Twilio Launches Picture Messaging, Drops Prices on Text Messaging

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 18, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- TWILIOCON -- Twilio, the communications API platform, today announced Twilio Picture Messaging, which allows customers to send images over MMS. Twilio customers can now send picture messages via short codes in the U.S., and phone numbers in Canada. In addition, Twilio is adding feature enhancements and continuing its tradition of passing savings onto customers by announcing a 25 percent price cut to its text messaging product for US phone numbers. More details on Twilio's offering can be found at http://www.twilio.com/sms.

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"Text messaging is a great way to communicate, but often words are not enough," said Jeff Lawson, CEO and co-founder of Twilio. "Why describe a house for sale in words when you can send a picture? Why describe the damage to your car when you can show it? Seeing is believing -- pictures can build trust and drive decisions. Picture messaging opens the door to a whole range of new communications opportunities. We can't wait to see what our community builds next."

Developers and businesses can now send and receive picture messages to and from Canadian phone numbers and U.S. short codes with just a few lines of code. Twilio Picture Messaging supports a wide variety of image types including JPEG, GIF and PNG. Pricing will be only $0.02 outbound, $0.01 inbound, with a one-time activation fee of $500 for U.S. short codes only.

"Incorporating pictures into messaging takes the customer experience to another level," said Patrick Malatack, director of product management at Twilio. "Whether you are influencing customer behavior, maintaining consistent branding in your communications, or building better processes for your business; we think that a lot of people, in a wide range of industries will be able to create incredible experiences as part of their products and workflows."

Redbeacon, a Home Depot company that connects home improvement seekers with qualified contractors via Twilio text message, is already planning new products based on Twilio Picture Messaging.

"Picture messaging will allow our contractors to take photos of their handiwork and instantly add them to their profiles straight from their phones," said Anthony Rodio, CEO of Redbeacon and vice president of Silicon Valley for The Home Depot. "This will make it easier for our pros to promote their capabilities, and it'll create a great experience for the consumer."

As Twilio has done historically, it continues to drive down the cost of operations and pass the savings on to its customers. Twilio Text Messaging, which debuted for US phone numbers in 2010 at $0.03 per message, will now be a fraction of a cent -- only $0.0075 per message, inbound and outbound. International messaging and short code messaging rates remain unchanged.

"Twilio continues to work to reduce costs and make the delivery of voice and messaging more accessible," said Lawson. "As we do that, Twilio passes those savings onto our customers. Making it as easy and affordable as possible to use Twilio is our ultimate goal -- a scenario where everyone wins."

In addition to picture messaging and the new pricing cut on text messaging, Twilio is also adding support for sending messages up to 1600 characters, an increase from the industry standard 160.

To learn more about Twilio's new messaging offerings, please visit http://www.twilio.com/sms

About Twilio
Twilio (www.twilio.com), the communications API platform, is reinventing telecom by merging the worlds of cloud computing, web services and telecommunications. Twilio provides a telephony infrastructure web service in the cloud, allowing web developers to integrate voice and messaging communications into their web, mobile and traditional phone applications. The company is privately held and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

SOURCE Twilio