Twilio launches an API that notifies it of any message deliverability issues

Twilio has launched another API, this time with the expectation that it’ll help improve its network. With the Twilio Message Feedback API, Twilio is being proactive in understanding when there are issues with message deliverability. Developers can programmatically submit reports back to Twilio notifying it of “critical deliverability information.”

“There’s nothing worse than a delayed text message. Whether it’s a notification that your car arrived, a two-factor-authentication code or a response to a chat, it needs to arrive on time,” explained Justin Pirie, Twilio’s product marketing manager in a blog post.

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Getting the feedback from developers, Twilio’s customers, adds another source of information to keep the company’s cloud communication platform running. Pirie explained that his company will look at aggregate data and data specific to developer accounts to ascertain ways to improve delivery of messages.

“The Message Feedback API provides data when a person who receives a message through Twilio is prompted to take an action that can be tracked,” he wrote.

Examples of what user actions can be monitored include when a user receives a passcode via SMS and enters it into a website or app; entering a temporary password; replying to a message by phone or SMS; or clicking on a link that’s included in a message. If an action is taken, Twilio will know that they’ve received the message. But if this isn’t the case, it’ll prompt the company to take a closer look and investigate the reason why.

In order to submit feedback to Twilio, developers will need to include a “ProvideFeedback=true” parameter in the initial HTTP POST. Then they’ll have to save the Message SID from the POST response for later. From there, when a user executes an action, the app should send the POST request through the Message Feedback API with a confirmation. If one doesn’t exist, then it shouldn’t POST anything.

While this new API isn’t necessarily as spectacular as something like Twilio Sync or the company’s integration with Facebook Messenger, it’s nothing to shake a stick at either. By implementing an API, it’s essentially getting feedback on how to keep its network up and running, especially in an era promoting the “doers,” those who are building out applications using individual technologies instead of an all-in-one, off-the-shelf approach.

After all, having a network that goes down won’t look good, especially to shareholders, which are expecting Twilio’s second quarter earnings next month.