Vonage Communications APIs (formerly Nexmo)

What do you like best?

API is rich and low-level enough to handle a number of customized tasks. We use the API for both automated outbound calling and WhatsApp. Both are excellent and provide easy to use commands. Their online help have enough tutorials to get you started. If you need support, their team are very active in providing assistance at a code level.

What do you dislike?

Very little. Perhaps in the WhatsApp API, you need to understand the rules that WhatsApp dictate before delving into the API. There really is nothing to dislike about the API.

Recommendations to others considering the product:

Read their developer documentation well. The samples and guides has everything you need to get started and become well-versed with the platform.

What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

When we first launched our mobile app, we verified patients through SMS verification. However, it was not always the best way to get people to verify themselves since some claimed they never received it or the SMS expired when it finally arrived. Using Nexmo's identity confirmation framework through voice call automation provided our patients which a reliable alternative to SMS. Patients could optionally select Call Bank, which would trigger the Nexmo API to make a call to the patient, automatically informing them of the verification code. The API was rich enough to support our two main languagees, English and Arabic.

In addition, we used the Vonage Communications API to provide booking of appointments and downloading of medical reports through our WhatsApp ChatBot. The ChatBot is an automated bot which helps existing patients to view their patient file, view past appointments as well as request to download their laboratory and radiology reports. Using the API, it provided a convenient way for patients to access some of our eServices to a registered mobile number, avoiding the necessity for them having to download a mobile app on to their smartphone.