Voxeo’s Phono: Instant Softphone Using Javascript

Yesterday at the jQuery Conference held in Boston, Voxeo announced its new plugin that “turns any web browser into a multi-channel communications platform.” Called Phono (rhymes with Tropo), this is a pure client-side solution that is simple enough to implement: just a few lines of HTML and you have a working softphone embedded in a browser page.

I repeat: this is a client-side solution that, unlike Tropo and Twilio, doesn’t involve any server-side complexities. Voxeo’s cloud does all the communications control!

I suspect at more than a few startups next week, the words “Phono” and “Voxeo” will be found scribbled on whiteboards.

There are other tantalizing things about the announcement. More on page two.

Applications center around the Phono Javascript object. How easy is it to get a softphone running on your tablet, smartphone, laptop, etc? Here are a few lines of their example click-to-call app, which has a little jQuery sprinkled on it:

var phono = $.phono({
onReady: function() {
$("#call").attr("disabled", false).val("Call");
}
});

$("#call").click(function() {
$("#call").attr("disabled", true).val("Busy");
phono.phone.dial("985-655-2500", {
onRing: function() {
$("#status").html("Ringing");
},
onAnswer: function() {
$("#status").html("Answered");
},

Hey, I think even I can deal with this.

There are intriguing aspects to this announcement. Voxeo automatically assigns a SIP URL to each new session. Therefore, with a little bit of programming effort, it should be relatively easy for a developer to pull together free on-the-fly voice conferences. By the way, Voxeo’s own server-side Tropo supports a free conference bridge through its PHP-based APIs.

Last week at the NY Tech Meetup, on-the-fly mobile conferencing took front stage with GroupMe and Fast Society showing off their iPhone apps—both based around Twilio, I believe.

For this jaded telecom watcher who witnessed the rise and fall of many pre-dot com bust companies offering similar ideas, the rebirth of voice conferencing is reassuring.

It’s become clearer now to me (and others) that voice conferencing is just another form of social media, which has been given new life with smart devices, cloud computing, and clever scripting tools.

Another nugget in the Phono announcement: Voxeo will be releasing a Phono Gateway that will let browser software connect directly with a SIP network: in other words, an embedded point-to-point SIP softphone with just a few lines of code.

Wow.

Hello PhonoSDK! (blog.phono.com)
Voxeo launches Phono for jQuery (skypejournal.com)
Fast Society Takes (Harmless) Potshot at GroupMe During NY Tech Meetup (nytechblog.com)
Phono

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