instead of starting from scratch.

Try Plivo Free

Curious how an AI voice platform performs in your workflows, not just in theory? Plivo offers a free trial account with credits so you can experiment with voice, SMS, WhatsApp and chat services before committing. When you sign up, you get trial credits, can add a phone number and start testing features like real-time voice interactions and multi-channel engagement using APIs or visual tools like PHLO. This lets you validate performance, integrations, and call flows with your actual data—all without upfront cost.

Plivo's trial lets you test core capabilities immediately, making it easy to see how quickly you can build, launch, and refine agents that handle calls, qualify leads and update systems in real time.

Get started with your free trial now and begin building your first agent today.

Jan 20, 2026

5 mins

Best AI Voice Agents for Customer Support and Service (2026): What to Deploy Now

Compare 10 AI voice agent platforms for customer support. Get a practical 30-day pilot framework, implementation workflow, and outcome-driven selection guide.

1) Plivo — The fastest path to production-grade AI voice agents for customer support

A recent Gartner survey found that most customer service leaders plan to explore or pilot conversational GenAI in 2025—making a clear, near-term mandate to deliver something that works on the phone channel, not just in chat. That's your cue to build a reliable voice front door with an AI agent builder platform designed for voice-first, omnichannel experiences.

Why Plivo is #1

Plivo is the AI agent builder platform that lets you build your way. Whether you're a business leader who needs to launch fast or an engineering team building custom workflows, Plivo meets you where you are. Start with no-code tools that let non-technical teams deploy agents in hours. Go deeper with low-code orchestration for more control. Or build from scratch with full-code frameworks that integrate into your existing stack. You're never forced into a single way of working.

What it does for you

Plivo's Voice AI stack is modular by design. Want speed? Use the fully integrated platform—STT, LLM, TTS, and telephony—pre-configured and ready to go. Want control? Orchestrate your agents using code with Plivo's Agentic STT models and Telephony, alongside your preferred LLM providers. Want just the connectivity layer? Use audio streaming or SIP trunking and bring everything else yourself. You decide where Plivo ends and your stack begins.

Underlying it all is a reliable, carrier-grade telephony platform that scales for enterprises—global PSTN/SIP connectivity, number provisioning and porting, call routing with failover, recording with consent, and clean human handoff with full context into your CRM or help desk.

Segment-by-segment fit

If you're SMB, launch fast with no-code tools that let you deploy agents in hours, plus a simple dashboard and connectors for Shopify and Calendly. If you're mid-market, use low-code orchestration for more control, with a modular stack that lets you use what you need—swap in your preferred LLM, STT, or TTS. If you're enterprise, build with full-code frameworks that integrate into your existing stack, plus a modular Voice AI stack to pick-and-choose what you need, governance features (RBAC, audit transcripts, data residency), and contact center integration for high availability and reporting.

Start with Voice, go everywhere

Voice is the hardest channel to get right—and it's where Plivo leads. But the same flexible building experience extends to WhatsApp, SMS, RCS, and Chat. Build once, deploy across channels, and meet customers wherever they are.

Suitable for

Fintech customer service: consent-first flows, secure keypad capture, dispute status, and callbacks.
Healthcare scheduling: multilingual intake, appointment changes, escalations with a summarized handoff.
Retail and logistics: order status, returns, delivery windows, and SMS/WhatsApp follow-ups.

No more choosing between a locked-in platform that's easy but limiting, or a DIY approach that's flexible but painful. Plivo gives you both—simplicity when you want it, depth when you need it.

Explore the Voice API, check pricing, review compliance, handle numbers & porting, browse case studies, or jump into the quickstart.

2) Google Dialogflow CX — Complex, branching flows without spaghetti

Key features

Dialogflow CX uses a flow-and-page model to capture state and branching, so you can manage multi-step intents like returns, warranty claims, and multi-factor verification without dozens of brittle intents. It supports voice and text and includes versioning, experiments, and test tools. For telephony, you can use partner gateways or SIP; for global reach, put Plivo at the edge and connect to CX.

Why it matters

Complicated support journeys need explicit state. CX gives you that structure. If your "Where's my order?" workflow forks based on identity checks, fulfillment method, and policy windows, you can keep logic readable and testable. CX also plays well with multilingual experiences and mixed initiative, so callers can change course mid-conversation.

Implementation steps

Start with a single high-volume journey and draw it as a CX flow. Add a fallback page with a short menu for noisy lines. Ground the bot in your knowledge base and order system, then add handoff rules. Put Plivo in front for numbers, routing, and recording consent, and pass summaries back to your ticketing system.

Suitable for

Teams with multiple brands or product lines, where branching grows quickly and consistency matters across regions.

3) Amazon Lex + Amazon Connect — AWS-first voice automation that ops can own

Key features

Lex handles the speech and NLU for voice and text. Connect adds the contact-center fabric: routing, IVR, call recording, and agent desktop. It's a natural fit if your data and apps live in AWS and security prefers IAM-managed access. For global numbers or bring-your-own carrier control, front with Plivo and route into Connect.

Why it matters

Staying inside AWS accelerates procurement, security reviews, and monitoring. You can call Lambdas for tool use, search knowledge with Kendra, and use Connect metrics and contact flows your ops team already knows. That shortens time to value and concentrates governance in one place.

Implementation steps

Define one call flow in Connect (ID&V → status lookup → handoff). Build Lex intents from your top FAQs. Add Plivo for number management, routing, and failover. Send summaries back to your CRM or help desk. Keep a barge-in plan for noisy environments and a keypad fallback for payment flows.

Suitable for

IT-led programs where AWS standardization, auditability, and a single pane of glass for monitoring are priorities.

4) IBM Watson Assistant — Governance-first deployments in regulated industries

Key features

Watson Assistant supports omnichannel conversations with documented security and governance options, including deployment paths designed for regulated workloads. If your risk office leads the decision, IBM provides clear guidance on audit logging, data handling, and architectural choices. Add Plivo to handle PSTN/SIP, call consent prompts, and compliant recording policies.

Why it matters

Financial services and healthcare teams often need auditability from day one. When you need clear data-handling boundaries and deployment models that align with internal controls, IBM's documentation and support track help you pass reviews without months of back-and-forth.

Implementation steps

Map your data-classification rules to Watson's deployment options. Keep contact recordings and transcriptions in your approved storage. Use Plivo's routing and consent prompts to standardize intake across regions. Summarize calls into your case system for full traceability.

Suitable for

Organizations with heavy compliance needs, strict data residency, or formal audit trails for every customer interaction.

5) Cognigy.AI — IVR modernization with fine-grained voice control

Key features

Cognigy combines a visual designer with a voice gateway that supports streaming ASR, interruptibility, and transfer control. It integrates with multiple speech providers and enterprise systems like SAP and Salesforce. This lets you tune barge-in sensitivity, error handling, and handoff cues rather than living with a one-size-fits-all IVR.

Why it matters

If callers still hear a menu tree, you're wasting time and goodwill. Cognigy helps you replace rigid menus with natural conversations and graceful escalation. You keep the levers you need—timing, sensitivity, fallback prompts—so the agent feels human, not scripted.

Implementation steps

Start with the two intents that create the most queue time. Set barge-in thresholds conservatively and widen them after you test in live traffic. Put Plivo at the edge to manage numbers, recording policies, and failover. Send summaries with disposition tags to your CRM.

Suitable for

Enterprises with legacy IVRs, high call volumes, and a clear need to reduce effort without ripping out the contact-center core.

6) Salesforce Agentforce — CRM-native service automation where your team works

Key features

Agentforce brings AI agents into the Salesforce console and data model. Your service team stays in the view they know, while the agent handles common intents, drafts summaries, and routes cases. Add Plivo for calling so every phone interaction lands in Salesforce with the right context.

Why it matters

When everything you need to resolve an issue already lives in Salesforce, keeping the agent there shortens integration time and improves analytics. Supervisors can coach on the same dashboard and review case summaries, while admins maintain clear governance over data and automations.

Implementation steps

Pick one queue with repetitive calls. Tie identity checks to account data and warranties. Keep a "press 0 for a human" fallback and make sure the agent passes a clean summary with next steps. Use Plivo for the phone edge so call recordings and consent are consistent across regions.

Suitable for

Service teams that treat Salesforce as the system of record and want automation to feel native—not bolted on.

7) Zoom Virtual Agent for Phone — A 24/7 receptionist and concierge

Key features

Zoom's Virtual Agent for Phone handles greetings, routing, and the most common requests. You train it from existing docs and site content, then turn it on for after-hours or full-time reception. It's built for quick wins like appointment scheduling, store hours, and simple status checks with transfers when needed.

Why it matters

If reception lines clog your switchboard, a front-door voice agent can deflect simple questions without new headcount. As you add skills, you can expand from triage to completing tasks. For broader reach, connect Plivo to add global numbers and transactional notifications via SMS or WhatsApp.

