Twilio.org announces new app library for social impact at SIGNAL

October 20, 2021
Written by
Jeff Eiden
Twilion

Launch of CodeExchange for Good

As our communities faced numerous challenges in the past year, we learned how important it is for social impact organizations to quickly respond with an effective digital engagement program. One less day spent building, means one more day connecting people to vaccines, critical resources, volunteer opportunities, and classrooms.

Today, Twilio.org launched the CodeExchange for Good, a curated open-source library of some of our most common and effective applications for social impact to help you build and get to production faster. There’s no need to start from scratch with this new addition to the social impact developer toolkit. Whether you’re looking to build an app for virtual medical visits or a disaster response system, you can find ready-to-deploy templates to get started quickly. You can use these pre-built samples to jump-start rapid prototyping of engagement applications that create positive social impact, many of which can be deployed in minutes with zero coding required.

Apps in the CodeExchange for Good library include:

  1. COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Chatbot: A flexible, intelligent FAQ bot for accurate COVID-19 vaccine information to overcome hesitancy
  2. Virtual Classroom: An app to enable robust virtual classroom time between teachers and students
  3. Rapid Response Broadcasting Kit: A broadcasting voice app that uses Twilio conferencing to enable immediate communication with a wide group of people after a disaster.

In addition, these applications are open-source, so if you’re passionate about social impact and want to contribute to the library, you can extend an existing app or submit your own.

Code samples designed for nonprofits and social impact organizations to change lives

With the CodeExchange for Good library, we’re prioritizing solutions that were built with the intention of creating social impact. Spanning across solutions and channels, the apps curated in the library have been created or vetted by Twilio.org as being both easy-to-deploy and designed for social impact organizations to increase their scope and efficiency.

The applications included in the library not only span many different use cases, but also the level of coding required. If you’re looking for a no-code-required application, you can search for the “Quick Deploy” tab for apps that allow you to get started immediately. If you’re looking for code samples ready to be customized for your needs, you can search by product or use case.

CE4G screenshot

Support communications that help change lives for the better

As the communications needs of our communities change and grow, the CodeExchange for Good will grow with it. We invite developers passionate about social impact to contribute to the app library, whether it’s a new solution or an extension of an existing app.

One timely contribution you can make is to extend the COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy app. Over time, we hope this grows into a growing repository of open-source vaccine hesitancy chatbots that can increase vaccine uptake globally. We are actively seeking contributions for chatbot agents that:

  • Are translated into different languages
  • Speak to localized vaccine information in different countries, states, and cities
  • Address underserved populations or communities with specific needs

Social impact developers interested in participating in contributing to the CodeExchange for Good should follow the instructions in the contributors guide for Twilio’s Function Templates repository that houses all official Twilio samples available in the CodeExchange for Good. We welcome any kind of contribution — from filing issues, to fixing typos and bugs all the way to creating entirely new templates.

Building positive change together

Social impact organizations have accelerated their innovation and impact to meet the needs of local and global communities during times of unprecedented crisis. What has remained clear is that we are stronger when we build together. Twilio.org is thrilled to introduce a platform that harnesses collaboration across innovators and builders passionate about changing lives for the better. Get started using an app today, we can’t wait to see what you build.