What is Twilio? Explained in 3 minutes

Twilio is a cloud communications platform-as-a-service company based in San Francisco, California. As of early 2025, Twilio has a market cap of $14 billion. Twilio's products are used by major companies such as Uber, Airbnb, Netflix, Intuit and HubSpot for communications across voice, messaging, email, and video.

What is Twilio?

Twilio offers developers and businesses powerful APIs to build communication workflows at scale. With just a few lines of code, you can enable voice, video, SMS, WhatsApp, email, and chat inside your apps, websites, and CRMs.

It's easy to set up a Twilio account to access all Twilio services, from WhatsApp and SMS to advanced customer service solutions like Twilio Flex. Empower true omnichannel communications and messaging from a single platform.

Twilio is built almost entirely on a pay-as-you-go pricing model, and the well-documented Twilio API enables developers to easily integrate Twilio into their applications.

Some drawbacks of using Twilio are that it can be challenging to understand for non-technical folk, and the platform can even be complex for some developers.

Why use Twilio?

In the right developer's hands, Twilio and its extensive set of API-driven services can quickly enable personalised communications and an automated messaging system across multiple channels to apps, services and businesses. This personalised touch enhances the marketing, sales, and customer service functions and builds loyalty with every interaction.

You can:

• Automate confirmation messages and reminders

• Route inbound customer queries to the right agent

• Secure user logins with 2FA/OTP

• Run omnichannel support centres

Twilio calls its broader solution - the Twilio Customer Engagement Platform. This platform enables businesses to engage customers in a personalised way, when, where and how they prefer to communicate.

Customers want to be contacted on their terms, on their platforms, and in a highly personalised way.

Twilio's single platform combines the best digital channels to build a personalised customer engagement experience for your business. Best of all, the platform is highly scalable and is viable for use in any industry.

Twilio usage cases

From calling within an application to sending boarding passes via WhatsApp. Below are a few practical examples of how Twilio works in real-world scenarios.

Calling via Twilio

Ever had to call your Uber driver from the app to clarify where you're waiting? The call is made via Twilio. The Uber app makes an API call to Twilio to initiate and connect the call. The voice data is carried securely by Twilio and not the Uber app. The app just does the initial handshake between the Uber app and Twilio. 

Most modern CRM systems have calling functionality. The CRM user initiates calls from inside the CRM application. They can be recorded and stored in the CRM for a manager to review. The secure calling, recording and voice file storage are all done by Twilio.

Below is a screenshot from HubSpot CRM. 

Boarding passes to WhatsApp via Twilio

Have you ever requested an airline boarding pass to be sent to you via WhatsApp? Your boarding pass and a personalised message are likely sent securely using Twilio. 

Twilio communication channels

• Messaging: SMS, MMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Chat.
• Voice: IVR, make, receive, and monitor calls around the world.
• Video: Make video calls, e.g. telehealth and education.
• Video streaming: Build your ideal live streaming applications.
• Email: Email marketing campaigns with Sendgrid.

Twilio applications

Programmable Messaging: One API, Every Channel

Twilio’s Programmable Messaging API gives you a single, unified platform to send messages across SMS, MMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, RCS, and more. It’s designed to help you deliver timely, personalised, and context-aware communication at scale.

Insert names, order statuses, locations, and more into messages based on CRM or customer profile data—powered by integrations with platforms like HubSpot, Salesforce, Twilio Segment and more.

Twilio Studio – Visual Workflow Automation

Studio is Twilio’s low-code automation tool. Build SMS bots, WhatsApp responders, IVR flows, and complex sequences—without deep development work. We use Studio at MO Agency to automate onboarding and support touchpoints.

Twilio Flex – Customisable Contact Centre

Flex is Twilio’s cloud contact centre solution. It’s ideal for support and service teams who want a fully custom interface, omnichannel agent tools, and smart routing. Unlike off-the-shelf systems, Flex can be tailored to your exact customer journey and backend systems.

Programmable Voice - Smart IVR

Build custom IVR (Interactive Voice Response) systems that go far beyond “press 1 for support.” With Twilio Studio, you can visually create logic-based call flows—pulling in CRM data, triggering workflows, or escalating to a live agent when needed.

Want even more control? Combine IVR with Twilio Flex to add AI-driven routing, real-time agent dashboards, and dynamic response handling. This is especially powerful for banks, insurers, and service teams with high call volumes.

MO Agency builds fully customised IVR solutions using Twilio Studio and Flex—perfect for streamlining customer service and automating first-line support.

Account Security

Enable 2FA, OTPs, and verification flows via SMS, voice, email or push—critical for fintech, edtech, and healthcare.

SendGrid – Transactional Email

Twilio SendGrid brings industrial-strength email delivery to the platform. From marketing newsletters to transactional receipts, SendGrid is a leader in scalability, deliverability, and analytics.

Segment – Customer Data Platform

Twilio Segment lets you unify customer data across all touchpoints and channels, feeding smarter personalisation and targeting across your marketing, sales, and support workflows. 

Unify the picture of your customers across all your websites, you'll CRM, your ERP, your social media and more.

Connectivity Products

Twilio also offers traditional voice infrastructure products:

• SIP Trunking: Global VoIP infrastructure

• Phone Numbers: Local, international, and toll-free numbers

• Short Codes: High-throughput messaging at scale

• WhatsApp: WhatsApp Business Account numbers and business verification  

Final Thoughts

At MO, we use Twilio to integrate WhatsApp into application processes at colleges and universities. We've also used Twilio to initiate and gather contact data for insurance and banking/loan applications.

Twilio enables businesses to access true omnichannel communication; it's a very powerful cloud communication platform. 

We're working on a case study for one of our clients who process college applications using WhatsApp. Check back soon for detailed documentation of how we integrated Twilio for them.