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What It Means to Take Your Business Communication Further : Keeping Up With The Trends

The prevalence of the advancements in business communication is evident in our society over the past years. Whatever means of communication that we may have adopted or utilized a few decades back has evolved to a much better & more convenient service that we’re experiencing today. Utilization of new technologies or innovations doesn’t only show the company’s confidence in embracing new advancements, but also the forward-thinking attitude of the people within the company. Thus, applying new trends is necessary for the business’ success.

What I’m sharing below are some of the popular business communication trends that companies are implementing at present

Workspaces that Are Digital

It takes a good understanding to maintain teamwork in the organization & successful businesses are quite an expert at that. This is the main reason why traditional methods of team collaboration have been replaced with advanced collaboration tools such as online workspaces.

Today, the digital workspaces offer an innovative means to nurture teamwork, creativity, & an organized work process. Working with these workspaces allow employees to work more comfortably because of the customized working environment & they also get to collaborate more efficiently.

Social Intranet Tools

An exponential rise can be observed in the implementation of social intranet tools. Social engagement has been recognized to be a key component in boosting employee morale & group collaboration. Such tools were inspired from the popular social media channels such as Facebook & so on.

One among the many features of the social intranet tools is to improve business communication throughout the company & in a way that enhances social engagement as well as enthusiasm.

Video Conferences

The business, healthcare, as well as the education sector video conferencing has opened new doors to endless opportunities. A much greater value and benefits can be provided by the tool than any other tools in this list. Video conferencing has taken collaboration to new heights and has brought convenience to both the service providers and the end users. In the business sector, it’s being used to maintain or work with a remote workforce, conduct meetings or conferences with participants from remote areas, conduct employee training or orientation, and even in hiring new employees.

Today’s video conferencing tools such as Vidyo come with a lot of features that offer efficient communication, better collaboration, and affordability. Features like content sharing during the video conferencing, participants can easily see and work on the same project with great ease and efficiency.

Unified Communications

By definition, unified communication is the implementation of real-time communication services that may include advanced desktop telephony (IP phones), chat applications, and of course, video conferencing. Unified communications solutions offer a consistent communication means across the organization, & in fact, between office branches. IP telephony is one great example of unified communications that not only lessens the communication expenses of a company but also make it highly efficient.

To Wrap it Up

Trends may change or evolve over time. But, in order to better understand what communications technology would best fit with your company, our experts’ help is mandatory. Similarly, when it comes to setting up the right unified communications infrastructure, a team of UC specialists can serve you better.

If you find this article useful & want to learn more about the latest trends in business communication, you may come & visit our site at foneapi.com or leave your comments below so we’ll get back to you for further details.

September 23, 2019

Customer Services Topic

Ways on How A Communications Platform Will Help You Get More Business

Having a complete and a convenient communications platform is what everyone needs in order to achieve success for businesses, organization, or other establishments. Why these things are highly effective is because of the fact that people would want to have everything done if possible under one app. That’s why cloud-based communication services have become one of the hottest trends in today’s marketplace.

Through this, developers are empowered to add real-time communication features such as video, voice, & messaging into their own applications without having to build a backend infrastructure or interface. But, does making a move to the cloud make sense for small to a mid-sized enterprise? Experts found that, indeed, there are valuable five reasons why cloud communication platforms could a business to success:

  • Adopting large enterprise capabilities using a small-business budget. Moving to the cloud enables you to add sophisticated brand new opportunities for your operations that might be too expensive on your own. Features such as video conferencing, auto attendant features or powerful contact center tools can greatly help you without having the need to invest in your own infrastructure. Additionally, you likewise don't need your own IT staff to manage the headaches from premises-based systems. Instead, you’ll gain access to all the capabilities you need for an expected monthly software licensing fee.
  • Upsize or downsize your communication resources anytime you want. Experiencing seasonal fluctuations or want to open a new branch office? A cloud-based communication solution is unlike the PBX as it lets you instantly scale up or down in response to your business needs. All you need to do is to buy the number of licenses you need for as long as you need them. You’ll never need to worry about outgrowing hardware or paying for excess capacity that you aren’t putting to maximum use.
  • Your people investment enables you to gain more. Through cloud-based collaboration & communication tools, your team can stay connected & share data from absolutely anywhere – on the road, at home or even working from a remote location. Initiate calls, start a voice or video conference, share documents or access corporate directories, use instant messaging and “presence” data, no matter where you are. These lead to higher productivity levels that may help build your bottom line.
  • Provide an excellent customer service. Having all of your team work seamlessly from anywhere they are, can help you become much more responsive to customers and prospects. They can connect with you through a single office number wherever you may go & regardless of the communication device you’re using. You may IM a subject matter expert for a solution to a critical question or launch a quick conference to resolve issues. Remote workers or branch offices may also become part of a single company queue during peak call-handling times to minimize possible wait time experienced by inbound callers. Boosting your responsiveness to the needs of your consumers will help build your company’s credibility & develop a strong foundation for future growth.
  • Shield your business from expensive downtime. Having your own systems mean carrier-style reliability is usually out of reach. It’s either too costly to build in the redundancy and failover capabilities to ensure vital connectivity is always available. Component failure or power loss may interrupt your ability to do business. Picking the right communications service provider helps you get protections that you would likely be unable to afford. Leading providers host their services in a highly secure, geographically separated data centers that are built from the bottom up for redundancy – ensuring that your service is continuous even in the event of a catastrophic failure. A written Service Level Agreement guarantees the uptime you can expect - this is an important protection you must insist on.