Implementation steps

Start with greeting, business hours, and routing. Add appointment booking next. Keep live-agent transfers one click away. If you outgrow the PBX perimeter, bring Plivo in to manage numbers and cross-channel follow-ups.

Suitable for

Single-number switchboards, high-volume reception desks, and teams that need a quick, always-on front door.

8) Sierra — Enterprise "autonomous" agents with category momentum

Key features

Sierra focuses on enterprise-grade AI agents for customer service with an emphasis on agentic workflows. The leadership and market traction give executives confidence to back bigger bets. If you're evaluating multi-channel automation with rigorous SLAs, Sierra is a credible short-list option. Plug it into Plivo for reliable telephony, recording consent, and global routing.

Why it matters

Momentum reduces perceived risk. When you need cross-functional buy-in, a vendor that's already in enterprise production helps. You still need the phone edge right: numbers, routing, and failover that won't buckle under peaks.

Implementation steps

Define two end-to-end journeys (e.g., ID&V + order update; returns approval). Keep human handoff one step away and capture every call summary in your case system. Instrument containment and transfers, then iterate weekly.

Suitable for

Large teams planning multi-channel agents and looking for vendor accountability with clear deliverables and timelines.

9) Tidio (Lyro) — SMB eCommerce chat that pairs well with voice

Key features

Tidio blends live chat, an AI agent, and eCommerce integrations. It's a practical way to resolve repetitive questions, free up your team, and capture intent while buyers are on your site. Add Plivo for a simple order-status line and SMS/WhatsApp updates so customers get answers by phone as well as chat.

Why it matters

eCommerce teams need fast coverage more than complex architectures. You can start with FAQs, then add checkout and account questions. When phone calls spike—promos, holidays—route a basic voice flow through Plivo and keep your agent consistent across channels.

Implementation steps

Load your top FAQs and shipping policies, add a returns flow, and set clear handoff rules. For voice, route a single Plivo number to a lightweight agent that authenticates by order ID and ZIP code, then offers a callback option during peaks.

Suitable for

Lean teams that want to reduce repetitive chat volume now and add phone coverage without standing up a full contact center.

10) Robylon — Multi-channel AI agents focused on support teams

Key features

Robylon specializes in AI-driven customer support across voice, chat, email, and messaging. It integrates with help desks like Zendesk and Freshdesk, supports multiple languages, and offers analytics dashboards designed for service leaders. It's a pragmatic fit if your help desk is the hub of your operation.

Why it matters

You want human-like conversations that escalate cleanly. Robylon's positioning around support workflows means your ticketing, SLAs, and dispositions stay intact. For reliable calling, use Plivo for numbers, routing, and recording consent so your phone channel matches the quality of your chat channel.

Implementation steps

Start with account updates and appointment scheduling. Ground the agent in your help-desk knowledge base and macros. Track resolution time and transfer reasons; refine weekly.

Suitable for

Mid-market support teams who want a focused system that plugs into existing help-desk processes and expands to voice without heavy lifting.

How to run a safe, high-signal pilot in 30 days

Define success first

Pick three metrics: containment, transfer rate, and average resolution time. Write a one-line target for each and a go/no-go threshold. Everyone should know what "good" looks like before you take your first call.

Start with narrow, high-volume intents

"Where's my order?", appointment changes, returns, account updates. These are predictable, frequent, and measurable. Script your handoff sentence so agents never start from zero.

Build the right guardrails

Add a consent prompt, a keypad fallback for sensitive inputs, and a short backup menu for noisy environments. Keep the escalations simple: one route for billing, one for everything else.

Ground every answer

Connect the agent to your CRM/help desk and knowledge base. If the answer doesn't exist in your source of truth, escalate. Summarize every call into the ticket with disposition and next steps.

Iterate weekly

Review 20 call transcripts together. Fix the top three friction points. Update prompts and knowledge. Ship changes. Repeat.

FAQ

What's the fastest way to launch a voice agent without changing my stack?

Keep your telephony and routing on Plivo, connect your preferred conversation engine, and ground it in your CRM/help desk and knowledge base. Start with one number, one intent, and a simple fallback.

How should I measure success in the first 30 days?

Track containment, transfer rate, and resolution time. Listen for barge-in moments and interruptions—they reveal prompt and timing issues that you can fix quickly.

How do I implement consent, recording, and PCI/PHI safely?

Play a clear consent prompt before any recording. Use keypad input for payments or sensitive data. Store recordings and transcripts in approved systems and keep audit logs.

When is Dialogflow CX better than Lex, IBM, or Cognigy?

Choose CX for complex branching flows and multilingual journeys; Lex when your team standardizes on AWS; IBM when governance and deployment control are paramount; Cognigy when you're modernizing IVR with fine-grained voice settings.

How do I handle accents, noise, and barge-in in production?

Use a robust ASR, tune your barge-in sensitivity, and keep a keypad fallback. Test in noisy environments and shorten prompts. Summaries help human agents pick up without asking callers to repeat themselves.

Conclusion: Build the voice edge once, then scale what works

A measured result to anchor ROI. McKinsey reported that, at one company with thousands of agents, applying generative AI raised issue resolution and lowered handling time—small percentage gains that compound into real savings at scale. That's the kind of lift your leadership expects—and the reason to start with a focused pilot that moves one metric.

Bring your "brain" of choice, but keep the phone edge on Plivo so every call connects, every consent is captured, and every handoff carries context. Define three KPIs, pick one journey, and go live with a human fallback. Review transcripts weekly, then scale to the next two intents.

Ready to hear what real-time voice feels like? Build your agent or talk to an expert today.

Jun 19, 2025

5 mins

RCS Marketing 101: Your Complete Guide

Discover how RCS marketing delivers rich, branded messages that drive engagement for your business.

SMS marketing works, but let’s be honest: it feels a bit outdated compared to modern apps.

But what if you could send rich, interactive messages with branded content, images, buttons, and carousels straight to your customers’ native messaging apps?

Rich communication services (RCS) makes that possible.

If you’re ready to explore how RCS marketing can transform your engagement strategy, this guide will walk you through everything you need to know. Let’s get started.

What is RCS marketing?

RCS marketing uses rich communication services to send interactive, branded messages through a customer’s default messaging app. It’s a modern upgrade to SMS that lets businesses share images, buttons, carousels, and more — all without needing third-party apps.

A user on Reddit summed up this perfectly:

Screenshot of a Reddit comment explaining what RCS is — *RCS explained by a Reddit user*

RCS lets you send messages that are visually branded with logos and colors while remaining interactive. This turns static updates into an app-like experience inside a message.

This shift is part of a broader industry move, led by Google and backed by major mobile carriers, to upgrade messaging infrastructure and make RCS the default standard on Android devices.

As support continues to grow, businesses are adopting RCS as part of their customer engagement strategy. Platforms like Plivo make that adoption easier with a reliable, enterprise-grade gateway to deliver rich, reliable RCS campaigns at scale.

RCS vs. SMS marketing: A quick comparison

Marketers today are looking for ways to deliver more interactive and visual communication, and RCS is clearly leading the way.

While SMS still works well for simple alerts, it lacks the creativity and engagement that RCS marketing offers.

Let’s take a quick look at RCS vs. SMS marketing.

Key feature	SMS marketing	RCS marketing
Message length	Limited to 160 characters; with longer messages split	Up to 8,000 characters in a single message
Multimedia	Supports only plain text and links; needs MMS for multimedia	Natively supports high-resolution photos, videos, audio, and GIFs
Security and verification	No built-in sender verification	Includes verified sender profiles with business name, logo, and custom colors
Read receipts	No standardized way to know if a message was delivered or read	Provides delivery and read receipts for real-time engagement tracking
Typing indicators	Doesn't show when the other party is typing	Displays typing indicators, creating a more conversational feel
Interactive buttons	Not supported; calls to action (CTAs) are limited to plain text links	Allows interactive buttons with predefined replies and actions
User experience	Static, text-heavy, and transactional	Dynamic, visually rich, and conversational — feels more like a mobile app
Analytics and reporting	Basic delivery tracking (if supported by carrier)	Advanced analytics: opens, clicks, conversions, and user behavior tracking

4 key benefits of RCS marketing

RCS marketing makes messaging feel more natural for both you and your customers. And since you can see what’s working and what’s not, it’s easier to pivot your strategy and get better results.

Here are its four key benefits.

1. Improved user interaction

One of the biggest advantages of RCS marketing is how seamless it makes the experience for your customers. Instead of typing out replies or clicking a link to open a website, users can just tap a button right inside the message.

Want them to book a demo, check order status, or browse products? It’s all possible with just a tap.

Fewer steps mean less effort, and that leads to more people following through. In fact, individuals spend up to 37 seconds engaging with RCS messages, which is a lot longer than most other types of mobile messaging.

Image showing the engagement results of RCS messaging — *People engage more with RCS than any other platform*

That extra time and interaction can make all the difference when you’re trying to convert interest into action.

2. Consistent brand experience

RCS marketing doesn’t just tell people who you are — it shows them.

