Audio Conferencing Using Twilio and AWS

I came across a pretty cool solution and thought it would be worth writing a short blog about using Twilio as an audio conferencing solution that utilizes code from an AWS S3 bucket. My example is very minimal but there are a ton of options you can explore to fit your needs!

Let’s get started by assuming you have a Twilio account – if you don’t it’s real simple to sign up and there aren’t any commitments.

Once you login let’s go to “Buy A Number”

Then search for the area code you want for your number to dial into and select buy next to it.

Once you purchase the number it will prompt you to “Setup” which redirects you to the number configuration page.

On the same page we now want to click “TwiML App” under the “Voice” section. You will then see the +Create a TwiML app which we need to click next.

Now we’ll see a page that asks for a URL and this is where Twilio goes to look for code to execute against. Let’s switch over to the AWS console and put some code in an S3 bucket. If you’re not sure what AWS is or want a little primer check out the blog I wrote on Meraki to AWS VPN | AWS Primer.

Once we’re logged into the console go ahead and click on “S3” under “Storage & Content Delivery\”

Let’s create a new bucket and call it “twiliotestconference” and I’ll put it in the US Standard region for now. After the bucket is created click on your bucket name and it should tell you ‘twiliotestconference’ is empty. Below is an example of code I used to greet you once dialed in to the Onan Labs Conference Room and make sure you save it as a .xml file.

Just upload the XML file to your S3 bucket and once completed you want to right-click on the file and click “Make Public\”

From there we need to click “Properties” on the right side of the screen and copy the public link and take it back over to our “TwiML App” and paste the URL.

Make sure to change the option to “HTTP GET” or you will get an error message when dialing the number.

Once you click save double check that your number is associated to the new TwiML App you created.

That’s it! Make a test call and share your phone number with anyone to bring them into an audio conference!