Playing with the Twilio API at HackGT

During HackGT, I built 3 apps using Twilio's API

This past weekend, I attended HackGT at Georgia Tech.

Twilio was one of the sponsors and they gave us all the support we needed to get going with their API, which enables you to send and receive text messages, media messages and phone calls.

Because of how simple, easy and fun it is to build something using Twilio, I actually ended up building 3 small, sample apps. Click the names to go to their GitHub repositories with screenshots and code.

jsms

In a whopping 20 lines of CoffeeScript, I’m able to listen for incoming text messages, evaluate the body as JavaScript code inside a sandbox, and send back the result to the sender.

immsgur

Using an MMS-enabled Twilio phone number, I listen for incoming images and upload them to Imgur. The URLs are sent back to the user.

randwilio

“Omegle for SMS”. Connects two random users and let them chat anonymously. The server matches people and proxies their communications, maintaining anonimity and privacy. It also ensures two people can’t match twice.

This was executed quite quickly and I didn’t put too much branding into it. I also didn’t enter it as my hack.
However, one of the top 10 teams at HackGT, Phonely, independently had the same idea. I congratulate them on their execution and recognition!

Using the Twilio API has been a great joy, and I hope I can incorporate it into more projects. I extend my thanks to the Twilio reps at HackGT who made it easy for us to get going with their platform!