Verified business profiles help people know they’re getting messages from the real brand. Every message shows your brand’s logo, name, colors, and a checkmark. These small details make it clear that the message is coming from a genuine source.

Image showing that MAYI - HOMES sends a verified RCS message with branding — *Verified RCS message from MAYI - HOMES*

This consistency matters because 88% of people are more likely to buy from a brand they trust.

3. In-depth analytics

With RCS marketing, you can track open rates, button clicks, and how people interact with each part of your message.

You get clear visibility into what’s working and where users are dropping off.

This makes it much easier to measure the return on investment (ROI) and fine-tune your campaigns. The more you understand how people engage, the better you can shape your messaging for results.

4. Higher conversion potential

RCS marketing makes it easier for customers to take action — whether that’s browsing products, booking a service, or making a purchase — all within the message itself.

With fewer clicks and no need to switch apps, the path to conversion feels effortless. And when it’s that easy, more people follow through.

For example, EaseMyTrip used RCS to run a post-COVID travel survey. They added quick-tap answer options and followed up with a thank-you coupon. The campaign saw a 4x higher click-through rate than email, 10x more survey completions, and a 2.7% increase in conversion rate.

5 major use cases of RCS marketing

Here are five major use cases showing how brands are using RCS marketing effectively.

1. Product promotions

RCS makes product promotions feel more like browsing a store than reading a message. Brands can send image carousels that customers can swipe through to explore new arrivals, check product details, and see what’s available without leaving their messaging app.

Verified RCS message highlights a 25% off promotion on all items — Verified RCS message from Daily-donuts

Example: A fashion retailer promoting its spring collection could send an RCS message featuring a carousel of outfits with styled images, prices, and buttons like “View Lookbook” or “Shop Now.”

Tapping a button could open a mini product page inside the chat, letting customers browse and buy without switching apps.

2. Abandoned cart reminders

The average cart abandonment rate is over 70%, which means most shoppers never make it to the finish line. RCS marketing can help bring them back by making the reminder more engaging and easier to act on.

You can send a message that shows exactly what they left behind, along with a clear button to complete the purchase. It’s visual, straightforward, and the entire experience stays within their messaging app.

Example: A home electronics store could follow up with customers who left a pair of wireless earbuds in their cart. The RCS message might include a product photo, the price, and a “Buy Now” button that takes them straight to checkout.

3. Appointment confirmations and reminders

A PhD thesis from Manchester Metropolitan University found that forgetfulness is the most common reason people skip their appointments.

RCS makes it easier for both businesses and customers to stay on the same page. You can send a message that shows the appointment details along with a simple calendar view. Add buttons to confirm, reschedule, or cancel — all within the chat.

Image depicting an interactive RCS booking confirmation message — Booking confirmation via RCS with quick action buttons

Example: A dental clinic could use RCS to remind patients of upcoming cleanings. The message might show the date, time, and location of the appointment, plus a “Confirm” button and options to “Reschedule” or “Cancel.”

Patients can respond instantly, helping the clinic manage its schedule more efficiently.

4. Customer surveys and feedback

Getting feedback is important, but most customers lack the time or patience to complete lengthy forms. RCS marketing makes it easier by allowing brands to ask short, targeted questions and receive quick responses.

Plus, the rich features of RCS let you include images, ratings, or multiple-choice options, making feedback feel more like a conversation.

Example: A restaurant could send an RCS message after a meal asking customers to rate their experience with simple buttons like “Excellent,” “Good,” or “Needs Improvement.”

The message might also include a photo of the dish they ordered and a quick question like, “What did you like most?” This quick interaction makes it easy for customers to respond and gives the restaurant valuable insights.

5. Customer support follow-ups

After a support request is resolved, following up shows customers you care and helps close the loop on their experience. But if the follow-up message gets buried in an email inbox or goes unnoticed, that opportunity to connect is lost.

With RCS marketing, you can send a quick message to check if everything’s working fine. You can include helpful buttons like “Change Password,” “Manage Account,” or “Talk to Support.”

Support bot provides instant replies and follow-ups for customer queries — AI-powered support for account management

RCS marketing myths and realities

Despite RCS marketing’s growing adoption and proven results, some common misconceptions still hold businesses back from trying it. Let’s look at a few of the biggest myths and what’s actually true.

Myth 1: RCS marketing is too expensive

At first glance, RCS business messaging can seem like a pricey upgrade. Rich visuals, tap-to-action buttons, and branded layouts look premium, so it’s easy to assume they come with a hefty cost.

But cost alone doesn’t tell the full story.

What you get in return matters more. RCS drives significantly stronger engagement with higher click-through rates, increased interactions, and better overall outcomes.

Take Club Comex, the loyalty program of North American paint brand Comex. They sent two rich and interactive RCS campaigns to their members and saw a 10x higher click-through rate, which helped increase revenue by 115%.

That’s the value side of the equation. Better targeting and richer content mean more people click, engage, and convert.

Myth 2: RCS marketing doesn’t reach enough users to be worth it

This concern made sense in the early days of RCS, when adoption was still catching up. But the landscape looks very different now.

In June 2024, the 12-month growth of RCS users reached 36.3%, showing faster uptake than other messaging channels. More Android devices support RCS by default, and it’s being rolled out across more networks globally. Even Apple has announced support, which means RCS is on track to reach a massive number of smartphone users worldwide.

With that kind of growth and widespread support, the hesitation around RCS is starting to fade. Brands can confidently invest in RCS marketing knowing it will connect with more customers than ever before.

Myth 3: RCS gets treated like spam and ends up ignored just like emails

Unlike email, RCS messages appear directly in the user’s primary messaging app alongside personal conversations. They include rich media and interactive elements, making them more engaging and less likely to be ignored.

This creates a more natural, conversational experience that drives higher open and response rates than traditional marketing channels.

Why choose Plivo for your RCS marketing needs

With RCS, you can turn simple messages into rich, branded conversations that feel more like chatting than broadcasting.

Plivo gives you the tools to make that shift without the hassle. From verified messaging to smart automation, everything works together to help you connect better and respond faster.

When combined with AI Agents and a unified customer data platform, RCS becomes more than just messaging. You can deliver personalized experiences at scale, automate everyday interactions, and keep conversations flowing without lifting a finger.

Here’s what you get with Plivo’s RCS API:

Real-time personalization: AI Agents tailor conversations using customer profiles and behavior triggers to improve engagement and conversions.
Multi-channel fallback: If RCS isn’t supported, messages automatically switch to SMS to ensure delivery and maintain consistent communication.
Conversational automation: AI Agents handle FAQs, process orders, schedule deliveries, and route complex queries within RCS.
All-in-one messaging platform: Manage RCS, SMS, WhatsApp, Voice, and more from a single dashboard.
Reliable performance: 99.99% uptime and global infrastructure keep your campaigns running smoothly.

With Plivo’s no-code tools, you can quickly launch AI-powered RCS messaging across channels and deliver a consistent customer experience from day one.

See how you can launch your first RCS marketing campaign with Plivo by requesting a demo today!

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Sep 25, 2017

5 mins

Plivo Supports Cutting Edge Passwordless Security Application

Plivo's SMS API and Voice API enables businesses to communicate with their customers at global scale. Sign up for free now.

Case Studies

“Most data breaches are successful because today’s popular security systems are inflexible and don’t allow organizations to react immediately,” says Sid Prasanna, CEO of FlexSecure. Prasanna and his team set out to build an authentication application that was different, and he’s confident that FlexSecure’s passwordless and “flexible pin” approach to authentication is one of the most advanced security applications on the market. FlexSecure uses Plivo technology for user notifications.

“The reason why it’s easy to hack into accounts is because most of the current security solutions have static credentials and inflexible policies, so ultimately accounts can be compromised by brute force. That’s not the case with FlexSecure,” Prasanna says.

When talking about authentication, Prasanna likes to use a house analogy. “If you only have security at your front door, then once that’s breached an intruder can steal everything in your house. With our application, you can have unique authentication methods on your front door and every room in your house, so if your front door is breached, the bulk of your house can still be secure and intruders can’t steal everything from you.”

FlexSecure enables organizations to mix and match user authentication methods to protect cloud, mobile, and internal applications. FlexSecure is quickly integrated with business applications — typical integration takes less than a day — and is unique in that it uses passwordless security with a “flexible pin” option. FlexSecure doesn’t require end users run an application, so administrators can change authentication policies and pin structures dynamically, in near real time, without impacting the user experience. “At the end of the day, it’s a win for everyone — IT can be proactive or responsive, and the end user doesn’t have to remember any passwords.”

To offer user notification, FlexSecure turned to Plivo. “We decided to integrate Plivo’s SMS API with our application because we liked their support, scalability, and pricing,” Prasanna says.

Plivo helped FlexSecure with onboarding. With support from Plivo’s technical team, FlexSecure integrated the SMS API in less than a day. Plivo also helped FlexSecure with whitelisting all major mobile communications companies.

“We’re a security company, not a telecom company, which means we appreciated that Plivo took care of the complicated telephony infrastructure and carrier relationships,” Prasanna says.