If your business needs essential communication tools, cloud-based alternatives will greatly help. They aid you in boosting your capabilities, drive down costs and serve your customers better than ever. Did you find this article useful? Leave your comments below or check out our site at FoneAPI.com to learn more about how to utilize & maximize your capabilities with a cloud-based communications platform.

September 23, 2019

Customer Services Topic

Want To Step Up Your Protection? Mask Your Phone Numbers Now

Keeping your customer’s privacy and protecting your company is a great deal in having an effective business. It isn’t just about what you say, it’s about who you say it to. That is why masking your phone number is important as it allows you to remain anonymous and protect your business from unnecessary calls or offers from malicious or useless advertisements.  I personally think that there’s no business owner who wouldn’t want to keep their customer’s valuable personal information on their own & not share it with everyone else. The web or online is a huge marketplace, so companies will be able to have potential customers from all over the world. That is why there’s a strong need for protection & caution on who gets access to your transactions or customer’s vital information.

One person is different from the other in terms of attitude, thinking, and behavior. But, when you try to ask most people, they would want to keep their personal information safe no matter what. If you can’t guarantee that, they’re sure to leave your business, find others who can, abandon your products, and will most probably inform others not to buy from you. The moral lesson here is to Keep Your Customers Personal Information Safe. This will also influence your loyal customers to increase their trust on you & purchase from you even more.

What Does it Mean to Mask a Phone Number?

The term “Masked” means virtual or temporary. As a whole, a masked phone number means a virtual phone number or temporary phone number that allows you to remain anonymous while doing transactions to protect your real phone number or personal information from getting into the wrong hands.

If you’re a business owner & you have a customer support option, your loyal customers will be able to contact you on the number you provide. But when you need to contact the rest of your prospects or other customers for some promotions or discounts, then you may use this masked phone number to avoid getting useless or unnecessary advertisements or solicitations from spams or types of malware.  

Advantages in Utilizing Masked Phone Number

  • A masked phone number is useful for your physical or virtual/online business. You may hide your identity at the time of the call or any transaction that you feel you have to. Whether your business is a startup or an enterprise, you can use this prototype anytime.
  • This also helps your customers to keep their personal number or information a secret - by masking their phone number without ever appearing too secretive.
  • All your calls from the virtual number will be forwarded to your personal one while your callers see & use the temporary number that you provided.
  • It’s very safe to use & will greatly help protect your business. You may call any number at any given time by hiding your true & personal phone number.
  • What matters here is the good it brings to everyone involved in your business. When you think of it, using a masked phone number helps you enhance your business features.

It’s your time to shine

I know for a fact that running a business it not that easy & that it entails a lot of hard work to truly deliver the best features and services to your clients. You can never be too safe as you might not even know that a lot of your customers may be using masked phone numbers in contacting you. In order to learn more on how to use and setup your own masked features for your business, you may check out our site or leave comments below to gain more insights on masking phone numbers or our other services.

So what are you waiting for? Check out FoneAPI.com today and let us know your story.

September 23, 2019

Customer Services Topic

The Untold Wisdom on The Value of Android App Permissions

Having most mobile phones as smartphones allow us to expect that apps dominate most of our usage in our devices today. That’s why we must be well aware of the type of data that apps are getting from us. Permission requests are present to protect sensitive data available from a device and must only be used when accessing information is necessary for the functioning of your app.

