FAQ

• I’ve created an Access Token vending endpoint but why do I keep failing to register for incoming call push notifications?
  • Twilio Access Token supports authentication for multiple products, but you need to make sure that you are using VoiceGrant for the Programmable Voice SDK.
  • You might have used the incorrect API key/secret pair to create the Access Token. Please make sure you keep the API secret privately once the API key is created, and use both the API key and secret to create the Access Token.
  • The maximum expiry duration allowed by Twilio is 24 hours, which equals to 86400 seconds. Please make sure that you have expiry <= (86400 -1).
  • The API keys/secrets are not sharable between main account and sub-accounts.
  • Please make sure the Access Token has non-empty identity.
• Why am I not receiving any incoming call push notification although the SDK says it registered successfully?
  • The Twilio Programmable Voice Android SDK requires FCM SECRET or FCM Server Key to be able to send push notifications to signal arrival of an incoming call. You need to use these values to create a Push Credential. If the google-services.json used in your application is not the correct one associated with the FCM SECRET or FCM Server Key, notification will fail.
• Make sure you do not exceed more than 10 active registrations for the same identity. Twilio will notify only most recent 10 registered device and the rest of the devices will not receive notification.
• I was using the Android TwilioClient 1.2 SDK and just migrated to the Programmable Voice SDK. Why am I getting “Authentication error” using my Capability Token?
  • The Programmable Voice SDK requires a new token format called the Twilio Access Token for authentication. Please update your token vending endpoint to generate Access Tokens for your application.

Outbound Call

• Why am I not able to make calls even though I am using Access Token?
  • Make sure you are using a valid Account SID, a valid API signing key and a valid secret in the Access Token.

Push notifications

My phone has been off for a while and when I turn it back on, I get calls that were already hung up

Note: This does not apply to version 2.1. The push notification sent to this version will expire within 30 seconds.

Twilio Voice SDKs use push notifications (APNS, FCM/GCM) as a mechanism to notify the callee of an incoming call. However, a problem presents itself when the callee‘s device is offline or not reachable: the push notification services cache the notification and re-attempt delivery at a much later time. The delayed notification may arrive after the call has already been terminated. The callee‘s device will briefly alert the user of a call that has already terminated leading to a poor user experience. Twilio plans to address this issue in a later release. However, in the meantime the following is a proposal for a work around you can implement to avoid the poor user experience.

The following 4 step proposal allows an app developer to use time information as an additional criteria to determine whether or not to display a call notification to the user.

Step 1 Generate a UTC based timestamp on the TwiML Application Server based on the Unix epoch in milliseconds.

var timeInMS = Date.now()

Step 2 Add this generated timestamp to the used to reach the callee

Parameters can be sent to a callee by initiating a TwiML . Use the attribute to specify your key/value parameters as shown below. The value shown below is an example of a timestamp obtained in step 1. You must pass the value as string. Pass the time as custom parameters in TwiML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <Response>
        <Dial answerOnBridge="false" callerId="client:alice">
            <Client>
                <Identity>bob</Identity>
                <Parameter name="timestamp" value="1555825985"  />
            </Client>
        </Dial>
    </Response>

When the call invite push message arrives to the callee it will have the specified parameters.

Step 3 Get the timestamp from the bundle or message provided by FCM when it arrives to the Android application.

2.X SDKs

When receiving the push notification from Twilio, you can obtain the parameter from the bundle or message. The parameters are provided by FCM payload as the key: twi_params. The following shows how you can parse the contents of the data to get a map of the parameters you passed into the Dial. The “data” variable is the map provided by FCM.

Map<String, String> customParameters = new HashMap<>();
String query_pairs = data.get(“twi_params”);
if (query_pairs != null) {
    final String[] pairs = query_pairs.split("&");
    for (String pair : pairs) {
        final int idx = pair.indexOf("=");
        final String key;
        try {
            key = idx > 0 ? pair.substring(0, idx) : pair;
            final String value = idx > 0 && pair.length() > idx + 1 ? URLDecoder.decode(pair.substring(idx + 1).replaceAll("\\+", "%20"), "UTF-8") : null;
            customParameters.put(key, value);
        } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

3.X SDKs

When receiving the push notification from Twilio, you can obtain the parameter from CallInvite with the following:

Map<String, String> customParameters = callInvite.getCustomParameters();
String timestampString = customParameters.get(“timestamp”);

Step 4 Compare the UTC based timestamp to the UTC time on the device and discard the notification if the device time is significantly later than the timestamp generated by the server.

Android

// Get the timestamp from the customParameters map and the current device time
String timestampString = customParameters.get(“timestamp”);
long timestamp = Long.parseLong(timestampString);
long currentTimestamp = System.currentTimeMillis();

// Compare the time difference
if (currentTimestamp > timestamp + 60000) {
  // discard notification...
} else {
  // display notification...
}

Great tools and links

• jwt.io - decode and see what’s in your Access Token.
• Twilio Programmable Voice dashboard - view errors/warnings in real time.

How to file a support ticket or create a GitHub issue

We love feedback and questions especially those with helpful debugging information so we can diagnose and respond in time. When submitting issues or support tickets, it would be great if you add the following:

• Description - what are you trying to achieve, what steps did you take, and what issue did you have.
• SDK version
• SDK verbose log - SDK logs are always the best for the team to debug. Configure the SDK log level, and set it to DEBUG: Voice.setLogLevel(LogLevel.DEBUG)
• Twilio account SID
• Twilio call SID

When you have gathered all this helpful information, please file any issues you find here on Github.

• Programmable Voice Android SDK quickstart

For general inquiries related to the Voice SDK you can file a support ticket.

• Twilio Support