“Our goals with FlexSecure are to offer a data security platform that is easy to use, while being flexible and effective. Using Plivo’s SMS capabilities helps us realize these goals and supports our mission to help companies across all industries improve authentication processes and minimize data breaches.”

Sep 1, 2017

5 mins

Introducing Plivo iOS SDK v2

Plivo's SMS API and Voice API enables businesses to communicate with their customers at global scale. Sign up for free now.

IOS SDK

Aug 9, 2017

5 mins

Introducing Browser SDK 2.0

Plivo's SMS API and Voice API enables businesses to communicate with their customers at global scale. Sign up for free now.

Browser SDK

We’re thrilled to announce the general availability of Browser SDK 2.0, the next version of our web SDK, which enables you to integrate the ability to make and receive calls into your web applications. It provides three major new benefits:

Web applications that embed the new SDK can now provide details on call quality.
The SDK supports collecting real-time feedback from users about things like audio quality, caller ID, and digits entered during the call.
The SDK offers better flexibility for the developers to reduce CPU utilization, improve QoS, and configure the application based on user needs.

Let’s look at each of the benefits in a little more detail.

Visibility into call quality metrics

Whenever an application makes or receives a call using Browser SDK 2.0, the application can track metrics such as latency, jitter, packet loss, and mean opinion score (MOS). Tracking these metrics helps in both assessing the quality of the call and debugging issues.

The SDK also detects real-time network issues using these metrics. These issues are provided as events that your application can handle.

Gather user feedback on the call

You can now collect feedback on calls from end users by using the SDK. Feedback is taken in a five-point scale, with predefined reasons spanning across audio quality, caller ID, and digits entered. Since this feedback is associated with a callUUID, it’s easy to aggregate and act on issues that end users face.

New features for developers

Browser SDK 2.0 offers more flexibility to developers to tailor their applications. With the new SDK developers can now:

Enable or disable AEC and AGC in Chrome to adjust microphone levels and amplify the audio to make a call clearer. This helps when CPU utilization is required to be low.
Enable or disable Differentiated Service Code Point (DSCP), which helps in managing QoS if DSCP is supported.
Configure input, output, and ring devices using our Audio Device API.
Override the default GeoIP location and explicitly set the user’s current region, which can help Plivo route calls through the nearest servers, thereby reducing audio latency.
Detect audio issues such as one-way audio or no microphone access and expose them as events that can be handled by the application.
Retrieve additional call details to debug and troubleshoot issues.

Performance improvements

We’ve also made a couple of performance improvements. The SDK now reduces CPU utilization by 15% by using microphone access on demand. And it supports the Opus codec, which is tolerant of network issues, so call participants won’t experience noticeable issues in audio quality even at 20% packet loss in their network.

Browser SDK 2.0 supports Firefox 51 and above and Chrome 55 and above. It’s not backward-compatible with Browser SDK v1. Browser SDK v1 will be deprecated at the end of 2017.

To help you get started with Browser SDK, we’ve built sample applications that demonstrate its features. Visit the Browser SDK documentation page for a complete list of features and information on implementing them.

Jun 19, 2017

5 mins

SMS Merge with Google Sheets and Plivo

Plivo's SMS API and Voice API enables businesses to communicate with their customers at global scale. Sign up for free now.

Integration

Want to send personalized SMS messages to customers right from Google Sheets? You can do it with a little help from Plivo and this SMS automation power sheet. We used Google Apps Script to create an SMS merge feature for Google Sheets.

To use Plivo’s messaging script, you must have a Plivo account, and an SMS-enabled phone number with which you can send messages to your customers. If you don’t have an SMS-enabled number among the numbers on the Phone Numbers page of the console, click Buy Number to get one.

Create a sheet

Now create a new Google Sheet, then click Tools > Script editor to start a new Apps Script project. Copy the content of the scripts.gs file in our GitHub repository and paste it into work area in place of the empty function that Apps Script starts with.

At the top of the file, replace the placeholders XXX.YOUR.AUTH_ID.XXX and XXXXXXXXXXXX.YOUR.AUTH_TOKEN.XXXXXXXXXXX with the Auth ID and Auth Token values for your account, which you can find on the overview page of the Plivo console.

Save the project that contains the Apps Script. Give it any name.

Save the code

Now reload the Google Sheet.

You should see two new sheet tabs at the bottom of the file called Data and Template. The Data sheet has several columns, each of which will be populated with the details of the Send Message API response for that specific row.

You can associate placeholders in your message template with custom columns on the Data sheet. The placeholders will be dynamically replaced with values found in custom columns with the same name. You can add as many custom columns as you like. This is at the core of the SMS merge functionality.

The Template sheet contains the SMS template in the A2 cell. Use the names of any custom columns you create on the Data sheet as placeholders in your template.

To try out our sheet, we created placeholders named NAME, COUPON_CODE, DISCOUNT, and STORE, the actual values of which the script picks up from columns in the data sheet with the same names.

Note that placeholders should be enclosed within double braces in the template, as you can see in the image above.

When you’re done, click on Plivo Messaging > Validate Message Template to check for errors in the message template.

Put data in the sheet

Enter values for all of the columns that are part of your SMS template.

Send messages

When the sheet is ready, click on Plivo Messaging > Send Messages.

The code behind the scenes

Now that you’re familiar with how to set things up, let’s see how we put it together using Apps Script functions to make API calls to Plivo to send the messages.

Sending messages

sendMessages(data) takes a list of row data objects and processes each object one by one.

function sendMessages(data){
  var success = 0;
  var failure = 0;
  var TOKEN = Utilities.base64Encode(AUTH_ID+":"+AUTH_TOKEN);
  for(i=0;i<data.length;i++){
    var row = data[i];
    var tempObj = {
      "src":row['SOURCE'],
      "dst":row['DESTINATION'],
      "text":createMessage(row,template),
    }
    var delivered = trySMS(tempObj,row.row,AUTH_ID,TOKEN);
    delivered?success++:failure++;
  }
  popupAlert("FINAL REPORT : \n\n"+(success+failure)+" row(s) processed \n "+success+" row(s) 
  executed successfully \n "+failure+" row(s) encountered error \n For further details please check api 
  details or each row in the sheet. ",false);
  unhideMetaColumns();
}

Let’s walk through this line by line.

var TOKEN = Utilities.base64Encode(AUTH_ID+":"+AUTH_TOKEN);

This line creates a Base64-encoded token that we send with every API call to authorize Plivo API requests.

for(i=0;i<data.length;i++){
  var row = data[i];
  var tempObj = {
      "src":row['SOURCE'],
      "dst":row['DESTINATION'],
      "text":createMessage(row,template),
  }
  var delivered = trySMS(tempObj,row.row,AUTH_ID,TOKEN);
  delivered?success++:failure++;
}

This for loop iterates over the list of objects and does several operations:

Creates a temporary message object containing the source number, destination number, and message text. The message text is generated by the createMessage function, which merges the template with the placeholders. More details on that in a moment.
Attempts to deliver the message via the Plivo API.
Tracks the success and failure counts.

Once we have success and failure counts, we report them.

popupAlert("FINAL REPORT : \n\n"+(success+failure)+" row(s) processed \n "+success+" row(s) executed successfully \n "+failure+" row(s) encountered error \n For further details please check api details or each row in the sheet. ",false);

Creating messages

The createMessage function iterates over all custom headers. If the custom header is found in the message template then that placeholder is replaced with the actual value. At the end it returns the final message.

function createMessage(data,template_data){
  for (var key in data) {
    if (data.hasOwnProperty(key)) {
        template_data = template_data.replace(new RegExp('{{'+key+'}}', 'gi'),data[key]);
    }
  }
  return template_data;
}

Let’s see how it works using an example.

Suppose we call createMessage(data,template_data) where data and template_data are:

function createMessage(data,template_data){
  for (var key in data) {
    if (data.hasOwnProperty(key)) {
        template_data = template_data.replace(new RegExp('{{'+key+'}}', 'gi'),data[key]);
    }
  }
  return template_data;
}

Then createMessage(data,template_data) will return text

Hi Jane Doe, your coupon code for discount of 20% purchase at Plivo is DUMMY20

API call to send message

The trySMS function, which calls the API to send messages, takes four parameters:

task, which is the temporary object created by sendMessages()
row, the row number for which the function is to run
AUTH_ID, the Plivo account Auth ID
TOKEN, the Plivo account Auth Token

function trySMS(task,row,AUTH_ID,TOKEN){
   var options = {
    'method' : 'post',
    'contentType': 'application/json',
    'headers':{
      Authorization:"Basic "+ TOKEN
    },
    'muteHttpExceptions':true,
    'payload' : JSON.stringify(task)
  };
  response = UrlFetchApp.fetch('https://api.plivo.com/v1/Account/'+AUTH_ID+'/Message/', options);
  return setStatus(response,row);
}

The first line creates an API call object options that contains all the HTTP parameters required to make the API call to Plivo.