What we’re sharing here are tips & points on ways to achieve better functionality without requiring access to such data as well as managing or handling permissions.

Principles or tenets in dealing with Android Permissions

  • Require or utilize permissions that are only important for your app to work. Depending on how you’re going to utilize the permissions, there might be other means to acquire such data as backgrounding for calls or system intents without accessing sensitive information.
  • Be attentive to permissions required by libraries. When you include a library, you’re also able to get its permission requirements. Pay attention to what you're including in your permissions as well as how they’re utilized.
  • Observe clarity & transparency. In requesting for permissions, state clearly what you’re accessing & why - so that users can make informed decisions. Present this information along with the permission request to install, run-time, or update permission dialogues.
  • Make a straightforward system access. Continuously indicate when you must gain access to sensitive capabilities such as the camera or microphone to tell the users when you’re gathering data. This is also to avoid getting the perception of unnecessary data collection.

Now that we saw things in a developer’s perspective, below are valuable points for consumers on how to handle and manage app permissions.

How do We Define App Permissions?

Android app permissions are essentially declarations & not requests. Not unless you’re rooted, you can't say whether or not to install the app or receive all the permissions it requires. Upon installation of an app from the Play Store, you’ll get a pop-up list of all the permissions that the app requires - such as access to your storage, phone calls, network communication, etc.

It’s quite easy to skip over these permissions but it could mean the difference between having your data securely on your device or having it all at the fingertips of corrupt app developers.

There Are Five Permissions That You Must Take Special Precaution

You must think twice about giving these permissions not because they’re necessarily dangerous but because there could be a wide-ranging consequence if data will fall into the wrong hands.

  • Location - Two types of location permissions that Android applications can require: “approximate location (network-based)” and “precise location (GPS and network-based)”. Essentially, applications that implement location-based advertising will also need access to such information - one of the many sacrifices you have to make when using a free, ad-supported app.
  • Phone Status And Identity - This is a permission with lots of concerns because “read phone status and identity” encompasses everything from the basics like knowing when a phone call is coming in, to having access to essentially important data such as your device’s IMEI number.
  • Read And Modify Your Contact - Permission to “Modify your contacts, read your contacts” gives an app an enormous access to your contacts’ data. While both can be full of concerns, the “modify” permission is especially dangerous since it would let an app read all the contact information you have on your phone, including how often you communicate with particular contacts.
  • SMS And MMS-Related Permissions - These could potentially cost you tons of money if malicious apps use these permissions to send illegitimate SMSes or add on extra charges onto each SMS and MMS you send.
  • Account-Related Permissions - “Find accounts on the device” enables the app to check with Android’s built-in Account Manager on whether you have other accounts on services like Google, Facebook, etc.

“Use accounts on the device” allows the app ask for permission to use the account. Once this is granted, the app won’t have to request it again; the concern here comes if the app is malicious & continues to do things in the background in your name.

Managing App Permissions

Letting apps get access to any of your accounts such as Facebook or Google need you to go to your account settings to manage & deal with your account permissions - and also if the website has such a feature. You may also check what permissions certain apps have by going into Settings > Apps then select an app and scroll down to see the permissions it contains.

In Summary

It’s undeniable that Android’s privacy & security settings are a bit lacking - such as occasionally having confusing permission names, as well as an inability to selectively grant permissions, this is indeed something that Android should work on.

Yet, even with these issues, it’s still entirely possible to stay on top of things and ensure the security of your information by staying vigilant on the apps you install and the permissions that these apps require. After all, it’s your data on your phone that you have control on.

To learn more about messaging, app permissions & phone verification, come visit our site at foneapi.com or leave your comments down below & we’ll get back to you for further details.

September 23, 2019

Customer Services Topic

Modernize Your Communication Process Through Smart Encoding

Let your business connect and communicate even better through messaging with an added feature of smart encoding. Enrich your capabilities by letting your software do all the heavy lifting for you through the integration of an SMS API into your business. And, improve SMS delivery with a phone number and content intelligence.

Messaging has never been this convenient and secure. Because we want our messages to remain in the hands of the right person, group, or conversation, how amazing would it be to have a way to prevent unnecessary linking and sharing of messages to other individuals? Another concern with messaging is the difference of the devices we use that’s why there’s a possibility that we might not understand a term or a portion of the message. The sender may have added an emoji or character which the recipient doesn’t have on his/her device that may lead to misinterpretation or a loss in the actual meaning or concept conveyed.

