How To Create a Simple Phone Menu Using Twilio Twimlets

How To Create a Simple Phone Menu Using Twilio Twimlets

Let’s create a simple phone menu to greet callers and forward the call to the right person using Twimlets, small web applications that implement voice functionality. Since Twimlets are stateless and all the required data is stored in the URL parameters, you won’t need to host this anywhere. All you need to start is a Twilio account. Since it’s possible to nest Twimlets within each other, we can create very intricate menus. It takes less than 5 minutes to do it as you can see in this screencast:

[youtube width=”640″ height=”390″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPkTro_RwpM[/youtube]

Head over to the Menu Twimlet page. Type in the message you want to be played to the caller or enter the address for the file you want to have played. This message contains instructions on what to press to reach each person or department. For each of these options, type in the number to be pressed and the URL the Twimlet will transfer to when that number is pressed. You can generate additional Twimlets for each of these URLs or use external links if you want to. Some of the options you have include using a Forward Twimlet to forward the call to a person, a Voicemail Twimlet to record a voicemail or even another Menu Twimlet to create a sub menu.

As you can see, the possibilities are nearly endless. Take Twimlets out for a spin and show us what you end up creating!