Twilio

Twilio is a cloud communications platform. It sells APIs that let a developer send and receive SMS, MMS, RCS, WhatsApp, and email, place and receive calls, verify identities, and build voice and chat agents, all bought as a service rather than as telecom infrastructure.

The platform is a toolkit rather than a finished application. A team connects Twilio to its own software: messaging and voice channels, a customer data platform for profiles and segments, conversation orchestration to keep a thread continuous across channels, and conversation intelligence to pull context out of live calls. The site also lists 10DLC, the registration route for business text messaging in the US that any investor texting programme has to clear.

Twilio was founded in 2008 to move communications to the cloud. It reports 197B+ messages sent and received yearly and lists 700+ pre-built integrations for its customer data products. For teams without developer capacity it runs a partner network of pre-built SaaS solutions and consulting partners, plus its own professional services team for onboarding and developer advisory.

Pricing is usage-based with discounts as volume scales, and a free trial is available without a credit card. Real estate investors usually meet Twilio through a texting or dialer product built on top of it; buying Twilio directly means building and maintaining that product, including carrier registration and messaging compliance.