How To Build A Conference Line With Twilio

Time to read: 2 minutes

July 20, 2016

Written by

Twilion

How To Build A Conference Line With Twilio

Another conference call, another app, another PIN, another log-in. Joining conference calls shouldn’t take more than a simple a call. In a few minutes minutes, you can build a conference line anyone and everyone can use easily, even if you’ve never written a line of code in your life.

Let’s Build A Conference Line

Go to Twilio.com and create a new account.
Then go up to the top left of your screen and click “home” to go to your Console Home.
Scroll down to Developer Center and click on TwiML Bins. This is the place where our code will live. This code will tell Twilio what to do when a call comes in.
Click create new TwiML Bin. We’ll name this TwiML Bin “My Conference Line”
Let’s Write Some Code

The first thing we’ll do is respond to the call coming in. To respond, we’ll use the <Response> TwiML verb.

Create a response tag like so:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Response>
</Response>

Then we’ll add <Say> within the Response tag. This verb will a greeting our caller. You can write whatever greeting you’d like here.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Response>
  <Say> Hey, thanks for calling! You’ll be connected shortly </Say>
</Response>

Now that you’ve greeted your caller, we need to get them to their conference call. By using the <Dial> verb we’ll, Dial a conference line after the greeting.

You can give the conference line we’ll dial any name you like. We chose “my-conference-line” in this case.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Response>
  <Say> Hey! This is a demo conference line for Kenny. Hi Kenny!</Say>
  <Dial>
    <Conference>my-conference-line</Conference>
  </Dial>
</Response>

Double check that your TwiML is valid, then click create.

Awesome! Now we have our code written for our conference line, and we’re ready to connect that code to a phone number.

Head back to your home screen by clicking the home icon in the top left corner. Then scroll down to phone numbers and click that. Go to manage phone numbers, and click on the number you purchased recently.

Scroll down to the “When a call comes in field” and select your TwiML Bin “My Conference Line” Hit save and you’re done. You built your first conference line! Give it a call and take it for a spin the next time you’re on a conference call.