A communication API is a type of application programming interface (API) that adds communications channels to a specific software and helps in connecting multiple software’s. Well, an API, in layman terms, is just a piece of code that allows two pieces of software hosted on the cloud to connect to each other and transfer information from one software to the other one, we can also say that an API is a set of programming code that enables data transmission between one software product and another while it also contains the terms of this data exchange happening between multiple software’s.
Telynx Communication API delivers fast data transfer and also save on development time. If you have a software product that you would like to connect to a CRM like Salesforce, Dynamics, Hubspot, Zoho etc, then you’d need a communication API. These connect your app to a specific service as per your requirement. e.g your app may have in-built voice connectivity solution so that your customers can connect with your agents faster. Using an API of this type allows you to add MMS, social media, SMS, video or even messaging applications like WhatsApp to your app on need basis. Other tools, like software development kits (SDKs), work as a means for your developers to create the tailor made solutions as per your business requirements.
Communications APIs are segmented as how immediately they need to respond to user actions and also by the functionality that these Communication APIs provides.
App-to-user APIs can be customized, instant messages sent by an engineering team as integral parts of the application experience, such as push notifications about likes or comments. Brand-to-user Communication APIs collect information and give marketing and product teams, the ability to send users targeted messages. User-to-user Communication API facilitate live chat among app users. A communication API is very critical component and is therefore very much useful in an organisation.
Here are some strength and weaknesses of these communication APIs:
App-to-user communication APIs
App-to-user APIs are transactional messages that are generally embedded into an application code and these type of communication APIs are often the most mission-critical of the three mentioned below since they form an important part of the app experience. For example: your cab has just arrived and you have an OTP to share, your food order was received, These types of communications are time-sensitive and are specifically designed to immediately pass information when the trigger events occurs.
A robust App-to-user API will provide multi-channel communication like SMS, email or a push notification. Most of these can be heavily automated, For example, when a new user is created via Auth0, a welcome push notification can be automatically sent to the new user on his/her device.
Brand-to-user communication APIs
Brand-to-user communication happens when your company has a message for a specific users
Engineering team implements communication API calls in the application code that log information about user behavior, which then gets sent to a separate dashboard which other teams at the organisation can access. Anyone on those teams can then use that data to send messages to specific set of users. For example, users who didn’t complete the sign-up procedure.
While Brand-to-user APIs make it easy at the company to send messaging to specific users, however they typically aren’t configurable enough to power core parts of an application experience. Messages can go out minutes to hours after specific user criteria for the message have been met.
User-to-user communication APIs
User-to-user communication APIs expedite active conversations among two or more individuals—either between a more than one user of your internal staff or from one app user to another user.
Support tickets, for example, are a type of User-to-user API or live chat boxes that allow customers to have direct conversations with your support teams.
In short, Communication APIs are critical for businesses around the world. Take advantage of Telnyx Communication APIs to Turbo-charge your product or service. A good customer experience helps in increasing loyal customer base and increasing your revenue further.
