dev.to staff for The DEV Team

Posted on Jun 12 • Edited on Jun 22

Join us for the Twilio Challenge: $5,000 in Prizes!

#devchallenge #twiliochallenge #ai #twilio

We are so delighted to partner with Twilio for a new DEV challenge.

Running through June 23, the Twilio Challenge is all about combining the power of AI with the magic of Twilio. We have one prompt for this challenge but four ways to win.

From Messaging to Voice Intelligence to everything in between, Twilio is the go-to platform for global communications that every developer should have experience building with. Flex your creativity and AI skills in whatever language you want, and add another impressive project to your portfolio!

Our Prompt

For this challenge, your mandate is to Build an AI-driven Experience that Leverages Twilio.

You are free to use any Twilio product and any third-party AI tool/API - the world is your oyster! For those of you who don’t want to start from scratch, we encourage you to build on top of an existing Twilio project so long as you add a new AI element to it.

And for those of you who would like some incentivized guidelines, we have three additional prize categories for you to consider…😉

Prize Categories

Twilio Times Two: Awarded to a top submission that utilizes two or more Twilio APIs.
Impactful Innovators: Awarded to a top submission that drives positive impact (social, environmental, etc).
Entertaining Endeavors: Awarded to a top submission that pushes the boundaries of creativity and gives us a good laugh.

Prizes

Our prompt winner (1) will receive:

$2,000 USD
Exclusive DEV Badge
A gift from the DEV Shop

Our prize category winners (3) will receive:

$1,000 USD
Exclusive DEV Badge
A gift from the DEV Shop

All Participants with a valid submission will receive a completion badge on their DEV profile.

How To Participate

In order to participate, you will need to publish a post using the submission template provided. All submissions must use at least one Twilio product and incorporate a third-party AI tool.

You do not need a credit card to sign up for Twilio. In addition to a free trial that includes $15 for new accounts, the Twilio team is offering all participants a $20 promo code:twilio-ai-devto-55xvw to utilize their services.
You may incorporate any third-party AI tool as part of your submission. Here are a couple options that offer robust free tiers:
- Google Gemini
- Cloudflare Workers AI

We can't wait to see what you build!

Twilio Challenge Submission Template

Please review our judging criteria, rules, guidelines, and FAQ page before submitting so you understand our participation guidelines and official contests rules such as eligibility requirements.

Extra Fun - Twilio CodeExchange

We encourage everyone to submit their projects to Twilio's CodeExchange for a chance to get featured!

Twilio CodeExchange Submission Form

Can't hurt to try :)

Need Help?

Get to know Twilio by utilizing their docs, tutorials, and blog posts.

Twilio

We ❤️ developers. Unlock the magic of communications to improve human experience. Twilio has democratized channels like voice, text, chat, and video through APIs.

Important Dates

June 12: Twilio Challenge begins!
June 23: Submissions due at 11:59 PM PDT
June 25: Winners Announced

We can’t wait to see what you build! Questions about the challenge? Ask them below.

Good luck and happy coding!

Top comments (148)

Anthony • Jun 12

Hi everyone, I'm a Developer Evangelist at Twilio.
If you need any support with this challenge, please tag me.

Looking forward to your submissions. Happy coding!

Andrii • Jun 13

Hi @anthonyjdella, I wanted to participate but Twilio blocked my account without any explanation long time ago, and support didn't help/explain anything.

my email: serafimsanvol@gmail.com

Anthony • Jun 13

@serafimsanvol Sorry about that, I'll contact support to fix the issue.

Andrii • Jun 13

Thanks, @anthonyjdella!

Anthony • Jun 13

@serafimsanvol Could you please create a support ticket? If you could, please attach a screenshot and any info about what steps you took until you reached the error. Once you've done that I've escalated this to support and they'll be able to help.

Andrii • Jun 14

@anthonyjdella, for now, it magically started working again, I wonder what happened :)
Thanks

Anthony • Jun 14

Great news, good luck with the challenge!

cauhlins • Jun 12

Hi @anthonyjdella Does an API service count? Or do I need to build a full app that has a frontend?

Anthony • Jun 12

That counts, so you can build an app without a frontend if you'd like.

Mohamed Ashiq Sultan • Jun 13

where to enter the promo code, I signed up with gmail but dont see any options to use the promo code under Billing tab.

Anthony • Jun 13

@ashiqsultan There are 2 ways to use a promo code:

If you have a Trial account which are upgrading
If you have an Upgraded account

For 1, twilio.com/console/billing -> Upgrade -> Fill in your information -> Fund Account -> Promo Code tab

For 2, go to twilio.com/console/billing -> Billing Overview -> Add Funds -> Promo Code tab

Birusha Ndegeya • Jun 13

@anthony. I would like to clarify to know how much trial do we have while using Twilio for learning

Anthony • Jun 13

Hi @birusha when you sign up for a Trial account you will be given $15 of trial credits.

Here's a guide to Free Trial Accounts (US Only).
If you are outside the US, here's a guide to Free Trial Accounts (Outside the US).

Additionally, use the promo code twilio-ai-devto-anrnp for an additional $20 of credits.

