Tropo is an API that simplifies the complex world of telephony and allows non-telephony developers to build sophisticated communications applications. Using Web languages and technologies, Tropo makes it easy to add voice and SMS your apps and includes advanced features such as speech recognition, call recording, and conferencing.

Tropo is hosted in the cloud, so you don’t need telephony infrastructure, servers, or VoIP knowledge. We take care of the scaling, carriers, and everything else, allowing you to focus on your code.

This sample in JavaScript asks the caller if they prefer a male or female voice and changes the text to speech to match. The sample is all in English, but Tropo has 24 languages to choose from.

say(‘Hello from Tropo!’);
var result = ask(‘Would you like to hear a male or female voice?’, {choices: “male, female”});
if (result.value eq ‘male’) {
 say(‘Hello, I am Dave’, {voice: ‘Dave’’});
} else {
 say(“Hi, I’m Veronica.”, {voice: ‘Veronica’});
}

Your code can be JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, Python or Groovy – we host and run your code in our cloud. You can also run your code on your own servers, using a webhook model where Tropo will send notifications to your server on events like an incoming phone call or a user making a selection in a menu. For those working in a browser, our Phono JavaScript SDK will help you add real-time communications to your web applications and works with both WebRTC browsers and those that have no native communications capabilities. A bit of jQuery code makes your browser a phone or instant messaging device.

In addition to Tropo’s cloud service, the Tropo APIs are in use at carriers around the world. The developer programs at Germany’s Deutsche Telekom, Globe in the Philippines, and other phone operators are built on Tropo, and the same code can be used across all of them. This means you can avoid vendor lock-in and take advantage of a worldwide community of developers.

To get started with Tropo, create a free developer account and play in the developer sandbox. Be sure to take a look at our documentation, especially the Quickstart Guides that will walk you through the basic building blocks of a Tropo application. Phono’s documentation and sample applications can get you going with voice and text in the browser and you can use your Tropo account to get a Phono API key.

What can you build with Tropo? Just about anything you want. Whether you’re building a new product with real-time communications at the core, or enabling and automating existing business processes, the API provides the basic building blocks for you to weave together with your business logic. To get the ideas flowing, here’s how some other developers have used Tropo.

Need to validate a phone number as part of your signup process? Call or text the number with a code, and have your customer enter that code on the web page. Since they received the call and know the code, you can be confident that they’re the owner of that phone number.

Eliminate the adage that half your marketing dollars are wasted, you just don’t know which half. Provide a unique telephone number in all your advertising and track calls to those numbers. You’ll know exactly which ads are driving phone calls and can better focus your spending on the channels that convert.

Everyone loves a conference call, right? No? Build a better conference call application and remote workers, sales teams, and travelers around the world will sing your praises. You bring the UI and we’ll bring the phone lines and conferencing. Sounds like a party.

Broadcast reminders increase customer retention and loyalty. Service businesses can call customers before their appointments and remind them. Sports teams, schools, churches, and social groups can broadcast news with a reach and immediacy that email and other methods can’t match.

Tropo’s free while you’re developing and testing your app, so feel free to experiment. We can’t wait to see what you come up with.

Tropo will be on-hand at TADHack to help you brainstorm ideas, use the API, or anything else you’ll need. And if you get stuck during a 3am coding session, our 24×7 support team can provide instant help with everything from password resets to coding questions.