UrlFetchApp.fetch is Google’s predefined function to make API calls. It returns the HTTP response.

Winning with automation

Google Sheets plus Google Apps Script makes an awesome combination that you can use to automate tasks and workflows. We hope you find our SMS sender for Google Sheets useful.

Feb 23, 2017

5 mins

Announcing Improved Voice Quality for Plivo SDK-based Apps

Plivo's SMS API and Voice API enables businesses to communicate with their customers at global scale. Sign up for free now.

Browser SDK

Following the December rollout of our new Voice 2.0 Infrastructure, our team continues to add features and upgrades to improve voice quality. As of today, our Browser SDK supports the Opus codec, which is the best-in-class audio codec for a wide range of voice applications. All applications that use the Plivo Browser SDK for inbound and outbound calling will automatically use Opus as their default codec. Soon we’ll launch Opus support for our Mobile SDK and Zentrunk SIP trunking as well.

Why the Opus codec?

We’ve optimized the opus encoder with reduced complexity on our Plivo network side to reduce decoder complexity on customers’ browsers. We’ve also optimized sampling rates, leading to decreases in browser sampling frequency and thus providing better performance on the browser. All of our optimizations also save bandwidth.

We’ve captured these audio samples that compare how Opus and the PCMU (G.711) codec deal with varying degrees of packet loss. The first sample, with 0% packet loss, sets the baseline for comparison. With increases in packet loss, Opus’s superiority stands out. Even at 30% packet loss, Opus still delivers comprehensible dialogue.

Packet Loss	Audio Samples
0%	Opus
0%	PCMU
10%	Opus
10%	PCMU
25%	Opus
25%	PCMU
30%	Opus
30%	PCMU

Opus is also efficient. Instead of the 100Kbps of bandwidth our prior WebRTC SDK codecs used, Opus uses 50Kbps. Your application will experience decreases in jitter, latency, and packet loss, and despite poor network connections, your users will experience better voice quality.

What is Opus?

Opus is an open source audio codec that’s optimized for speech and music transmission over the internet. Audio codecs are software that compress and decompress digital audio signals for transmission. These codecs depend on mathematical algorithms and are graded on their ability to retain audio quality while encoding and compressing audio signals.

Opus is highly effective at reducing bandwidth consumption and CPU usage during audio transmission while maintaining high-fidelity audio signals. It’s known for its ability to handle a variety of VoIP audio applications, including conferencing, help desks, and click-to-call applications.

Why is Opus awesome?

Opus was built to fill the gaps of existing audio codecs, which were not optimized for bandwidth, CPU usage, and the varying bitrates and frame sizes that are needed for next-generation WebRTC-based audio applications. Even though Opus is not new, its high quality and low latency performance have propelled its popularity among applications that use WebRTC. Google’s Chrome browser has adopted Opus as its default codec, and Firefox, Opera, and Chromium browsers all support Opus for WebRTC as well. Because of this broad support, more and more WebRTC applications have been adopting Opus to transmit speech over the internet.

Here’s how Opus stacks up against other popular codecs, per its creators Jean-Marc Valin (Mozilla/Xiph.Org), Koen Vos (vocTone), and Timothy B. Terriberry (Mozilla/Xiph.Org). As illustrated below, Opus has the lowest delay (26.5ms by default), flexible bitrate, and a broad range of bandwidth support (narrowband to fullband), and it’s optimized for real-time communication.

Extreme audio optimization

Opus can adjust bitrate, audio bandwidth, and frame size dynamically on live calls. This support for a range of bitrates, frame sizes, audio bandwidths, sampling rates, and multistream frames ensure that a wide variety of applications can use Opus to transmit audio. This flexibility allows Opus to compensate for varying internet speeds and issues that users could experience without notice. For example, if a user has a congested Wi-Fi router or experiences low network bandwidth, Opus can automatically and seamlessly switch to a lower bitrate for smaller bandwidth consumption.

Errors and packet losses are unavoidable when complex systems interact. Opus has many features and strategies to mitigate poor audio quality during low network connections.

Reduced jitter

Ideally, in a perfect high-bandwidth, low-latency environment, the network should deliver a steady stream of packets on a continuous basis. However, even if audio data is being transmitted and played in the right order but not played to the exact timing, sound distortions can occur. Here’s an illustration comparing a steady stream of packets during zero congestion versus the same audio transmission (i.e., same packet stream) in a congested environment.

Flow chart of jitter vs no jitter comparison

VoIP applications can experience a lot of jitter because high fidelity audio requires high bandwidth. However, even in the event of packet loss, Opus has built-in features such as Packet Loss Concealment (PLC) and dynamic frame sizes to mitigate the symptoms and detection of jitter by the human ear.

When voice is transmitted over IP, packet loss can occur during decoding. Opus can use PLC to mask the effects of packet loss. When the codec detects that a packet is missing, Opus can use several PLC strategies to hide gaps in lost information. Opus can replace lost speech frames with zeros (i.e., zero insertion), reconstruct missing gaps by repeating a portion that has been successfully received (i.e., waveform substitution), or use speech models and algorithms to fill gaps in speech (i.e., model-based methods). These strategies are especially important for calls to and from areas of low bandwidth networks or Wi-Fi congestion.

Lower latency

The human ear can detect latency greater than 250ms. While 300ms is considered industry wide as poor latency, the International Telecommunication Union recommends that latency should be kept below 150ms to ensure that symptoms of poor voice quality doesn’t affect calls. Our platform is optimized to deliver connectivity under 50ms to all customers around the globe, and support for high value audio codecs such as Opus plays a large role. Opus solves latency issues by supporting variable and constant bitrates and being able to adjust bitrates dynamically.

Support for variable bitrate (VBR) and constant bitrate (CBR). Voice transmission requires a variable bitrate — the ability to change bitrate dynamically to adapt to the audio being encoded. VBR can help achieve a lower bitrate for the same voice quality, which means that it can consume less bandwidth than CBR, leading to improvements in audio quality.
Dynamic bitrates from 6Kbps to 510Kbps. Opus will adjust its bitrate between 6 to 510 kilobits per second (Kbps) according to packet loss and round-trip time (RTT) reports during live audio transmission. If an audio call is experiencing increased packet loss and long RTT, then Opus will automatically switch to a lower bitrate to compensate and reduce congestion. The ability to change bitrates dynamically ensures that applications consistently deliver high voice quality and clarity.

Better packet loss concealment

Mitigating packet loss is especially important in real-time communication, because there’s no time to resend missing packets. Even low levels of packet loss can cause unnecessary breaks in audio; when packet loss is severe, complete sentences could be missing. Even though Opus cannot alleviate packet loss, it can mask the symptoms with reconstruction algorithms like forward error correction (FEC) and other PLC strategies.

Forward error correction (FEC). FEC can improve audio quality because it can reconstruct a missing packet from information from neighboring packets that were previously or subsequently transmitted.
Flexible error propagation. In the event of packet loss, other audio codecs utilize long-term prediction (LTP) filter states that spend more bits throughout the packet, which requires significant increases in bitrate and delay. To mitigate this, Opus reduces LTP filter states to the beginning of a packet, spending more bits only during the first pitch period, but saving bits throughout the packet transmission. This decreases potential voice quality issues and allocates more bandwidth to transmission.

Reduced audio bandwidth

Bandwidth is the amount of information that can be transmitted over a period of time. The larger the bandwidth the more data can be transmitted. Increasing bandwidth can lead to better audio quality. Strategies for better utilizing bandwidth include transmitting more data each time, transmitting the same amount of data faster, or reducing the amount of data that needs to be transmitted. Opus deploys discontinuous transmission (DTX) to reduce the amount of data being transmitted during periods of silence.

Most audio calls have intermittent pauses and periods of silence, therefore by reducing the packet rate during silence can save bandwidth and CPU usage. DTX give Opus the ability to detect silence and reduce packet rates when no one is speaking. Then, when audio resumes, Opus can increase the packet rate seamlessly.

Opus’ adaptability and robustness makes the codec suitable for VoIP applications running on stand-alone software or web browsers. See for yourself and let us know what you think.

Feb 16, 2017

5 mins

Introducing SMS Error Codes: Better Visibility into Your SMS Delivery

Plivo's SMS API and Voice API enables businesses to communicate with their customers at global scale. Sign up for free now.

SMS API

Error Codes

Plivo now provides detailed SMS error codes for every outbound SMS text message that fails to be delivered. These error codes can help you understand the reasons for delivery failures and troubleshoot issues with your outbound SMS messages.

Message states and SMS error codes

When you send an SMS message from your application to Plivo’s servers, we queue it up to send it to our carriers at an appropriate rate that meets their compliance requirements, and we pass your application the message_state queued. Upon successfully sending your message to our carriers, we update the message_state to sent. Once the destination carrier reports that it has received the message, we update the message_state to delivered.

This, of course, is the ideal scenario in which everything works as it should. However, in systems involving multiple layers, where messages may traverse multiple downstream carriers before delivery, errors can occur — and when they do, we wanted to have an easy way for our customers to diagnose and resolve any issues. That starts with identifying the source of the problem, which is where SMS error codes come in.

