Respond to External IVT from Twilio

Question

I've setup a simple call center using Twilio JavaScript library. I want to know how we can respond by key press when we call to external IVR systems. I found and following Twilio documentation of implementing our own IVR with Twilio Studio. But what I need here is as a client how we can respond to external IVR systems by pressing '1' for Sales, '2' for promotions, etc. ?

TIA

Answer 1

Twilio developer evangelist here.

You can play DTMF tones using Twilio in two ways.

You can either do so at the start of creating a call by sending the SendDigits parameter with the digits you want to send (and ws for 0.5s pauses). For example:

client.calls
  .create({
     url: 'http://demo.twilio.com/docs/voice.xml',
     to: '+15558675310',
     from: '+15017122661',
     sendDigits: 'wwww194'
   })

Will create a call, when the call connects it will wait 2 seconds (4 * w == 4 * 0.5s) and then send the tones for 194.

Alternatively, if you are in the middle of a call you can respond to questions using DTMF tones with the <Play> TwiML element using the digits attribute, like this:

const response = new VoiceResponse();
response.play({
    digits: 'wwww194'
});

Let me know if that helps.