Creating memorable moments with Twilio Video

Creating memorable moments with Twilio Video

Humans are inherently social beings and communication is at the core of these connections.  Twilio provides developers with a wide array of channels, from voice, to messaging, email, to SMS, and of course, video.

While consumers have been gravitating towards video in social media for quite some time, organizations are now adopting video at a much higher velocity. A study by Twilio showed that the pandemic accelerated digital transformation at companies by 6 years. That same pattern is playing out with Twilio Video. While not a material portion of Twilio's business, Twilio Video has experienced a 540% year-over-year increase in weekly minutes compared to this time last year.

This year, Twilio invested in new Video features and we’ve seen adoption by a range of customers including Telehealth, Education, and Virtual Visits. What has made our customers successful is that they’ve created customized video applications centered around user experience. That’s because memorable experiences are built, not bought.

Respecting Privacy

Privacy and security are important in maintaining patient trust. In February this year, we announced that Programmable Video was HIPAA-eligible.

When the pandemic hit, healthcare providers and patients turned to Video to connect. One such customer was Luma Health.

Luma Health was founded on the principle that everyone deserves access to great health care, and patients should be able to easily connect with their providers in a mobile-first, modern way. They used Twilio to power their patient communications and when COVID hit, quickly rolled out a HIPAA compliant telehealth solution.

“In a matter of days, we were able to identify the opportunity, match our use case to our platform and settings, and come up with a fast solution using Twilio video for telehealth,” VP Engineering Marcelo Oliviera said.

Enhancing Mobile Video Quality

Bad video quality is frustrating, particularly in a world that relies on virtual connections more than ever.

With more people using mobile devices than computers, mobile video quality is even more important. We recognize this need and released several enhancements to support mobile video quality in mobile apps and browsers this past year.

Network Bandwidth Profile API for iOS and Android SDKs

In December, we introduced the Network Bandwidth Profile API for our Javascript SDK. This year, we’ve made Network Bandwidth Profile API available in our Android SDK 5.8 and iOS SDK 3.4.

The Network Bandwidth Profile API and associated Track Priority API provides developers with fine-grained control over the allocation of bandwidth used by video tracks. Furthermore, the three profiles, “grid”, “collaboration”, and “presentation”, specify when tracks should be switched on or off to conserve bandwidth for the highest priority tracks. Using these controls developers can ensure their end users have the best possible experience given the bandwidth they have available to them at the time.

You can learn more by reviewing our docs on using the Network Bandwidth Profile API and using the Track Priority API. For an example of how to use the Network Bandwidth Profile API in a mobile application, check out the Video iOS Collaboration App or the Video Android Collaboration App.

Best Practices for Video in Mobile Browsers

We have seen a surge in interest from developers building video communication web apps for mobile devices, so their customers aren’t forced to install a native app. Working closely with customers to overcome obstacles inherent in using video in the browser on a mobile device, we've compiled the best practices so you can avoid the pitfalls and deliver great video experiences in mobile browsers.

Video quality is particularly important when engaging with students. Many education organizations have made-do with work conferencing solutions and lifted them into the classroom. Air Tutors takes a different approach. The tutoring and test prep company provides K-12 support via a remote-first platform, with customizations and considerations for students and educators specific to learning in a virtual environment.

“The quality of the video is just much, much better,” said Hasan Ali, Co-Founder & CEO when talking about why they selected Twilio Video. “And that’s important for virtual learning. It’s harder for students to stay engaged if they’re seeing a pixelated screen or their tutor is freezing on them.”

“We also have a student who is deaf, working with an educator in Vietnam, to learn English via Vietnamese sign language, so having a crystal clear picture is obviously crucial there,” he added.

Looking ahead

The growth and innovation we’ve seen with our customers building with Twilio Video is inspiring. As part of our commitment to supporting customers, we are simplifying our Video pricing by including unlimited DataTracks and Recording downloads for free. In addition, we are reducing the price of Group Rooms and Recordings to match Small Group Rooms, at $0.004 per participant minute. With this change we are encouraging developers to use Group Rooms for all multi-party communications so they don’t have to determine upfront how many participants will be joining their video chats. For more details, check out our Video Pricing page. We can’t wait to see what you build next!