What is Twilio? An introduction to the leading customer engagement platform

An introduction to the leading customer engagement platform

Chatting with customer support, receiving an appointment reminder, messaging your rideshare driver, getting a personalized coupon in your inbox, video conferencing with your doctor—all of those interactions have something in common: they’re powered by Twilio.

What exactly is Twilio?

The short answer: Twilio is a customer engagement platform used by hundreds of thousands of businesses and more than ten million developers worldwide to build unique, personalized experiences for their customers.

We’re known for democratizing channels like voice, text, chat, video, and email through APIs, making it easy for every organization to build meaningful interactions with customers on the channels they prefer.

But that’s just the beginning. With Segment, the world’s leading customer data platform, we now empower businesses to capture first-party customer data in real time, analyze it in a single view, and use it to supercharge interactions at scale.

This unique position gives us a front row seat to watch how communications and customer data, together, can invigorate companies and uplift communities. Our simple, robust tools help a wide variety of organizations, like Lyft, the American Red Cross, Dell, Airbnb, and many more, create lasting relationships with the people they serve.

We believe in a future that’s more engaged than ever before—one where inefficient, disconnected communications are a relic of the past. To learn more about how we’re building that future, read on to discover what we build and who we are.

What we build

The Twilio Customer Engagement Platform: Communication and data management tools for every organization

We’ve spent over a decade creating and perfecting tools to help organizations reach their audience. Today, that means we have tools that span the entire customer lifecycle—from marketing, to sales, to customer service.

Powerful applications to uplevel your digital engagement

Twilio Engage

Twilio Engage is a new omnichannel marketing and growth platform that lets businesses of all sizes use the same kinds of tools, data integrations, analytics, and channels to build personalized campaigns that the digital giants use. Twilio Engage is the latest in the suite of data management and analytics solutions offered by Twilio Segment.

Twilio Frontline

In a digital-first world, your sales team needs a secure, compliant way to connect with customers anywhere. Twilio Frontline is a programmable mobile application that enables digital relationships over messaging and voice to improve sales efficiency and outcomes. Integrate the app with any CRM or customer database and start building meaningful relationships with customers. 

Twilio Flex

Twilio Flex is the industry’s most flexible cloud contact center platform. You can deploy a cloud-based, omnichannel contact center that’s free from the limits of SaaS applications—and easily create and customize the solution as you grow. For a great case study, learn how Lyft uses Twilio Flex to build trust and deliver exceptional experiences. 

Explore more applications like multi-factor authentication and data management.

Access to the omnichannel experiences your users and customers love

MessagingX

Twilio MessagingX has everything you need to engage with customers, as one of the world’s most widely-used, trusted, and accessible communication tools. You can use MessagingX to send and receive SMS, MMS, and OTT messages at scale with purpose-built APIs like Programmable Messaging and Conversations, using phone numbers in more than 180 countries. MessagingX is used by companies like Dell to generate more online sales, and by nonprofits like The Trevor Project to deliver essential communications.

Voice

Direct connections make an impact. Twilio Programmable Voice lets you make, take, and modify calls from any device; seamlessly embed PSTN, SIP, or VoIP calling into any app, site, or service you can dream up. Learn how Twitter taps Twilio for instant global voice connectivity.

Video

In recent years, video connectivity went from a nice-to-have to the universal go-to communication tool. With Twilio Video, you can build secure, real-time video and HD audio applications in just a few minutes. Telemedicine, distance learning, recruiting, social networking, and more, all built on WebRTC and our cloud infrastructure. With our SDKs, quickstarts, and open source sample code, launching is simple—which means more time to customize your perfect solution. 

Interactive live streaming

One of the newest additions to our lineup of channels, Twilio Live lets you get started with basic live streaming and ultimately create something truly special. Build interactive audio and video experiences for any use case, from events, to shopping, to fitness, and beyond.

Email

We know how important it is for your emails to actually make it to the intended inbox, no matter how many you need to send. The Twilio SendGrid Email API solves deliverability challenges at scale, reliably delivering over 100 billion emails per month. Maximize inbox placement with streamlined tools, insightful recommendations, and expert services. Discover how Glassdoor helps job seekers find jobs they love with Twilio SendGrid. Interested in A/B testing, automation, and campaign analytics? We have a dedicated tool for Marketers, too.

So, how does it actually work?

All of our services are built on top of the Twilio Super Network.

The Super Network is a powerful web of connections between traditional telecommunications infrastructure and the internet, letting our customers seamlessly engage with their customers anytime, anywhere. Our 24/7 global operations center and dedicated engineering teams constantly monitor telecommunications carrier networks to optimize our services while providing unmatched redundancy, uptime, and security. 

Who we are

Our success is built on the hard work of developers, leaders across industries, nonprofit visionaries, and our growing community of more than 7,000 Twilions. We approach our work in a way that prioritizes trust, privacy, inclusion, and the call to create a better world through communications. 

Twilio.org

Twilio.org is the social impact arm of Twilio. We’ve seen how nonprofits and social enterprises use Twilio communications to tackle some of the world’s biggest problems. Twilio.org empowers more than 7,000 organizations, like the American Red Cross and the Norwegian Refugee Council, to respond to crises, provide life-changing resources, and inspire action. These organizations have used Twilio technology to help more than 470 million people around the globe. 

Read our 2020 Impact Report to learn more.

Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

In 2020 we committed to becoming an anti-racist company, and we continuously act on that commitment through internal programs, learning & development, and social impact work. We believe that through our actions, we have both the responsibility and opportunity to create a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workforce and world. 

Learn more in our 2020 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Report.

The Twilio Magic

The Twilio Magic are the guiding principles of how we work together, create better products, and provide the best possible experience for everyone in Twilio’s orbit. From empowering others to being bold, we strive to improve and evolve every day. 

Read more about the Twilio Magic and learn what it’s like to work at Twilio. 

The future of engagement

Ready to start building? Talk to our sales team.