Automate phone conversations with naked voice APIs, visual designers, or custom-built, managed voice applications. Discover the pros and cons of each option
Pros and cons of Voice APIs
Voice APIs provide the freedom to develop any feature, but they require your application to manage exceptions across telephony, networking, and security.
While building a simple prototype is often straightforward, turning it into a finished solution demands more effort and resources than anticipated. Additionally, maintaining these applications requires specific skills that may fade if not consistently applied.
Unless you’re a large enterprise with robust development capabilities and a core focus on building voice applications, we recommend against using naked voice APIs to automate phone conversations.
Pro and cons of visual voice designers
Visual designers eliminate the need for coding when building voice applications, relying on frameworks and standardized building blocks. For simple applications that fit within these frameworks, visual designers can be the best choice, significantly reducing setup and maintenance efforts as no specific skills are required. However, compromises may be necessary due to each designer’s limitations.
For example, the Proximus NextGen voice service excels in personalized voicemail-to-email use cases and modular call flows, such as speech-driven FAQ bots, automated phone operators, and more. However, for complex applications or specific features, visual designers can complicate or even hinder development.
Many companies use specialized partners to set up voice flows, allowing them to manage day-to-day changes and updates independently.
Pros and cons of managed voice applications
For many companies, partnering with a trusted provider to build and maintain voice applications is ideal. Managed voice applications, developed by specialized partners using voice APIs, support any use case without the customer needing to manage the complexities, you get them off-the-shelf, yet tailer made.
These applications can still support ‘functional APIs’, allowing customers to tweak call flows with custom parameters defined by the partner. This collaboration simplifies long-term maintenance and adjustments, requiring no specialized skills from the customer.
Thinking about automating phone calls? Let us help you.