The only way to check whether a message contained an unintentional Unicode character in the past was to paste the text into a tool that informs you how we will encode your message or we can send a test message to check for segments in your logs. This entire process adds an extra step that makes your development lifecycle even longer.

Developments made just recently on the new Smart Encoding feature will enable your messaging service to automatically translate Unicode characters into GSM7/ASCII characters for you if there are any GSM7/ASCII alternatives and no characters that can’t be converted in the message, ex. emoji or language based characters.

Just picture this - for instance, if you have spent all night crafting the perfect 159 character message & your CEO loves it. Then, you copy and paste it from Google docs into your IDE and sent 1000 messages. You log into the Console to see your message queue decrease as your messages are being delivered. The next step would be to check the logs in order to view the delivery steps and encoding for individual messages when, amazingly, you discover that your messages are being sent in two segments! Then, you ask yourself: Why is my message divided into two segments and costing me the price of two messages?

This is because when a message contains even a single Unicode character, it gets segmented at 70 characters instead of the normal 160 characters. Often these characters – a smart quote ( 〞), a long dash (—), or a Unicode whitespace – slip in and are hard to identify as the cause of your message being split up.

Smart Encoding is now available & is enabled by default for all new Messaging Services.

If you have an existing Messaging Service, you’ll probably need to enable them for Smart Encoding. You just need to simply log in to the console and navigate to your Messaging Services to enable it.

If you’re not using a Messaging Service to send your messages, now is the perfect time to begin!

And Why Would I think So?

Because it offers a lot of benefits for you & your business such as:

  • Phone number & data analytics
  • Global Fraud Detection
  • Traffic Pattern Recognition
  • Machine Learning
  • Usage velocity
  • And most of all, Actionable Risk Assessment

All these could help you achieve more and do more as you will be able to grow your user base responsibly, identify fake & suspicious users, as well as protect your brand reputation & value. In order to learn more about how the complete messaging service works, visit our site at foneapi.com or leave your comments below & we’ll get back to you for further details.

September 23, 2019

Customer Services Topic

Knowing The Difference & Implications Between Authentication, Authorization & Encryption

With the existence of too many malware and even ransomware nowadays, you can never be too careful or too lax in handling or managing your accounts, especially when it comes to network or computer security. So that we can have a better grasp of the value or difference of having our accounts or content protected, let’s define and look at each of the words that encompass & gives meaning to security & protection.

Before proceeding to the detailed descriptions of each term that offers safety for us, we must first need to know that there are two main objectives in having a truly secured computer or network environment, and they are as follows: (1) Preventing or keeping out unauthorized persons from gaining access to our resources, and (2) Making sure that only authorized persons can access the resources they need.

There are basically various components involved in being able to achieve these goals. Assigning access permissions to resources is one that specifies which users may or may not have to access those resources and under what circumstances - for instance, you may want a specific user or group to have access when logged on from a computer that is physically on-site but not from a remote dial-up connection. Yet, it may only work if you can verify the identity of the user who is attempting to access the resources. So, this is where authentication comes in.

We will look at the role played by authentication, authorization, & encryption in a network security plan through this article - and determine the difference of each essential component to help us achieve the security we need.

AUTHENTICATION

A crucial element of a typical security model, it is the process of confirming the identification of a user or a machine <in some cases> who’s trying to log on or access resources. Various authentication mechanisms exist today, but they all serve the same purpose.

  • It is used by a server when it needs to know exactly who is trying to get their information or login to the site.
  • It may also be used by a client in knowing if the server is a system that it claims to be.
  • Authentication works in both ways, the user or computer has to prove its identity to the server or client.
  • Authentication by a server usually entails utilization of a username & password. Other means to authenticate can be through cards, retina scans, voice recognition, and fingerprints.
  • On the other hand, authentication by a client involves the server giving a certificate to the client in which a trusted third party such as Verisign or Thawte states that the server belongs to a bank(a sample entity) that the client expects it to.
  • It cannot determine what tasks the individual can do or what files the individual can see. Authentication merely identifies and verifies who the person or system is.

AUTHORIZATION

After verifying the user’s identity (authentication), authorization then verifies that the user in question has the correct permissions & rights to access the requested resource. As you have probably realized by now, these two work together - authentication happens first then authorization.

