Twilio Wants Every App To Have Voice Chat Like Skype

San Francisco startup Twilio just unveiled a service for developers to build point-to-point voice chat into any Web, iOS, or Android application.

It's like every developer in the world now has access to the voice chat functions of Skype or Google Talk.

For the last couple years, Twilio has provided simple tools for developers to add voice calling and SMS to their applications, and charged them a simple and transparent fee for each use.

So far, though, all of those communications have traveled through the regular phone network.

As Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson puts it, Twilio was simply helping developers wire up the phone system in new interesting ways, using it "as a big dumb audio pipe."

The new technology is called Twilio Client, and it enables voice-over-IP (VoIP) calls from within any Web page, iOS app, or Android app.

Calls travel over the Internet, so no connection to the phone system is required, although the apps can still connect to regular phone numbers using Twilio's other services.

Because Twilio doesn't have to interface with the phone system, the service costs developers only 1/4 of a penny per user per minute -- a fraction of the price of Twilio's other services.

Some possible uses:

• An online retailer could set up a "push to talk to customer service" button on its Web site.

• Mobile and Web games could let gamers trash talk while playing -- just like they've been able to do on consoles like the Xbox for years.

• Business apps could layer voice on top of existing features -- for instance, a CRM app could let company reps take calls from customers. All data from incoming calls could be integrated into the CRM system, so reps would know who's calling, the last time they called, and any outstanding issues they might be having.

• Companies could set up internal intercom or conferencing systems -- at a fraction of the cost of a product like Microsoft's Lync.

Twilio uses Amazon Web Services for data storage and compute power -- CEO Lawson used to be a product manager for AWS -- which allows it to scale to massive volumes quickly while charging developers only for the exact capacity that their apps uses. Lawson says they've tested Twilio Client for "billions" of endpoints.

The service sounded clear in a test at Twilio's office, and worked equally well between two Macs as it did between a Mac and iPhone. 

Twilio Client is available for Web sites today (a free JavaScript SDK will get developers on board), and is coming for iOS and Android soon.

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Twilio Wants Every App To Have Voice Chat Like Skype

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Ballmer Talks About How Skype Will Fit Into Microsoft (MSFT)

In his speech at the Microsoft Partner Conference this morning, Steve Ballmer gave a little more explanation of how Skype will fit into Microsoft's business communications product, Lync.

He basically described it as a bridge between Lync -- which is mostly used for internal messaging within companies -- and the outside world. That's pretty much what an insider told us about the Skype deal as well -- it was largely about connecting Lync to the outside phone system.

As Ballmer put it:

Partners ask me "Does this mean you're does this mean you're not as serious about Lync?" Quite to the contrary. One of the great motivations in acquiring Skype was enabling the enterprise to have as much control as it wants through Active Directory and Lync, but also making it easier to connect enterprises to consumers and business partners around the world.

(Active Directory is the Microsoft product for storing identity information about employees, and can be used to control access to corporate apps like Lync.)

Ballmer also said that Lync is the fastest-growing Microsoft product, although some of that growth may be driven by companies buying licenses as part of larger bundles to get a price break on other products.

Ballmer and other Microsoft execs also shared some other interesting tidbits during the speech:

• Xbox Music, presumably based on the Zune Marketplace, is coming this fall. Ballmer said it would contain more than 11 million songs, and Kinect users will be able to search for songs using Kinect's voice recognition.

• Windows 8 will support Windows 7 hardware and software. Microsoft has said this before, but Windows marketing chief Tami Reller made the promise pretty explicit: "The hardware you're making today will be able to take advantage of Windows 8 tomorrow." She also said that any software that runs on Windows 7 will be able to run on Windows 8.

• Dynamics is making big profits. Dynamics ERP and CRM software is now more than $1 billion in annual sales with "hundreds of millions" in annual profits. That's a far cry from the $10 billion business Microsoft envisioned when it bought Great Plains and Navision earlier this decade, but at least it's not a drain on the bottom line.

• Microsoft will roll out a cloud-based ERP service. Dynamics Navision, one of the company's ERP software products, will be available as an online service early next year.

• Bing is coming to businesses. Ballmer didn't give many details here, but said "Bing is probably the Microsoft product or service that our partners spend the least amount of time with now. That will change over next few years. We're thinking about architecture that will allow us to open Bing up over time to be more of a platform."

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Ballmer Talks About How Skype Will Fit Into Microsoft (MSFT)

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Facebook Announces Video Chat Powered By Skype

Facebook just announced its new chat client, featuring Skype-powered video chat.

Mark Zuckerberg is giving the keynote now, but Facebook's blog already has the details.

Here's what's new:

• The buddy list has a new look.

• Friends who you chat with most will appear at the top of your list.

• Video chat take place within the browser.

• There's even group video chat!

Keep up with Facebook's announcement on our live blog.

Screenshots:

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Facebook Launching In-Browser Video Chat Powered by Skype Next Week!

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been making no bones about Facebook's plan to launch "something super awesome" next week. The press invitations to that event went out today, saying nothing more than "Please join us for an event at Facebook" on July 6.

Facebook Launching In-Browser Video Chat Powered by Skype Next Week!

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Finally! Skype Gets Video Chat On Android (MSFT, GOOG)

Skype has finally released the much-anticipated video chat update to its Android app.

iPhone users have been enjoying Skype video chat since January, and Skype has been promising the update since then. Video calls will work over Wi-Fi and 3G.

The downside: Only a few phones work with video calling right now. If you have a Google Nexus S, HTC Desire S, Sony Ericsson Xperia neo, or Sony Ericsson Xperia pro, you're in luck though.

Support for more devices is coming soon.

Skype is a free download from the Android Market.

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Finally! Skype Gets Video Chat On Android (MSFT, GOOG)

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