Azure Communication Services April 2023 Feature Updates

The Azure Communication Services team is excited to share several new product and feature updates released in March 2023. (You can view previous blog articles here.)  

This month’s update describes the features below: 

• UI Library for Native Troubleshooting
• Toll-Free Verification
• PSTN Direct Offers Geo Expansion
• SMS Insights Dashboard
• Optimal Video Count
• Web Push Notification

UI Library for Native Troubleshooting

The Azure Communication Services team is pleased to announce the general availability of the capability to retrieve and get the last call IDs from calls made by the calling composite in the native mobile platform. The Call ID is the basic unit that will help developers track possible issues during the call; this information is valuable in reducing time to resolution for the Microsoft Azure support team to track and localize the call and provide guidance.

The UI library provides you with two options to obtain Call IDs:

• API. The UI Library SDK exposes a method to retrieve those Call IDs, and you can use them to log them using your preferred log system. You can get the timestamp to review the creation and the Call ID.

• UI/UX. The UI Library exposes a new option for sharing the last call IDs, using the native OS capabilities of sharing.  In this way you can ask your customers directly to share those Call IDs with you without significant issues.

Visit the troubleshooting guide and the tutorial to understand more about troubleshooting support. Visit our documentation to learn more about the UI Library.

Toll-Free Verification

Toll-Free Verification is now generally available. The toll-free verification process ensures that your services running on toll-free numbers (TFNs) comply with carrier policies and industry best practices. Submitting the toll-free verification provides relevant service information to the downstream carriers, reduces the likelihood of false positive filtering and wrongful spam blocks. This verification is required for best SMS delivery experience. Customers sending messages to US and Canada using toll-free numbers can now verify through the Azure Portal. To get started, visit our toll-free verification quickstart. 

PSTN Direct Offers Geo Expansion

Azure Communication Services PSTN Direct Offers are now available in Public Preview in 11 new countries: France, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, Portugal, Slovakia, Netherlands, Germany, and Norway. Local telephone numbers are available in all 11 new countries and Toll-Free telephone numbers are available in Spain, Belgium, Austria, Portugal, Norway and Germany.

Customers can now start acquiring telephone numbers from these new countries. Geographic availability of our telco offers is one of the top priorities for Azure Communication Services, and we are excited to continue this expansion.

Customers in these countries can now buy Toll-Free and Geographic phone numbers through the Azure Portal, using the Number Management SDK or by reaching out to the IC3 Service Desk.

SMS Insights Dashboard

Azure Communications Services is excited to announce the launch of SMS insights dashboard in Public Preview. This dashboard simplifies and helps SMS customers track SMS usage, logs, performance by country, opt-out rates, and message sending patterns. Customers can now easily view SMS logs, debug deliverability issues and improve engagement with end users. SMS insights dashboard is now available in the Insights Blade > SMS in Azure Communication Service resource.

You can get started with SMS insights by following the SMS Insights quickstart.

Optimal Video Count for Calling SDK

Azure Communication Services is excited to unlock new opportunities for group calling with the introduction of Optimal Video Count. Optimal Video Count provides the capability to obtain the optimal number of incoming video streams that an application can display to the end-user. Optimal Video Count is a proactive/reactive API that uses network and hardware-based performance management parameters to decide how many incoming videos can be rendered on the same screen. With Optimal Video Count, developers can define the optimal number of video streams that per client can subscribe to and stream. See Documentation for more details.

Web Push Notifications for Calling SDK

Web push notifications allow developers to send notifications directly to users’ browsers. These notifications can be used to alert users of new content, special offers, or other important updates. Web push notifications are an effective way to engage users, increase website traffic, and boost conversions. Developers using Azure Communication Services have the option to use OneSignal, a trusted web push service provider, or another provider of choice to manage user subscription, incoming push notifications, message display, and notification click responses.

Add web push notifications into your Calling solution by following this QuickStart.

Visit us at Azure Communication Services to learn more about these and other great features for all your communication platform needs.