4 ms·

I was hoping this as someone else who, like me, has ported their primary phone number to twilio and runs their own personal telco, in the cloud. That is not wh

by rsync 7y ago

I was hoping this as someone else who, like me, has ported their primary phone number to twilio and runs their own personal telco, in the cloud. That is not what this article was about.

JadoJodo 7y ago
I'd love to see a write up on this
- notduncansmith 7y ago
  I’ve been considering a similar move and would also love to hear more about anyone who has made such a transition.
- saarons 7y ago
  I'm sure everyone's setup is different but I did this for about 8 years and had to stop recently due to a variety of problems. The first being the lack of support for group messaging. I couldn't send group messages at all but what was even worse was that when I was part of group messages I would receive the messages individually as if the person was texting me directly. My system could mark them as being group messages but I couldn't see the other recipients so there was no way of knowing who else was in a thread until other people started texting and then could piece together the group from context. Also some services straight up refuse to send SMS to cloud phone providers meaning you can't sign up for certain services that needed a verified phone number (unless they had an option to receive a call with the verification code which worked like 25% of the time). Dialing was another huge issue, you can somewhat intercept outbound calls on Android but the system is buggy so I had to find other methods. Since I had integrated my SMS/MMS messaging with Slack (one slack channel per phone number) I created a /dial command that would call my phone and then when I answered it would transfer me to the person I wanted to call. Happy to answer more questions about it but I highly recommend people think about all the consequences before moving their main number over.
  - ss3000 7y ago
    > Also some services straight up refuse to send SMS to cloud phone providers meaning you can't sign up for certain services that needed a verified phone number (unless they had an option to receive a call with the verification code which worked like 25% of the time). I've ran into the same issue with this on Google Voice. Though sometimes I wonder if I could have gotten the best of both worlds by just porting a number from a traditional carrier to Google Voice/Twilio. Are these kinds of checks only against the number itself? Or is there some kind of dynamic registry?
    - wtdo 7y ago
      I have a number in Google voice that I ported from a regular old T-Mobile SIM years ago. I haven't seen many that won't send me an SMS message, but when I do, they are usually banks. I don't think it much matters where the phone number originates.
    - skinnymuch 7y ago
      I’m almost certain the check is against what the number is behind. Also the opposite situation - Google Voice to carrier would result in issues if carrier to GV was fine. Not the case however. The number needs to be non-VoIP. Off the top of my head, Uber, Lyft, Craigslist all require non-voip which means no Google Voice.
      - _-___________-_ 7y ago
        They have databases that they look up, but they're notoriously inaccurate. If you can use a number from another country (not always possible since some services require an in-country number, but a surprising number don't) you'll often find it works better, especially if you choose a country where the database provider might have less access to information about which ranges are assigned to which providers.
    - anderspitman 7y ago
      Google Voice has been my primary number for about 10 years and it usually works. My main concern is what to do when Google kills it.
tyingq 7y ago
Me too. I like Twilio, but Anveo.com is worth checking out as well. They have a visual call flow handler that's pretty cool/capable, and like Twilio, are pretty cheap. The UI is a little 90's looking, but it's very powerful. For me, I spend less time fighting an API, python, etc, and more time tweaking the flow to get it right: https://www.anveo.com/consumer/features.asp?code=ivrcallflow https://www.anveo.com/consumer/features.asp?code=ivrcallflow
nkg 7y ago
Hi @rsync, @tyingq, I am thinking about using twilio for my project and I have a ton of questions. Can we get in touch
HugoHobling 7y ago
This is my basic setup: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20835428 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20835428 I'll possibly put a post together if anyone is interested.
mymindstorm 7y ago
I've been wanting to do this for a while. Do you mind sharing how you connect cell phones to your network?

by rsync 7y ago

I was hoping this as someone else who, like me, has ported their primary phone number to twilio and runs their own personal telco, in the cloud. That is not what this article was about.

JadoJodo 7y ago

I'd love to see a write up on this

notduncansmith 7y ago
I’ve been considering a similar move and would also love to hear more about anyone who has made such a transition.
saarons 7y ago
I'm sure everyone's setup is different but I did this for about 8 years and had to stop recently due to a variety of problems. The first being the lack of support for group messaging. I couldn't send group messages at all but what was even worse was that when I was part of group messages I would receive the messages individually as if the person was texting me directly. My system could mark them as being group messages but I couldn't see the other recipients so there was no way of knowing who else was in a thread until other people started texting and then could piece together the group from context. Also some services straight up refuse to send SMS to cloud phone providers meaning you can't sign up for certain services that needed a verified phone number (unless they had an option to receive a call with the verification code which worked like 25% of the time). Dialing was another huge issue, you can somewhat intercept outbound calls on Android but the system is buggy so I had to find other methods. Since I had integrated my SMS/MMS messaging with Slack (one slack channel per phone number) I created a /dial command that would call my phone and then when I answered it would transfer me to the person I wanted to call. Happy to answer more questions about it but I highly recommend people think about all the consequences before moving their main number over.
- ss3000 7y ago
  > Also some services straight up refuse to send SMS to cloud phone providers meaning you can't sign up for certain services that needed a verified phone number (unless they had an option to receive a call with the verification code which worked like 25% of the time). I've ran into the same issue with this on Google Voice. Though sometimes I wonder if I could have gotten the best of both worlds by just porting a number from a traditional carrier to Google Voice/Twilio. Are these kinds of checks only against the number itself? Or is there some kind of dynamic registry?
  - wtdo 7y ago
    I have a number in Google voice that I ported from a regular old T-Mobile SIM years ago. I haven't seen many that won't send me an SMS message, but when I do, they are usually banks. I don't think it much matters where the phone number originates.
  - skinnymuch 7y ago
    I’m almost certain the check is against what the number is behind. Also the opposite situation - Google Voice to carrier would result in issues if carrier to GV was fine. Not the case however. The number needs to be non-VoIP. Off the top of my head, Uber, Lyft, Craigslist all require non-voip which means no Google Voice.
    - _-___________-_ 7y ago
      They have databases that they look up, but they're notoriously inaccurate. If you can use a number from another country (not always possible since some services require an in-country number, but a surprising number don't) you'll often find it works better, especially if you choose a country where the database provider might have less access to information about which ranges are assigned to which providers.
  - anderspitman 7y ago
    Google Voice has been my primary number for about 10 years and it usually works. My main concern is what to do when Google kills it.

tyingq 7y ago

Me too. I like Twilio, but Anveo.com is worth checking out as well. They have a visual call flow handler that's pretty cool/capable, and like Twilio, are pretty cheap. The UI is a little 90's looking, but it's very powerful. For me, I spend less time fighting an API, python, etc, and more time tweaking the flow to get it right: https://www.anveo.com/consumer/features.asp?code=ivrcallflow https://www.anveo.com/consumer/features.asp?code=ivrcallflow

nkg 7y ago

Hi @rsync, @tyingq, I am thinking about using twilio for my project and I have a ton of questions. Can we get in touch

HugoHobling 7y ago

This is my basic setup: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20835428 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20835428 I'll possibly put a post together if anyone is interested.

mymindstorm 7y ago

I've been wanting to do this for a while. Do you mind sharing how you connect cell phones to your network?