  • This is a process in which the server determines if the client has permission to use a resource or access any file.
  • Authorization works hand-in-hand with authentication so that the server has some concept of who the client is that is requesting for access.
  • Authentication types needed for authorization may vary - passwords may be required in some cases but not in others.
  • Authentication by a server usually entails utilization of a username & password. Other means to authenticate can be through cards, retina scans, voice recognition, and fingerprints.
  • There are exceptional cases that have no authorization - any user may utilize a resource or gain access to a file simply by asking for it. Most web pages on the Internet require no authentication or authorization.

ENCRYPTION

This involves the process of transforming data so that it is unreadable by anyone who does not have the decryption key.

  • The Secure Shell (SSH) and Socket Layer (SSL) protocols are typically used in encryption processes. The SSL drives the secure part of “https://” sites used on e-commerce sites such as e-Bay and Amazon.com.
  • All information in SSL transactions is encrypted between the client (browser) & the server (web server) before the data is transferred between the two.
  • Every data in SSH sessions is encrypted between the client & the server when communicating at the shell.
  • By encrypting the information exchanged between the client and the server, data such social security numbers, credit card numbers, & home addresses can be sent over the Internet with less risk of being intercepted during transit.

On a daily basis, we use authentication, authorization & encryption most of the time. A good example for this is - booking and taking an airplane flight.

  • Encryption is used when a person buys their ticket online at one of the many sites that advertise affordable tickets. Upon finding the perfect flight at an ideal price, a person goes to buy the ticket. Encryption is used to protect a person’s credit card and personal information when it is sent over the Internet to the airline. The company encrypts the customer’s data so that it will be safer from an interception in transit.
  • Authentication works when the traveler shows his or her ticket & driver’s license at the airport so he/she can check in his/her bags and receive a boarding pass. Airports need to authenticate that the person is the right one and has purchased a ticket before giving the boarding pass.
  • Authorization happens when a person shows the boarding pass to the flight attendant so he/she can board the plane where he’s supposed to be flying on. The flight attendant must authorize a person so that person can get inside the plane & use the resources to fly from one place to the other.

Here are a few examples of where encryption, authentication, and authorization are used by computers

  • Encryption is used whenever people are giving out personal data to register for something or buy a product. This ensures the person’s privacy during the transaction. Encryption is likewise used when the data returned by the server to the client should be protected, such as a financial statement or test results.
  • Authentication is applicable whenever you want to know exactly who is using or viewing your site. Web login is Boston University’s primary method of authentication. While other commercial websites such as Amazon.com require people to log in before buying products so they know exactly who their buyers are.
  • Authorization is used whenever you want to control viewer access of certain pages. Ex., Boston University students are not authorized to view certain web pages for professors and administration. The authorization requirements for a site are typically defined in a website’s .htaccess file.
  • Authentication & Authorization are often used together. Like having the students at Boston University to authenticate before accessing the Student Link. It then determines what data they are authorized to see. The authorization step prevents students from seeing data of other students.

To learn more about the three elements of computer security & protection, visit our site at foneapi.com or leave your comments below & we’ll get back to you for further details.

September 23, 2019

Customer Services Topic

How to Prevent Your Brand From Getting Invaded by Fake Users

Nowadays, crimes do not only happen in the physical world but also through online or in the web. For individuals, we have probably heard the term “cyberbullying” which have already cost a countless number of lives lost through depression & suicide due to the lack of support or coping mechanisms. While for businesses or other establishments, we have the existence of ransomware which is malicious software designed to block access to a computer system until a generous amount of money is paid.

In fact, here are a number of alarming statistics that can help us see the prevalence of ransomware:

Existing and growing numbers of fake users online are not something new to us. Who knows, we may have come across with them at one time or another. However, only a few people may realize just how malicious & damaging these fake users can be for businesses. More than being a nuisance, fake users are really causing businesses to lose millions of dollars & the problem grows even more.

Let’s unveil this epidemic on how fraud is affecting businesses and their users. Surprisingly, 82% of businesses struggle with fake users. These fake users are actually wreaking havoc on brand reputations and real users on a daily basis.

We further found that the key reason behind this growing concern is that businesses are prioritizing convenience over security during the registration process for accounts. 47% even admit to knowingly allow fake users into their platform just to not add friction to the registration process. As a result, their user base is declining in value by as much as 47% - with the average user base valued at $117 million, this means a loss of as much as $55 million!

But wait, there’s still hope, existing new products like FONE API’s two-factor verification system empowers businesses to add security to the account registration process without having to sacrifice convenience. Fake user threats can one day be a thing of the past. By eliminating fake registrations, not only can your company save on repair costs of up to $14 million in large companies, they may likewise increase the value of their user base by up to 44%, or $52 million.