Plivo sends SMS error codes at each stage of the delivery process, depending on the message_state returned. That is, if delivery is unsuccessful when we tried to deliver a message to a carrier, the message_state will be updated from queued to failed and an accompanying error_code will be given.

If a message is successfully sent to the carrier, it can still hit roadblocks that can cause the SMS to fail. In this scenario, the message_state would change from queued to sent, then to undelivered, which is also accompanied by an error_code.

Here’s an illustration of the delivery path and the message_states that can occur.

When there are issues with SMS delivery, some carriers alert us with a delivery report that may include information about the failure. However, we work with carriers in hundreds of countries, and each of them has a different method and frequency of reporting information about SMS failures. Some carriers send error codes for nearly every undelivered SMS, while others send them for fewer than 5% of undelivered messages.

Because there’s no standard for reporting error codes and not all carriers support delivery reports, we can’t control the delivery, quality, or frequency of error reporting. However, for the error codes we do receive, we wanted to build a model so that our customers could have a standardized way to identify delivery issues. To do that, we aggregated all the error codes from each carrier and mapped them to a set of error code categories that capture the entire spectrum of potential issues with SMS deliverability. Now, when a carrier reports an SMS error while trying to deliver your text message, it’s mapped to one of our standardized SMS error codes.

For every SMS message that you send through the Plivo platform, Plivo now returns a message_state of queued, sent, delivered, failed, or undelivered, and we provide an SMS error code in the error_code parameter when messages have failed or were undelivered.

Message states and error codes are sent to the callbackUrl set in your application. To retrieve the details of a specific message, make an HTTP GET request to the Message API with the message_uuid appended to the BaseURI. Alternatively, visit the Messaging > SMS Logs page of the Plivo console.

Here are the SMS error codes that we return. You can find an updated list of error codes in our documentation. Going forward, whenever your text message doesn’t reach its destination, refer to the SMS error code to identify the issue.

Troubleshooting SMS delivery using API response codes, message_states, and SMS error_codes

Plivo provides error codes at three levels to help you identify exactly where an error occurred. At the most basic level, the standard 200 HTTP status code provides the response to potential errors between your application and our API. If your application receives anything other than a 200 response, there’s likely a bug in your application.

Next, if your application receives a successful 200 HTTP status code, then it’s time to check your message_state. The message_state indicates where the error may have occurred. A Failed status means that your SMS was queued by our systems but failed to deliver to the carrier. If your message_state is Undelivered, then even though Plivo successfully delivered the SMS to the carrier, the carrier failed to deliver the message to the destination. In the event of any failed message states, check the SMS error code for details on the error.

Finally, since not all carriers support delivery reports, some messages that show the Sent message_state could still have errors, so check your SMS error codes if issues persist.

Troubleshooting SMS delivery using API response codes, message states, and SMS error codes

If SMS delivery issues do persist, try these actions.

Check that you’ve set the correct “src”and “dst” phone numbers. You could be successfully sending and receiving text messages to an incorrect phone number.
Is the destination number roaming outside of their local network? In a few cases, our carriers might not support international roaming. Our carriers send us delivery reports only if their destination carriers do the same, so if the destination carrier never responds back, then our carrier can’t provide a delivery report either.
Is the destination number in a Do Not Contact (DNC) list? A few countries (including India) have a DNC list. Because they’re bound by consumer protection regulations, our carriers cannot deliver messages to recipients who have opted in to DNC lists. If a recipient opts out of a DNC list, carriers can deliver text messages normally.

If you continue to have SMS delivery problems despite taking all the necessary actions, please open a support ticket so we can help you resolve the problem. Be sure to include message_uuids of the text messages affected (preferably messages from within the last 72 hours).

Feb 13, 2017

5 mins

The Missing AWS OpsWorks CLI

Plivo's SMS API and Voice API enables businesses to communicate with their customers at global scale. Sign up for free now.

Integration

Open Source

Engineering

We at Plivo need to constantly deploy updates to our infrastructure that consists of large number of servers spread across multiple regions and continents worldwide. Unfortunately, the complexity of this infrastructure requires very specific and scalable deployment tools that were not already available.

The OpsWorks Command Line Interface (CLI) is a deployment tool for managing AWS OpsWorks. We built the OpsWorks CLI because the standard AWS CLI UI does not have any way to perform simultaneous operations across multiple stacks, a logical group of servers that you want to manage together. We have been using our own OpsWorks CLI extensively for the last year and we’re happy to be opening it up to everyone. We hope that DevOps teams already using AWS and especially those that are also using AWS OpsWorks can use our open source CLI to easily manage multiple server instances at once.

What is AWS OpsWorks?

If you’re familiar with configuration management, then you likely already know Chef, the automation platform. OpsWorks is a free configuration management service provided by AWS that uses Chef, but exposes a friendly user interface on top of it. OpsWorks uses Chef to automate how servers are configured, deployed, and managed across your Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instances or on-premises compute environments. OpsWorks splits your architecture into stacks. For example, for a simple wordpress setup you could have a production and a staging stack, each with a database and a web layer.

Why OpsWorks?

There are many configuration management solutions, such as Chef, Puppet, Salt, Ansible, and the list goes on… But none of those actually come with a user-friendly UI in their community editions. Most of those also require setting up a central server to take care of delivering the configuration to your servers, which is another point of failure that you need to make highly available too.

OpsWorks is free, runs on both EC2 and on premise, and brings you a powerful UI to inspect and maintain your stacks. You simply point OpsWorks at a Git repository or S3 Bucket with your cookbooks (Chef jargon for the files that actually define how your servers are provisioned) and define which files and servers should run. And because this is built on top of Chef, you can use some of the +3,000 existing cookbooks.

Finally, it has an easy to use auto-scaling feature based on CPU, Memory and Disk Usage, and can automatically start new instances to accommodate for higher loads.

What is OpsWorks CLI?

OpsWorks comes with a neat user interface that allows you to manage a stack: start and stop instances, perform configuration updates, deploy code, check the status of a load-balancer, etc. But the UI does not have any way to perform those operations across multiple stacks at once. What if you wanted to run a specific configuration update on all your production stacks? Or update all your database layers across all stacks?

This is where our CLI comes in: with a simple command line, it allows you to do everything you would be able to do on the UI. In addition, you can run your deployments across your whole infrastructure with a smart and intuitive filtering system. Our OpsWorks CLI also comes with an interactive prompt so that you do not have to access the AWS Console for trivial tasks.

Features and Benefits

OpsWorks CLI is built with scalability in mind. For example, with the OpsWorks CLI, we can easily run a simultaneous deployment on 20 stacks, while constantly pulling the AWS API to retrieve the deployments’ statuses in real time.

Simple Commands

Relying on the AWS API, we built a set of simple commands to help you easily run commands across stacks and regions. These commands can be used in conjunction with smart filters to quickly identify, setup, update, configure and deploy instances. You can also achieve more complex functionality including looking at past deployments of each stack and monitoring elastic load balancers, check for the health of instances, and much more.

