Twilio Launches Functions - A Serverless Environment for Rapidly Building on the Twilio Cloud Communications Platform

Latest addition to Twilio's Runtime environment empowers developers to focus on application experience rather than the web infrastructure required to run it

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - May 25, 2017) - Twilio (NYSE: TWLO), the leading cloud communications platform for developers, today announced Twilio Functions, a new serverless environment to build and run communications applications using the Twilio platform. With today's announcement, developers and businesses no longer need to navigate the complexity of setting up, configuring, managing and scaling web infrastructure for their communication applications. Twilio Functions is designed to handle all the necessary compute resources a developer needs in order to focus on innovating, iterating, and shipping new applications faster than ever before. Twilio announced Functions today at SIGNAL, the developer conference for communications. To learn more, please visit http://twilio.com/functions.

"Writing code is a creative endeavor," said Patrick Malatack, Twilio VP of Product. "The developers and businesses building cloud communications apps should be focusing on the customer experience, not managing servers. Fueling the future of communications starts with unleashing developer creativity, and that's exactly what Twilio Functions was designed to do. We can't wait to see what developers build next!"

Before Twilio Functions, developers would be forced to spend time on setting up, operating and securing web servers, or enlisting the help of infrastructure experts in order to run their communications code for their applications. With the launch of Twilio Functions, developers can now simply provide Twilio the code for handling communications events, such as an incoming phone call or SMS message, and Twilio Functions automatically handles the provisioning of the web infrastructure required to run that code securely, and at global scale.

"Twilio is effectively democratizing the ability to build and scale custom cloud communications apps," said John Karlo Torres, Digital Marketing Strategist at the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA). "Twilio Functions allows us to focus on building meaningful applications that further our mission, and Twilio automatically takes care of the rest."

With Twilio Functions, developers will benefit from new capabilities such as:

  • Complete runtime environment: Functions are part of Twilio Runtime, a pre-configured environment that includes helper libraries, API keys, media asset storage, debugging tools, and other resources developers need to get up and running quickly.

  • Zero operational burden: Developers can use Twilio Functions to run Twilio code without having to configure, launch, or install any additional infrastructure. Developers need only create a function using JavaScript and Twilio executes the code in a standard Node.js runtime environment.

  • Automatic Scaling: Because developers using Twilio Functions will be running code directly on Twilio, there's no need to worry about load testing or scaling dynamics. With Twilio Functions, developers need only write code once and the application will automatically scale, powered by the Twilio infrastructure.

Twilio Functions is now available to anyone with a Twilio account. Pricing is free for the first ten thousand requests per month and then $0.0001 for each request after that.

About Twilio
Twilio's mission is to fuel the future of communications. Developers and businesses use Twilio to make communications relevant and contextual by embedding messaging, voice, and video capabilities directly into their software applications. Founded in 2008, Twilio has over 800 employees, with headquarters in San Francisco and other offices in Bogotá, Dublin, Hong Kong, London, Madrid, Malmö, Mountain View, Munich, New York City, Singapore and Tallinn.

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