To explore further and learn more on how to prevent fake users from destroying your brand, visit our site at foneapi.com for more insightful articles or leave your comments below & we’ll get back to you as soon as we can for further details.

September 23, 2019

Customer Services Topic

Getting The Right Value in Having Add-on for Messaging & Recording

What used to seem like forever in getting a response or connecting with a family from another country can now easily be done in minutes & even seconds. Despite our present advancements in communication technology, people are discovering better ways to boost the quality & upgrade the way we converse or keep in touch with others. Either for personal or business purposes, we’ll always have the need to connect & express ourselves.

With the help of APIs (Application Program Interface) today, we can conveniently configure, install, and enable add-ons by managing programs. Add-ons are pre-integrated technologies from partners that permit developers to do more with our APIs. It’s now possible to build rich communications experiences in a flash by integrating 3rd-party capabilities and our own API. This will then give us the ability to pick the right technology for our needs without having to learn, test, and manage different platforms.

Add-ons are products from our partners that are pre-integrated into our APIs that help you instantly add new capabilities such as advanced caller identification, compliance, spam detection, multi-lingual speech to text, audio search, and lots more. They’re super convenient to use and are designed to lessen the time of getting a new capability into production.

Here’s a quick view at what add-ons can do:

  • Number Add-ons allow you to have more data for a given phone number
  • Messaging Add-ons allow contents of a text message to get analyzed, while
  • Recording Add-ons help you get an analysis of recordings that you make with our system.

In order to see how communication varies in different mediums & how we can apply the necessary add-ons, we must view their impact on the efficiency of our communications and how our message gets interpreted.

Messaging/Text

One of the most popular categories used - emails, SMS, social media interaction, and instant messaging programs are all widely used by companies to level up communication between parties.Yet, there are limitations to text-based communication that makes it inapplicable at times.

  • It forces us to be concise. In texts and emails, there's no room for small talk or pleasantries so your message gets right to the point.
  • Your message can be recorded. There's room for misinterpretation, but the original message can't be questioned--it's searchable and available for reference by all parties involved.
  • You may be precise. Writing things down forces us to think carefully about what it is that we want to say. In many cases, that makes us more likely to be specific and write in detail.
  • It carries no tone. Aside from emoticons, which appears as unprofessional, there's no way to infuse subtext into your message. Any tone of voice or body language is instantly lost. (that’s why a text to speech add-on may be helpful here)
  • It's impersonal. Some messages require compassion and sympathy in their delivery, and text simply doesn't have the same effect as a face-to-face meeting.

Voice Calls

Are honestly starting to become obsolete as text messages are more concise, and video calls are more personal. Still, vocal interaction has a place for many people.

  • You may express your pitch without worrying about body language. Voice carries tone much better than text messages, allowing you to inject humor or sympathy into your words without having to pay attention to your body language.
  • Several people can connect simultaneously and remotely. Using conference calls, several people from all around the world can speak together at once.
  • People speak over each other. With speech delays and few body cues, it's easy for people to clamor over each other, especially while on a conference line.
  • There's no record. You can record phone calls, but it's much more difficult to find necessary information in a sound recording than searchable text.
  • People aren't always easy to hear. Heavy accents, bad connections, and naturally low voices can all make phone communication more difficult.

Video Calls

Are a significant alternative to in-person meetings for those who want the experience of a face-to-face meeting but can't geographically connect. Skype and FaceTime are two of the most popular video chat applications, but there are many options available.

  • You can express body language which is important especially when you're trying to build a relationship with another person. Sometimes, in-person meetings are just not possible that’s why video calls are perfect for this.
  • Video calls sometimes offer other options. For example, the Skype app allows you to simultaneously send files and communicate with text, so you can keep a record of the conversation.
  • Video calls use a lot of bandwidth. Depending on your network, it may have an impact on those around you.
  • Bad connections can ruin everything. Again, this depends on your network, but it is a real risk to the medium. You don't want your client meeting to be cut short without warning.
  • There's a threshold for effectiveness. Two people video chatting is more effective than twenty people trying it. Google Hangouts is trying to find a solution for this problem, but for now, the fewer the people involved, the better.

Video calls are a great substitute for an in-person meeting, but only if it's impossible to meet in person, you have a great connection, and there are only a handful of participants. Otherwise, you might end up frustrating more people than you end up informing.

