Twilio is a cloud communications platform that was founded in 2007 and is based in San Francisco. It allows a user/developer to make/receive phone calls programmatically and send/receive text messages using web service APIs. For this chapter, we shall only be demonstrating its messaging function; however, we request and anticipate that the reader will extend the functionality of this skill by adding the phone call functionality as a homework exercise.
To configure Twilio as our messaging backend, we shall be following these steps:
- Please navigate to www.twilio.com in your web browser, as seen in this screenshot:
![](https://static.packt-cdn.com/products/9781788997256/graphics/assets/ec1bdc74-b6a9-477c-9e79-faa0ef28b154.png)
Fig 3.4: Twilio landing page
- Please click on Get a free API key or Sign up (both will start the sign-up process for a new user) to land on the Sign up for free page shown here:
![](https://static.packt-cdn.com/products/9781788997256/graphics/assets/f4970bbc-e4ed-48e0-bc8b-daa1fcc01399.png)
Figure 3.5: Twilio sign-up page
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Please...