Technology

Vonage Expands and Simplifies Multi-Channel Business Communications with New Nexmo APIs

Vonage announced that Nexmo, the Vonage API Platform, has launched a next-generation messaging solution built around two new APIs — the Messages API and Dispatch API. Currently in beta, the new APIs uniquely enable businesses to create a richer, more engaging customer experience through simple, reliable multi-channel messaging.

The Nexmo Messages API and Dispatch API enable brands to engage their customers via the channels they prefer. The Messages API provides businesses access to social chat applications, such as Facebook Messenger, Viber Service Messages and WhatsApp, or traditional channels such as MMS or SMS, all with a single API.

The Dispatch API enables businesses to then send important messages via a customized flow that supports automatic fallback to alternative channels to ensure delivery if the first message sent fails to reach the recipient within a specified timeframe. These new APIs help to elevate customer communications by meeting customers on the channels they find most engaging.

The prevalence of social media has provided businesses with even more options to engage with their customers in more personal, cost-effective and meaningful ways. Social chat apps offer not only text but also images, audio and video to provide the additional context and information that customers today expect.

“With the growth of chat apps, it’s important for businesses to have the ability to support multiple channels for customer engagement,” said Mark Winther, VP Telecom Consulting for IDC. “The Nexmo Messages and Dispatch APIs allow brands to respond to this need while ensuring effectiveness and reliability of delivery.”

As the number of social chat apps increases, however, so do the technical requirements for developers when implementing a messaging solution. The Nexmo Messages API and Dispatch API enable businesses to keep pace with this dynamic landscape by abstracting, or hiding, the complexities of integrating multiple messaging channels, unifying similar functionality, and providing a uniform integration experience that is channel agnostic and easy to use. This unique approach provides a simpler, more reliable messaging product than what is available today, so companies can focus on engaging and winning customers instead of navigating the requirements of these social apps or the complexities of integrating multiple APIs.

“At Vonage, we understand how valuable, but also how challenging, it is for companies to seamlessly communicate with their customers, no matter what new messaging channels emerge,” said Omar Javaid, Chief Product Officer for Vonage. “Together, the Messages API and Dispatch API empower companies with the agility and control required to quickly and easily integrate strategic new channels, and to ensure message delivery, every time. This frees companies to focus on what matters most – delivering engaging customer experiences to drive better business outcomes.”

Global customers like Aramex, a leading international express, mail delivery and logistics services company, are already leveraging the Messages API to access channels like the WhatsApp Business solution to improve their customer experiences.

“We are continuously looking at new ways to revolutionize customer experience and improve our digital touchpoints. We have partnered with Nexmo as a solution provider for the WhatsApp Business solution to provide the opportunity for a highly integrated customer journey,” said Mohammed Sleeq, Digital Transformation Director for Aramex. “This partnership will reduce the number of contact center interactions and will provide an on-demand and personalized customer interaction for new delivery instructions, location sharing, and last mile preferences. Mobility on demand will continue to be essential for achieving ultimate customer satisfaction and by introducing new channels via Nexmo’s new APIs, we will improve the efficiency of our customer communications.”

Nexmo Messages API Highlights

The Messages API makes it easy to engage with customers via the channels they prefer, including major social chat apps, SMS and MMS. Functionality highlights include:

  • The ability to send feature-rich messages, which can include images, audio, video, files, and location.
  • Single-event callbacks that provide detailed results, such as timestamp, message status, price, and error message, if applicable.
  • Direct connections to carriers and Vonage’s patented adaptive routing technology ensuring optimal SMS delivery.

Nexmo Dispatch API Highlights

The Dispatch API safeguards message delivery by allowing brands to easily and quickly expand beyond SMS to leverage the most cost-effective or preferred messaging channel with built-in failover. Capabilities include:

  • Reliability of message delivery via a customer’s preferred channel. For example, an unread or undelivered message – based on time and/or message status – will automatically fallback to another channel, ensuring and closing the loop on important communications with customers.
  • A single API call for implementing a custom social messaging strategy, making it simple for existing customers to set up and leverage social channels.
  • One final callback event for developers that details the total price and outcome of the delivery attempt.