In Conclusion

The Add-on Management API is designed to help you install & configure add-ons that can help build features in your apps that can be enabled without manual intervention. This helps create a better customer experience for your users. And now that we have a better look at the effectiveness of each type of medium for communication, we’ll be able to determine where to apply our add-ons to foster a rich communication experience.

For more information on how to get started and what add-ons to apply, visit us at foneapi.com or leave your comments below.

September 23, 2019

Customer Services Topic

Essential Ways on Becoming a Better Developer As Approved by Experts

For products & services from different businesses, we always look at the customer’s or business’ perspective but we sometimes fail to acknowledge the brilliant minds that have made things better and more convenient through their continuous efforts in adding codes and simplifying systems or programs so that everyone gets live a better and more comfortable life.

It’s time to turn the spotlight on to the developers & programmers and how they can be a better version of themselves by noting these tips from the experts. As a software or a web developer, coding can be improved through the use of tools. Although it's true that tools may help with the process, it’s the person behind the code that makes the code what it is, and this is reflected in the final product.

As an individual, your developer and programming skills may be enhanced through self-learning and lots of other methods. In this article, we’ll take the time to learn straight from the experts on ways to help our developers harness & improve their skills:

1. Practice More & Don’t be Afraid to Make Mistakes

No matter what it takes, you must keep on practicing. The more you code, the better you become and the more you make mistakes. Because the more you code, the more you will realize your mistakes in error handling, designing, threading, etc. You will learn from these mistakes and the more you practice your craft, the better you will get. You must also create your schedule or structure to ensure that you learn effectively and ensure that your spend your time practicing different things such as a different coding language.

2. Teaching One’s Self from Website and Books

Choosing to improve your abilities would require you to teach yourself more skills, specifically by concentrating on the areas where you lack experience in. You can start by reading through any technical, educational material available from a variety of sources such as Google, have a website for developers that contain a lot of information & high-quality guide from best practices written by people with experience in various languages. Code academy, Code.org, W3 Schools, and HTML5 Rocks are also a good place to start learning, depending on what you’re looking for.

Despite how old fashion books may seem, it is a good idea to build up a good reading list of technical books that are written by authors with years of coding experience. Head First Java, Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML and Head First HTML5 and others in the “Head First” series are good places to start if you’re a newbie. Code Complete is highly recommended for developers which cover a lot of material related to software construction, also ‘Java, how to program‘ by deitel is also another amazing source.

3. Reflection

It’s very important to reflect on your code as every time you fix a bug in your code you need to look back and see how you can avoid creating this error/bug in the first place, as well as how to avoid it in the future. Good programming principles are a plus in having your practice for improving yourself. Code craft: The Practice of writing excellent code is a highly recommended book. There are also informal rules that are followed which are known as ‘best coding practices‘. Reflection also helps fix any bad habits and adopt new habits which are good for you.

4. Take time to Learn From Other Programmers

Work on a variety of different types of projects & use them as a method of learning, doing things that you’re uncomfortable with is good. Push yourself outside your comfort zone & work with other programmers on tasks you are unfamiliar with, so you’ll pick up new skills.

You may also try pair programming with other programmers or developers to improve the quality of the code and help you work better as a team member.  Ask questions if you are unsure on how to do something & if you’re on a team, there are at least a few senior programmers or developers that you can learn from.

5. Work on Open Source code

Working on open source projects from places like Source Forge and GitHub is often a great way of improving your skills and spending time immersed in the code is a quick way to improve your developer and programming skill set. Also, try to read and understand other people’s code in open source projects, then write a documentation for the code you wrote or on open source code to help you to understand your own code better and put you in the shoes of other people.

6. Master the programming language(s) that you use or be the Jack of all trade & master of none

There are two options which both work for developers and programmer, these are either to focus on mastering one specific programming language such as Java and be the very best at this language. However, based on the ever dynamic technology and programming standards, it would be best to be multi-skilled in this field. It’s essential to learn more than one language and be a ‘jack of all trades but ensure that you open your eyes to how each language is unique.

7. Create a Unit Test

Creating a unit test will help you to complement your thinking and coding process, that will, in turn, lead you to be better at designing codes. By writing a Unit Test, finding better names, abstraction, interfaced and abstract classes, these will all help improve your code quality.

8. Do a Code Review Then Send Your Code Review for Others to Critic

You can become a good programmer and developer if you do a code review. Through reviews, you can improve your code sense and get feedback from others. At the same time, you’re also helping others to improve themselves. Often, the case for developers in working on codes for such a long time, you won't notice your own mistakes and only a fresh pair of eyes can spot it. When having your code reviewed, make sure to ask for a more detailed review on areas that you’re not too confident on.

