Twilio dialer: power dialing on the Twilio account you already have

What does a Twilio dialer actually do?

Twilio Programmable Voice is a telephony layer. It can connect a call from a browser to a phone number, record it and report its status, but it has no idea which lead comes next, what the rep should say, or what happened on the last call. A dialer is the application on top that keeps that state.

For an outbound team that means a contact list and queue, a softphone in the browser, a script on screen, a way to log what happened, follow-ups for callbacks, a Do Not Call list, and a rule for moving on to the next lead. A power dialer adds the last piece: it advances to the next contact automatically once the rep wraps up the current call, which is what a Twilio auto dialer built for live reps does.

What are the ways to get a Twilio dialer?

There are four: build one on the Twilio Voice SDK, adopt Twilio Flex, install a keypad extension, or connect a bring-your-own-Twilio dialer such as Rapidialer. Which route fits depends on how much engineering time you have and how many of the features above you need on day one. In every case Twilio still bills the minutes and numbers on your account.

• Build it on the Voice SDK. Full control, but you own the queue, the UI, recordings, retries, calling hours and every Twilio change. Twilio’s sales dialer guide is a starting point, not a finished product.
• Twilio Flex. A programmable contact center with queues, routing and supervisor tools. Powerful for support desks, heavy for a small outbound team that mostly needs lists and a fast next-call loop. See the Twilio Flex alternative comparison.
• A keypad extension. Chrome extension dialers that dial through your Twilio credentials are cheap and quick, but most are a keypad and call log without lists, scripts or outcomes.
• A bring-your-own-Twilio dialer. An app such as Rapidialer connects to your account and adds the whole outbound calling workflow while Twilio keeps your numbers and billing. See how bring-your-own-Twilio works.

What does calling through Twilio cost?

With a bring-your-own-Twilio dialer you pay two bills: the dialer’s seat price and Twilio’s usage. At Twilio’s published US rates an outbound call from the browser is billed twice per minute, $0.0140 for the phone leg and $0.0040 for the browser leg, and recording adds $0.0025 per minute. A local number is $1.15 a month. Partial minutes round up. Source: Twilio US voice pricing.

Cold calling has one extra line to plan for: Twilio’s North America terms allow a $0.015 charge per unanswered or very short call when those calls reach 20% of a month’s traffic (terms). Model it with the Twilio call cost calculator.

What changes in your Twilio account when you connect a dialer?

Any dialer that rings agents in the browser has to receive Twilio’s voice webhooks. When you connect Rapidialer with your Account SID and Auth Token, it creates an API key and a TwiML app for browser calling and points the voice webhook of each synced number at Rapidialer, so inbound calls ring in the Dialer. Numbers that already run an IVR or a Studio flow should live in a separate Twilio subaccount. Your numbers, their ownership and your Twilio billing do not move.