Birusha Ndegeya • Jun 15

@anthonyjdella

Thank you so much

chintanonweb • Jun 20

Is it possible to change the WhatsApp join code name!! I'm not able to find anything related to that

dami • Jun 17 • Edited

Hi @anthonyjdella, I'm having issues upgrading my Twilio account with the promo code provided. It says the code has expired. please help

Jess Lee • Jun 17

Hi @thatcoolguy, please try the promo code that's currently listed on the post. Thanks!

srini047 • Jun 21

It doesn't work actually. I tried multiple other promos mentioned in discussions as well.
Any help appreciated @anthonyjdella

Jess Lee • Jun 21

Have you tried the latest promo code on the post?

Amit Wani • Jun 16

Hi @anthonyjdella Given promo codes are not working. It is saying code expired.

Rishab Kumar • Jun 17

Hi @thegeekyamit could you try this promo-code: twilio-ai-devto-6099i. They are rotated every day.

Amit Wani • Jun 17

Thanks alot. :D

omu inetimi • Jun 22

hi Anthony, im building an app but continually receive a CORS error

Ketan Rajpal • Jun 14

Dear Anthony,

I am trying to use the promo code "twilio-ai-devto-anrnp". But it gives me the error "twilio-ai-devto-anrnp cannot be used on your account.". Can you please help.

Thank you

Anthony • Jun 14

@ketanrajpal Please try with a new code: twilio-ai-devto-cc4f4

Ketan Rajpal • Jun 14

I tried but it's the same.

Shweta Kale • Jun 15

@anthonyjdella it says code is expired. I tried both codes.

Jess Lee • Jun 15

Can you try code twilio-ai-devto-b24we?

Ketan Rajpal • Jun 15

This also not working.

Shweta Kale • Jun 16

@jess this worked for me. Thanks!!

Jess Lee • Jun 16

@ketanrajpal can you try twilio-ai-devto-6099i?

Ketan Rajpal • Jun 17

It says, the code has expired.

Jess Lee • Jun 17

Hi @ketanrajpal, please try the promo code that's currently listed on the post. Thanks!

Ketan Rajpal • Jun 18

I tried it, it says "twilio-ai-devto-9opgh cannot be used on your account."

Rishab Kumar • Jun 18

@ketanrajpal let's debug that, could you reach out to me on LinkedIn or X/Twitter..

Shreya Nalawade • Jun 13

@anthonyjdella can we make application which belong to two or more categories

Jess Lee • Jun 13

@shreya111111 Yes you can. There will be a section on the template that asks which categories your project may qualify for - be sure to mention all of them!

Dhanush Reddy • Jun 15

hey @anthonyjdella , it says promo expired
twilio-ai-devto-cc4f4

Jess Lee • Jun 15

Can you try code twilio-ai-devto-b24we?

Rajeev R. Sharma • Jun 16

Apparently this code has expired as well. Any other option?

Jess Lee • Jun 16 • Edited

@ra_jeeves can you please try that one again or twilio-ai-devto-6099i?

Rajeev R. Sharma • Jun 17 • Edited

The new code shared now (6099i), worked fine. Thanks @jess

Tried just now, same result, "Expired".
Was thinking of doing something with programmatic voice, and the default phone number given by Twilio is a US number, which is quite expensive if called from India. So maybe a local Twilio number will be better, but for that we need an upgraded Twilio plan.

Yogesh Sharma • Jun 17

@ra_jeeves can you please try that one again or twilio-ai-devto-6099i?

@jess This code is also expired

Rishab Kumar • Jun 17

@1995yogeshsharma Could you give it another try? Thank you.

Yogesh Sharma • Jun 17

worked now, thanks @rishabk7 !

Rajeev R. Sharma • Jun 18 • Edited

@rishabk7 Deleted my previous comment as the code in the main post worked. And I've refreshed the page many times to confirm that the upgrade is done.

But I've a question related to programmatic voice. Tried buying a local number for India and it seems that it is not possible to do so. So how do I test phone calls receiving? Making a call to the US number is not feasible as the operator charges are quite high. Is there a simpler way to do this?

Shreya Nalawade • Jun 14

quick question do we have to integrate ai with twilio or ai should be part of application with the usage of twilio @anthonyjdella

Anthony • Jun 18

@shreya111111 Either works!

Rishab Kumar • Jun 12

Hi builders, I'm a DevEvangelist here at Twilio.
If you need any support with this challenge feel free to tag me.
Can't wait to see what you build!

chintanonweb • Jun 17

I am confused about WhatsApp send receive from Twilio UI I am able to do send receive but I want to configure AI into it where I can integrate that function for WhatsApp, but I'm not able to find it.

Anthony • Jun 18

Hi @chintanonweb how are do you have your application set up? You can add some AI API calls into your application for example.

Sweta Kanguri Sonulkar • Jun 13

why is it asking me identity government card?

Anthony • Jun 14

@sweta_kangurisonulkar_ From which region are you registering from? Depending on your country, we may ask for an ID to verify the individual. This is to help build an ecosystem with less fraud and spam messages.

Peter Kim Frank • Jun 12

Excited about this one!

Ben Halpern • Jun 12

Good luck!

Jess Lee • Jun 12

Good luck everyone!

Aditya Oberai • Jun 17

Just finished my submission 🥳

@anthonyjdella, I do have some product feedback. When trying out Twilio Functions, I noticed that the max length of environment variables is set to 255 characters. I was using Appwrite Databases as a part of my project, and the API keys happened to be 256 characters in length. This made it somewhat challenging to use environment variables for that purpose.