9. And the most important thing is to -- Talk to others and Have fun

It’s often quite easy to get detached from others when developing or programming. It’s a good practice to talk about codes, share and do white board sessions to brainstorm. Discuss, listen and hang out with fellow developers and programmers or participate in events like JavaOne, Devfest, Devoxx. Most of all, don't forget to have fun!

There are more ways on how to be a better developer and programmer. Let us know your thoughts by leaving us a comment below or checking out our site at foneapi.com for more interesting facts and insights on how to improve your codes & have fun by doing so.

September 23, 2019

Customer Services Topic

A Guide On The Importance of Using A Text-to-Speech App

It empowers everyone as it contains several benefits for content owners, publishers, & even their content consumers. Website visitors, mobile app users, or online learners can be considered content consumers. While content owners can respond to the varying needs & desires of each user in terms of how they interact with the content.

Content Consumer Benefits

Below are specific groups that can have a better user experience with TTS:

  • Those with learning disabilities – Other individuals find it hard to read large amounts of text due to dyslexia & other learning disabilities. Giving them an easier option for experiencing website content is an excellent way to engage them.
  • People having difficulties in literacy – Others literacy levels are only basic that they often get frustrated in browsing the net because so much of it is in text form. By allowing them to hear the text instead of reading it, they may get valuable data in a way that’s more comfortable for them.
  • Individuals who speak the language but cannot read it – A speech option for a foreigner will open up your audience to this underserved population. Most people coming to a new country learn to speak & understand the native language effectively, but may still find it hard in reading the second language. Although, they may possibly read content with a basic understanding, TTS technology enables them to take the data more comfortably, making your content easier to comprehend and retain.
  • Multitasking Individuals – Having the chance to listen to the content instead of reading it allows people to do something else at the same time in order to go on with their     busy lives. Smartphones & tablets also provide options for content consumption on the go, taking content away from the computer screen into any environment that’s convenient for the consumer.
  • Those who are visually impaired – Mild to moderately visually impaired people can greatly benefit from TTS by taking in content with comfort instead of strain.
  • Those who access content on mobile devices – Reading tons of content on a small screen is not always easy. But, with a text-to-speech software, people can get the information they want minus the hassles of scrolling and aggravation.
  • Having different learning styles – Auditory learners, visual learners, and kinesthetic learners learn best through a combination of the three. Universal Design for Learning is a plan for teaching that uses technology and adaptable lesson plans to help the maximum number of learners comprehend & retain information by appealing to all learning styles.

Content Owner or the Publisher’s Advantages:

  • Enhanced accessibility of online content for those with visual impairments or reading difficulties.
  • Connect to a larger percentage of the online population, including those whose native language is different from the language of your website or mobile app.
  • Your online content gets presented in a way tha increases comprehension.
  • More convenient for people to access your online content on mobile devices.
  • Offer seniors with a more comfortable way to access your online content.
  • Reduce digital divide, increase citizen engagement, & strengthen corporate social responsibility by making sure that information is available in both written and audio format.
  • Take your content to mobile and give your mobile users the ability to listen to your news while on the go.
  • Instantly speech-enable your live coverage services so that readers can listen to your updated content while doing something else at the same time.
  • Automatically redistribute your online text content in audio format thereby providing another distribution channel for your content.

Advantages for Educational Institutions, Online Course Publishers, Learning Management Platform Providers, etc.:

  • Present your educational content that increases student comprehension.
  • Increase the accessibility of your online courses and textbooks.
  • Meet the needs of and reach a larger percentage of your students, such as those with visual impairments or reading difficulties and foreign students.
  • Make it easier for students to access course materials on mobile devices.
  • Let your users listen to math courses and online math content.

TTS technology likewise permits bimodal content presentation where the information is presented in both audio and visual formats at the same time. Specific benefits of bimodal content presentation include:

  • Improved word recognition skills and vocabulary
  • Improved reading comprehension, fluency, accuracy, and concentration
  • Improved information recall and learning/memory enhancement
  • Increased motivation and more positive attitude with regard to reading
  • Increased reading self-confidence and perceived performance

For more details on the importance and benefits of text-to-speech technology, I urge you to visit our site at foneapi.com or leave your comments below & we’ll get back to you in order to offer solutions and provide answers to your concerns.

September 23, 2019

Customer Services Topic