Twilio Launches Verified By Twilio to Restore Trust in the Phone Call

SIGNAL 2019 -- Twilio (NYSE: TWLO), the leading cloud communications platform, today announced Verified By Twilio to give consumers the confidence to answer the phone again. Kicking off the initiative at its annual customer and developer conference SIGNAL, Twilio is partnering with leading call identification apps to help more than 200 million consumers know exactly who is calling them and why to help them determine what calls are real and needed versus those that are unwanted. Verified By Twilio is available in private beta for testing and adoption by other carriers, mobile operating systems and apps. Twilio is working across the industry to both limit the unwanted calls that consumers get and improve answer rates for legitimate businesses and organizations.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190807005055/en/

Verified By Twilio (Graphic: Business Wire)

According to industry reports*, Americans are answering only a little more than 50% of the calls they receive on their cell phones. Even more concerning, according to a recent Consumer Reports survey, 70% of consumers do not answer a call if the number shows up as anonymous. While that certainly can minimize the annoyance of unwanted robocalls, it also can mean that consumers don’t get the calls that they want to receive -- such as those from a doctor’s office confirming an appointment, a child’s school calling about an early closure, or a bank calling about an issue with an account. One of the goals of Verified By Twilio is to make sure that consumers have the information they need to decide whether or not to answer the phone, so they don’t miss the calls they want from legitimate businesses and organizations.

“At Twilio, we want to help consumers take back their phones, so that when their phone rings, they know it's a trusted, wanted call,” said Jeff Lawson, co-founder and chief executive officer, Twilio. “A lot of work is being done in the industry to stop unwanted calls and phone scams, and we want to ensure consumers continue to receive the wanted calls. Verified By Twilio is aimed at providing consumers with the context to know who's calling so they answer the important and wanted calls happening in their lives, such as from doctors, schools, and banks.”