How to build a conference line with Twilio Studio

March 26, 2020
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How to build a conference call line with Twilio Studio

Twilio Studio is a visual application builder that allows you to write conditional logic for handling messaging flows without writing any code. In this post I’ll walk you through how to build a conference call line using Twilio Studio.

Prerequisites

Creating your Studio Flow for conference calling

Head over to the Studio Dashboard. Click the “+” button to create a new Flow.


You’ll be prompted to give it a name. Let’s call it “conference call.”

Screenshot of the dialog box for creating a new Studio Flow. There's a "Flow Name" input field, that has the text "conference call" in it, as well as Cancel and Next buttons.

On the next screen select “start from scratch” and then click the Next button.

Screenshot of the dialog box that lets you select a flow type. The options are start from scratch, appointment reminders, IVR / Phone Tree, SMS Chatbot.

To provide a nice touch for your callers, let’s play a message telling them we’re connecting them to a call before we drop them in to the conference.

From the right sidebar, drag a “Say/Play” widget on to the canvas.

In the “Text to say” box, add a nice message like “Please wait while we dial you into the call.” You can choose different languages and voices in the dropdown if you’d like.

Screenshot of the configuration for the Say/Play widget. In the "Text to Say" box, the text is "Please wait while we dial you into the call." The language dropdown has British English selected, and the message voice is Alice.

Connect the widget to the dot that says “Incoming Call.”

Screenshot of the Studio Flow canvas. Incoming call is connected to the Say/Play widget.

Now we’ll actually add the participant to the conference. From the Widget Library sidebar, drag a “Connect Call To” widget on to the canvas.

Configure the widget so that “Conference” is selected in the “Connect Call To” dropdown. Give your conference a name. It doesn’t matter what you name it -- let’s go with “my conference.”

Screenshot of the "Connect call to" widget configuration. "Conference" is selected for the "Connect call to" dropdown. The name of the conference is "my conference."


Save the widget, and connect it to the “Audio Complete” dot on the previous widget. Now your canvas should look like this:

Screenshot of the updated Studio Flow. The Say/Play widget to play the greeting is connected to "incoming call." The say/play widget is connected to the Connect Call to Widget on audio complete.

Hit the “Publish” button at the top.

Configuring your Twilio number

The last step is to configure your Twilio phone number to use the Studio Flow we’ve created. Head to the Phone Numbers dashboard. Click on the number you’d like to use.

On the next screen, scroll down to “Voice & Fax.”

Under “A Call Comes In”, select “Studio Flow” and “conference call” from the dropdown menus.

Screenshot of phone number configuration. "Accept Incoming" dropdown has "Voice Calls" selected. Under "Configure With", "Webhooks, TwiML Bins, Functions, Studio, or Proxy" is selected." Under "A call comes in", our "conference call" Studio Flow is selected.

Click “Save” and you’re ready to test. Grab a few friends, call the number from your phone, and have yourselves a little conference call party.

What’s next

Now that you know how to build a conference call app, why not see what else you can build with Twilio Studio?

If you have questions, let me know in the comments below or find me on Twitter at annthurium.