Phone. Email. SMS. Chatbots. DMs. Video. There have never been more ways to reach out and communicate with an audience.

However, more communication options may cause confusion for businesses as they try to speak with one voice. That’s where Twilio comes in. The company’s powerful platform helps unify and scale communications across the business so that companies can regain control of how they connect with customers.

On the latest episode of our podcast, Decoded, we talked to Corey Weathers, Developer Evangelist at Twilio, to get his perspective on how Twilio has become part of the communication landscape over the past decade.

The Business of Powering Business Communication

Twilio was founded on the insight that developers across different businesses and industries were spending too much time “reinventing the wheel” when introducing new communications functionality, provisioning infrastructure, and scaling solutions. All that time spent writing custom code prevented teams from quickly experimenting with new ideas that can unlock new business value. In addition, companies would have to work directly with a telecom company, which was both expensive and time consuming, making it effectively impossible for all but the largest enterprises to do anything with SMS or voice.

Twilio provides the APIs and infrastructure that teams need to develop new communications applications. The company’s platform is simple enough for any developer to use, yet scalable enough to meet the needs of the most demanding applications. This allows developers to quickly experiment and innovate to create solutions that can solve their companies’ most pressing communication challenges.

“Communications can be a fundamental roadblock when setting up and scaling a company. If Twilio didn’t exist and you were trying to build a product that could make phone calls, how would you do that? Twilio fulfills the need for businesses who struggle with the same challenges of communicating with their customers.”

Weathers said.

“While on the surface they may seem very different, they’re solving the same types of problems. They’re just coming at it from different perspectives.”

Every Company Is in the Communications Business

Companies are now baking communications into the core of their businesses, using the ability to communicate with customers to disrupt entire industries. As Weathers explained:

“If you look at Uber, they’re not really a transportation company, but a matchmaking company." 

As companies grow and scale, Twilio helps them introduce new communication methods to meet the needs of customers around the world.

“You might start with voice and then over time expand into messaging and then look to expand globally, which has its own set of restrictions. Then you go to things like chatting and video messages until you take over all the channels.”

By using a platform like Twilio to quickly build communication solutions, these companies are able to focus on the message they are trying to deliver, instead of spending time trying to figure out how to deliver it. This creates a seamless, frictionless customer and employee experience that builds trust and loyalty.

Promoting the Future

As a developer evangelist, Weathers sees his job as inspiring and equipping developers to build the future of communications. Just like Twilio’s customers, Weathers himself continues to experiment with new ways to communicate with his developer audience.

One unique way he does that is by hosting a regular stream on Twitch. This allows him to connect with developers outside of the traditional conference structure and drive engagement in a way that would not have been possible just a few years ago.

During the stream, Weathers and other Twilio developers will build projects live while chatting with their passionate community, helping to encourage and build excitement.

“We light up the streams every week. We have thousands of hours of content — well over a year’s worth. And it's viewed by people around the world.”

Check out this week’s Decoded podcast to learn more about the challenges and opportunities Twilio faces when helping developers solve their most pressing communication needs. Listen now, and subscribe to future episodes today.