Error Code	Error Reason	Description
10	Invalid message	The message content is blank or exceeds the character limit of 1,600 for messages encoded with GMS or 737 for messaged encoded with Unicode. Note that while we provide a separate error code to indicate that a message is too long, some carriers only send an “invalid message” error and don’t differentiate between blank messages and long message errors.
20	Network error	The carrier delivering the text message had network issues. To resolve this, retry at a later time when the carrier network is unaffected.
30	Spam detected	One of the most common reasons for SMS delivery failure is carrier-level spam filters. Carriers use systems and algorithms to detect spam content and block it before it gets delivered. Unfortunately, these filters are always hidden, subject to carrier preferences, vary from carrier to carrier, and can be changed without notice. Another common reason why this error code could be returned is that you may have attempted to send too many messages using long code phone numbers in the US and Canada. Long codes are 10-digit phone numbers and are intended only for peer-to-peer (P2P) communication. If this issue persists, we recommend using short codes for sending bulk messages within the US and Canada. [Editor’s note 2021: Also consider 10DLC.] If you’re confident that your message content is compliant, retry sending the message. You can also contact our support team to whitelist your message one time with our downstream carriers.
40	Invalid source number	The source number you entered is either not in the correct format, not SMS-enabled, or not assigned to your Plivo account. Check the “src” phone number in your application and ensure that it’s in the correct format and has the ability to send text messages. All phone numbers in your application should include country code, area code, and phone number without spaces or dashes (for example, 14155555555 for US or +491155555555 for Berlin, Germany).
50	Invalid destination number	The destination number you entered is either not entered correctly, not SMS-enabled, or is a PSTN landline. Check the “dst” phone number in your application to ensure that it can receive text messages. All phone numbers in your application should include country code, area code, and phone number without spaces or dashes (for example, 14155555555). If you’re sending multiple text messages, make sure that the phone numbers are separated with the “<” character (14156667777<14157778888<14158889999).
60	Loop detected	The carrier cannot route your SMS because settings in your application set up an endless loop of messages being sent and received between your “src” and “dst” phone numbers. This can occur when two auto-responding SMS applications start to talk to each other and end up in a loop. Carriers detect loops by comparing messages within a predefined period of time to previous messages sent and received. SMS loops can increase unnecessary spend, so it’s a good idea to create loop filters in your applications, because not all carriers have loop detection. In some cases, this error code is returned when the carrier determines that it’s impossible to route the message, so it has to be dropped, as it’s being looped between platforms.
70	Destination permanently unavailable	The “dst” phone number is not active and there’s no indication of when it will become available. This is a broad error code where the carrier has not indicated the reason for the destination unavailability. Check the “dst” phone number to ensure that it’s correct. Also try sending messages to an alternative number to ensure that all other parts of your application are working.
80	Destination temporarily unavailable	The “dst” phone number is not reachable. This is a broad error code, and often the carrier doesn’t indicate the reason for the destination being temporarily unavailable. Possible reasons could include a handset being turned off or out of coverage. To resolve this error, retry your messages at a later time.
90	No route available	The carrier and fallback carriers were not able to deliver the SMS message because the route wasn’t available. Carriers don’t offer the reason why a route isn’t available, but since this is typically a carrier issue, you can contact us to find out on your behalf. Include the message UUIDs of the SMS messages affected.
100	Prohibited by carrier	The carrier rejected the text message because the network didn’t support the message being sent. This can occur if the destination network doesn’t support SMS.
110	Message too long	The message content exceeds the character limit of 1,600 for GSM-encoded and 737 for UTF-encoded messages. Certain characters can increase the message character count significantly. Plivo automatically concatenates messages longer than 160 characters for GSM-encoded messages and 70 characters for UTF-encoded messages. Check our FAQ post on long message concatenation for more details.
200	Source number blocked by STOP from destination number	The destination has opted out from your campaign and blocked all messages sent from your phone number. Opt-outs are typically received via text messages with an opt-out keyword of “STOP.” All messages to destinations that have opted out are blocked until the destination opts in with another response. See our FAQ posts about opt-out and opt-in processes.
201	Outbound messages from US toll-free numbers to Canadian destination numbers are blocked	Your application is attempting to send text messages from a US toll-free number to a Canadian phone number destination. Unfortunately, carriers limit US toll-free phone numbers to sending text message only to US phone numbers.
1000	Unknown error	Delivering your message failed for reasons that are unknown to us and to our carriers. If you notice too many of these, please open a support ticket with us so that we can help you identify the problem. Be sure to include the message UUIDs of recent messages (preferably within the last 72 hours) that were affected.

Command	Description
stacks	list OpsWorks stacks
deployments	list OpsWorks deployments
instances	list instances
apps	list apps
elbs	list Elastic Load Balancers
update	update cookbooks
setup	run setup recipes
configure	run configure recipes
deploy	deploy specified app
recipes	run specified recipes

Smart Filtering

Any Opsworks CLI command accepts three basic filters: layer, stack, and region. These smart filters also support wildcards and regexes to enable complex filtering logic. For example the command below would match all stacks whose name contain wordpress, and only include their database layer:

Another example is using regexes to check ELBs of two wordpress stacks at once:

Interactive GUI and Interactive Prompt

The OpsWorks CLI also offers an interactive prompt if called without any arguments.

Screenshot image The Missing AWS OpsWorks CLI

How to use OpsWorks CLI?

The OpsWorks CLI accesses the AWS API using your AWS credentials. Once the credentials are configured, you can run opsworks with no arguments to access the interactive prompt. You can use this interactive prompt to accomplish simple tasks including listing stacks, listing instances, inspecting ELBs, updating cookbooks, deploying code, as well as running configurations and setups.

Visit the OpsWorks CLI Github repository for instructions on how to install the OpsWorks CLI: https://github.com/plivo/opsworks.

What’s next for OpsWorks CLI?

We use our OpsWorks CLI extensively at Plivo, so we’re always looking to build out new features and improvements. One feature on our roadmap is to build a bot and connect it to a real-time collaboration platform like Slack and Hipchat. With a few commands in a chat room, engineering teams can monitor and deploy instances without leaving the conversation. This way, the whole team can be instantly updated with all the changes and deployments across the organization.

Another feature we are working on is rolling deployments. Currently the CLI applies a given command to all the instances of a layer at once (just like what the AWS console). The idea would be to do the deployment instance by instance, taking them out of their respective load balancers first, and then putting them back online.

How do I contribute?

Please visit the OpsWorks CLI github page to report issues and help us make this tool even better.

Jan 25, 2017

5 mins

6 Ways to Retain Your Customers While Migrating SMS Phone Numbers

Plivo's SMS API and Voice API enables businesses to communicate with their customers at global scale. Sign up for free now.

Porting

Phone Numbers

SMS API

Best Practices

Most companies don’t change their SMS phone numbers, but sometimes changes are forced on them. Fortunately, there are a number of things organizations can do to decrease subscriber churn when changing SMS phone numbers.

Businesses may change their SMS phone numbers for various reasons:

Combining voice and SMS on the same toll-free phone number. All voice toll-free phone numbers in the US can be enabled with SMS capabilities. Companies can now send and receive SMS text messages on the same numbers they use for voice calling. This means that businesses can opt to combine their subscribers from dedicated SMS virtual phone numbers to a common toll-free phone number. This can provide better branding and lets them more efficiently manage their customer base.
Switching from a shared to a dedicated short code. Shared short codes are unreliable by nature. When multiple companies share the same short code, and one company violates short code regulations, the carrier can block the entire short code, so all users of that short code suffer the consequences and experience service disruptions. An increasing number of companies are paying a bit more to switch to dedicated short codes for more reliability and control.
Switching from a random to a vanity short code or phone number. Having a memorable phone number can be a great advantage. Even though short codes, with five or six digits, are already shorter than long codes or toll-free numbers, they still need to stand out. One strategy is to switch to a short code whose numbers spell out the company name (827438 for TARGET, for example). Another is to use an easily recognizable number, such as 888222, which Chipotle uses.
Switching service providers. Most SMS phone numbers can be ported from one service provider to another, but country and carrier-specific regulations may limit porting, so in some cases businesses must migrate to a new phone number when switching to another provider.

Regardless of which type of phone number you’re migrating to, regulations specify that all SMS subscribers must first opt in to all SMS campaigns. You’re not legally allowed to start sending text messages from a new phone number to your existing customers even if it’s part of the same campaign that your subscribers have opted in to in the past. If you violate any consumer protection laws, then your phone number could be blocked and your company may even be sued by consumers for the violation.

Abrupt changes in your SMS campaign phone numbers can wreak havoc on customer engagement from your subscriber base, especially in a heavily regulated telecom market like the one in the United States. Changing phone numbers can cause subscribers to drop off.

When switching phone numbers, always treat the new phone number as a brand new campaign that each user has to subscribe to again. Here are several tacks you can take to ensure that as you move to a new SMS phone number, your subscribers migrate as well. Not only is retaining your subscriber base important for future marketing campaigns, but reducing churn positively impacts company revenue and the bottom line.

How to retain subscribers while migrating phone numbers

First, a caveat: Not all of your subscribers will opt in for your new campaigns. The techniques we describe here can help migrate a healthy percentage of subscribers to a new campaign phone number, but some will choose to opt out.

Consider toll-free SMS (available in the US)

Toll-free SMS messaging is growing in popularity in the United States. Studies have shown that toll-free campaigns experience better response rates and customer engagement than long codes and short codes, because interactions with toll-free numbers are always free to end users.

Toll-free SMS can also be more affordable for businesses. Toll-free numbers cost only a few dollars and are charged for on a monthly basis, while short codes often cost more than $500 per month and require three months’ payment up front.

Choose a vanity phone number

Whether it’s a toll-free or a short code phone number, having a recognizable, memorable phone number helps you gain and retain subscribers. You can ask your SMS provider to procure a vanity toll-free number with specific digits, and if it’s available, you can typically purchase it for the same price as a regular toll-free phone number and have it enabled within 48 hours.

Many companies have seen higher SMS response and retention rates with vanity short codes as compared to random short codes, especially in competitive markets. Rental fees for vanity short codes, however, are often significantly more than fees for random short codes. You can search for available vanity short codes on the Common Short Code Administration (CSCA) website.

Notify your customers early via web form opt-in

Notify your customers of the transition as early as possible — but remember, a new phone number can receive SMS opt-ins only after it’s activated.

The turnaround time for phone number activation depends on the type of phone number. Long code and toll-free SMS phone numbers can be provisioned quickly. Long code phone numbers can be provisioned instantly if your vendor has an inventory of phone numbers and provides access via an online user interface or API. Toll-free SMS phone numbers in the US may require up to 48 hours for provisioning because a short application is required for carriers to enable toll-free numbers for SMS. By contrast, short code phone numbers can take at least three months to provision because of a complex carrier application process.

