Question 1

What is CPaaS?

Accepted Answer

CPaaS, short for communications platform as a service, is a cloud service that sells communication capabilities as APIs. Developers use those APIs to put texting, calling, video or email inside software their company already runs. What it sells is programmable building blocks, billed mostly by usage. Your team assembles them into the product.

Question 2

What are CPaaS APIs, and how do they connect communications to an application?

Accepted Answer

CPaaS APIs are web APIs that turn messages, calls and phone numbers into objects your code can create, look up and change. They connect to an application in two directions. Your application sends authenticated HTTPS requests to create those objects, and it hosts URLs where the provider reports what happened to them. An ID ties the two directions together. The provider gives each message or call an identifier, and your application stores it beside its own record, so a later event can be matched to the order or customer it belongs to.

Question 3

How does CPaaS work?

Accepted Answer

CPaaS works by putting communication channels, such as calling and texting, behind an API. For voice and SMS, the provider holds the phone numbers and the carrier connections. To send a text or place a call, your application makes an HTTPS request to the provider, and the provider hands it to the carrier network. Incoming traffic runs the other way. When someone calls or texts your number, providers commonly notify your application with a request to a URL you host, and your code says what to do next. The main charges are per message or per minute, and you write and run everything on your side of that exchange.

Question 4

Which communication channels and features can CPaaS add to an application?

Accepted Answer

CPaaS can add text messaging, phone calls, in-app voice and video, chat and email to an application. Text messaging covers SMS, MMS, RCS and WhatsApp. On top of those channels, providers sell features such as call recording, phone menus and verification codes. Each channel suits a different job and has its own requirement before it works.