How do I convert text-to-call?

Question

Am building an app for WP7 Mango version. The requirement is that when ever a message is sent from that app to a predefined set of contacts, in case the number to which the message is sent is not capable of receiving messages, then, a call should be made to such numbers and the text message (intended to be sent) should be read out to on the call to the call-receiver.

I have a huge doubt that this is achievable on WP7. Am I wrong in thinking so? Is there any way that this can be achieved? If yes, how?

Answer 1

You could achieve these requirements using an SMS and IVR service in the cloud, such as SMSIfied and Prophecy, instead of attempting to do it directly from WP7.

SMSIfied lets you send and receive text message through a simple to use REST API. You can also get the results of sending the text message in a callback. Here is a blog post "Sending SMS messages with C# and SMSified".

For phone number that will not accept SMS you can use Prophecy to dial the number and play the message using Text-To-Speech (TTS). Prophecy is programmed using the open W3C standards Call Control XML (CCXML) and VoiceXML. You use CCXML to perform the outbound dialing and when the user or answering machine answers you pass control to VoiceXML application that handles the TTS. The Prophecy IVR has excellent call progress analysis which makes it easier to get the whole message on the answering machine/voice mail. Have you ever gotten those chopped messages from an automated system? The Voxeo documentation on CCXML has good coverage on how to perform outbound dialing in Chapter F. There is a good open source project called VoiceModel that makes it easier to develop VoiceXML applications using ASP.NET MVC 4.

To initiate this outbound dialing request from WP7 would just require an HTTP request that passes the parameters like the number to dial and the CCXML application to run in the query string. The actual CCXML and VoiceXML application would be hosted as web applications.

Answer 2

Well...

1. There is a launcher which allows an app to send SMS, but it requires user interaction, and the user can change the SMS before sending. So you have no way to know exactly which SMS was sent.

2. There's no API on the phone to check whether a phone number can receive SMS or not (but maybe you can figure that out yourself using the phone number prefix or something)

3. There's no way to programmaticaly dial a number

4. There's no way to play a sound to the call-receiver. Arguably the user could turn on the phone's speaker while the app plays the sound out loud

5. There's no way to programmaticaly tell when the call-receiver has answered the phone call. So the user would have to manually push a button in the app when the call-receiver answers

In conclusion, while it might somehow be possible, it would require so much user interaction that the app would be pretty much pointless ;)