Since you can’t receive new opt-ins via SMS until your phone number is active, start using other opt-in mechanisms, including web forms and in-person signups. The best mechanism for opt-in is an online form, because it lets you seamlessly collect new subscriber information and manage your database for your new campaigns. If you’re getting opt-ins in person, use a digitized form to collect opt-ins to minimize human error and eliminate extra time for data entry. You can lead your subscribers to online opt-in forms via:

Online advertisements (e.g., Facebook, Google, Twitter, Instagram)
Email newsletters
Direct mail invitations
Offline advertisements (newspapers, banners, posters)

Give incentives for subscribing

Subscriber migration is hard, and even though some users will opt in to a new phone number without any incentives, motivating subscribers with a promotion can go a long way. For example, send your current subscribers a text message with a link to a 20% discount; upon clicking on the link, they can fill out a form to opt in to a new campaign phone number.

Here are a few campaign ideas that can create incentives, add convenience, and make it fun for your subscribers to opt in to a new SMS phone number:

Special weekly offers
Flash sales
Localized offers in their area
Surprise offers on special days, such as birthdays or Christmas
Direct discounts on purchases
Exclusive deals that only this new campaign will get them
Notifications for order confirmation, deliveries, and inventory availability

Create urgency about switching phone numbers

If subscriber migration is going slowly, give your subscribers a sense of urgency that if they don’t opt in for the new phone number, they’ll no longer receive promotions. Just remember that if you mention a deprecation date to your current subscribers, you should adhere to that date.

Don’t overlap your communication

As your subscribers migrate from an old phone number to a new one, be sure to unsubscribe them from the old campaign. That way, you can avoid any overlap in communication and maintain clean, reliable subscriber data. Eliminating duplicate messages also improves your user experience and helps keep costs down.

Additional takeaways

Before you implement any of these suggestions or run any new campaigns, seek to understand your subscribers. Find out what incentivizes them the most and the best times to send them information. Here are some additional thoughts on running successful and engaging migration campaigns.

Focus on customer engagement. Regardless of the purpose of your campaign, always plan for long-term customer engagement and offer high-quality content and promotions that align with your product and customer incentives.

Create meaningful content. Aligned your content with your customer engagement strategies and company goals. For example, simple discounts are overdone and don’t offer any engagement mechanisms. However, if you put a discount at the end of an engaging SMS survey or riddle, then the engagement will likely be more memorable and encourage customer loyalty.

Optimize your campaign delivery times. CTIA (Cellular Telecommunication Industries Association) guidelines suggest that all marketing campaigns and promotional messages should be sent between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. local time. This not only ensures that your campaigns stay compliant, it also ensures that your messages are read in a timely fashion. Optimal times during the week are typically during the morning commute (between 8:00 and 10:00) and lunch times (between 11:30 and 1:30). During these times, subscribers are typically more receptive to promotional messaging.

Limit SMS frequency for better user experience. To maintain good customer experience, send meaningful messages no more than once a week. Plan your campaigns so that your messages are concise and to the point.

Set a realistic migration rate. Since it’s not realistic to migrate every customer to your new campaign, it’s important to set realistic expectations before the migration begins to ensure that there will be a reasonable completion date and that the migration won’t drag on unnecessarily. Acceptable migration rates can vary across industry and campaigns.

As an example, suppose you’re trying to migrate 10,000 subscribers and have set the acceptable migration rate at 80%. That means that you can deprecate the old phone number when 8,000 subscribers opt in to your new campaign. It also means that you’ve accepted that you’re willing to lose 2,000 subscribers during the migration.

If you’re thinking about migrating phone numbers, have a chat with our customer success team. We can help answer your questions.

Jan 17, 2017

5 mins

2016 Year in Review: 100+ Team Members and 3 Years Profitable

Plivo's SMS API and Voice API enables businesses to communicate with their customers at global scale. Sign up for free now.

Company

2016 was a turning point for Plivo. As we push the envelope in revolutionizing telecommunications, we’re also bringing in new technologies to scale our software infrastructure and build the best customer experience. Our focus for 2016 was to take what we do best and make it the best in the industry. I’m happy to say that it’s paying off.

2016 Year in Review Stats

Both Gartner and IDC have recognized Plivo as one of the top three vendors in CPaaS space.
Delivered 2 billion voice minutes and SMS messages combined.
Increased revenue by 200% to well into double digit millions.
Increased customer base by 180%.
Increased voice traffic by 150% and SMS traffic by 200%.
2016 marks the third year we’ve been profitable, even with heavy investments and team growth.
Surpassed 100 team members.
Increased engineering team by 400%, marketing team by 300%, and sales team by 300%.
Moved into a new 20,000 square feet office in Bangalore, India. Take a photo tour and read the full details on our New Year, New Office blog post.
Launched Zentrunk SIP trunking beta in all countries and toll-free SMS messaging in the United States.
Launched Voice Infrastructure 2.0 to improve voice quality in all regions.
Added 15 local in-country carriers and added two new data centers: Northern California and São Paulo.

What to expect in 2017

More investment in infrastructure improvements for voice and SMS.
Connections to more local in-country carriers to improve quality for all products: SMS API, Voice API, and Zentrunk SIP trunking.
More investment in marketing and sales teams, to build a larger presence in the market and make a splash about the quality and transparency we bring to the industry.
More investment in customer success teams to better support existing customers and streamline new customer onboarding.

All the details

Compared to 2015, we experienced 200% growth in SMS traffic and 150% growth in voice traffic. We delivered more than 2 billion SMS messages and voice minutes combined in 2016. To put this in context, the volume of SMS messages and voice minutes we currently deliver in a week is the same as what we delivered in a month in early 2015. With such significant increases in volume, we took a step back to focus on quality, and the market has noticed. Both Gartner and IDC have recognized Plivo as one of the top three vendors in CPaaS space.

As a company, we decided early on that we won’t compromise on quality. That’s why in 2016, even in the middle of significant growth, we dedicated six months of time and resources to improving our voice quality and positioning our infrastructure for long-term scalability. The result was our Voice Infrastructure 2.0, which features significant improvements to our voice backbone, including new data center locations in South America (Brazil) and US-West (Northern California), improvements in our global network and voice routing algorithm, optimized global routing, optimized intra-region connectivity, and less than 20ms connectivity to carrier peering hubs.

The underlying network of carriers is another big quality-of-service factor that Plivo brings to the table. In 2016, we built a dedicated team to focus on critical carrier relationships, and added 15 new direct connections to local in-country carriers in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Brazil, Singapore, Japan, Italy, Russia, Turkey, Sweden, Mexico, India, South Africa, UAE, and Spain. With these direction connections, we’ve seen significant improvements in call quality and SMS delivery rates. Going forward, we’ll continue to increase direct connections to local in-country carriers, increase carrier redundancy, and ultimately increase voice quality and SMS delivery in all regions.

All of these quality improvements impact every Plivo product, which means that any new product or feature we release on our platform gains the same high quality of service. Last year, with the release of Zentrunk SIP trunking for all coverage areas, as well as toll-free SMS in the US, we’ve seen quality improvements that led to rapid growth and adoption from new and existing customers. We plan to make more updates to our infrastructure in the next few months to raise the bar on call quality and SMS delivery.

We take a lot of pride in the amazing team that’s helped us get to this point. Naturally as our business grows, our team grows too. We broke the 100 team member milestone this year. Engineering is core to our business, and that team grew by 400% last year. Our sales and marketing teams grew by 300%, and that has been pivotal in our revenue growth. To accommodate this growth, we moved our Bangalore, India, office to a brand new 20,000-square-foot space with a cafeteria, hot desk spaces, lounge areas, large meeting rooms, collaboration rooms, and a games room.

This year marks the third year we’ve been profitable, and our profitability continues to grow even with our aggressive team growth, new office, infrastructure investment, and increases in our marketing budget. We couldn’t have achieved these milestones without our customer base, which grew 180% in 2016. This of course has a direct impact on our annual revenue, which increased by 200% and is leading us well into double-digit millions.

What we’ve learned, and what you can expect in 2017

Sometimes you have to take a step back in order to move forward, and this year we did just that. This year we took a step back from releasing multiple new features and products. Instead, we focused on quality and dedicated a lot of resources and time to improving our infrastructure and carrier connectivity — and it’s already paying off. Our voice quality has improved with faster connectivity, fewer dropped packets, less jitter, and less crosstalk, and our customers have noticed the difference, especially during international voice calls. In 2017, you can expect to see us investing more in our infrastructure and signing on more local in-country carriers to improve quality for all of our products. And we’ll continue to invest in our marketing and sales teams to build a larger presence in the market and make a splash about the quality and transparency we bring to the industry.

Thank you for joining us on this journey to disrupt the telecommunications industry. We plan to bring you many more improvements, features, products, and services that add value to your experience.

If you have any feedback or feature requests, please contact our support team.

Cheers,

The Plivo Team

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AI Voice Agents - The Complete Guide to Voice Chat (2025)

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