Snail Mail Speedup (SMS)

Inspiration

As we are a young generation, we constantly have access to fast means of communication. Despite this, we do not feel that email is keeping up with that. Emails aren't as effective as they require the internet and cannot be sent over SMS. According to statistics, it is more likely and more efficient that people respond to text messages rather than emails. Text messages offer instant communication and a fast means of distributing information. If we were able to utilize SMS for emails, this would open up many more opportunities in the world of communication.

What it does

Essentially, Snail Mail Speedup utilizes Mixmax API and Twilio API to directly send an email to the SMS of a user's phone number. Mixmax API connects to the Twilio API through a website, allowing seamless and easy use of both API's while accommodating Mixmax's architecture. When someone drafts their email, they select our button in the Mixmax menu, bringing them to our website. Here, it will grab the contents of the email and specify the phone numbers they would like to SMS it to. Pressing send, it utilizes Twilio's API to send that email out to all the phone numbers through SMS. After which, they are brought back to the email, where they can send the email.

How we built it

We utilized Mixmax API and Twilio API. We built a website using HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript. We first played around with Mixmax API and created a website using HTML and CSS to support it. Then, we imlemented Twilio API, allowing us to send emails as SMS. We had a lot of help from our gracious mentors, notably Corey from Twilio and the guys from Andreessen Horowitz. Huge shout out to them! Also, to all the amazing hackers we met along the way, we couldn't have done it without you, thank you! :)

Challenges we ran into

As high school students, we were not familiar with utilizing API's and putting them together. It was an obstacle, but after talking to mentors and more thorough research, we were able to finally utilize both API's effectively. Before we had this idea, we had another idea and we were stuck on that for several hours before we decided to do something simpler. We learned that it's best to start with a good, but simple idea and build upon that, rather than start with something incredibly difficult. We first learned the basics of everything and then learned the intricate stuff.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

As we are all beginning hackers, we were all satisfied when we discovered our simple, yet effective idea worked. When the API's were able to run, this made us extremely happy. Twilio API was especially difficult for us, and we were finally able to call it and run it, it was a huge success. We aren't really in it for the awards, but rather for the learning experience because that's what all the hackathons are about. This was many of my team's first hackathon, and we can surely say that we learned a lot!

What we learned

Ultimately, being most of my team's first hackathon, we didn't know what to expect. It was an overwhelmingly supportive experience where we were able to have fun while learn. We learned more about API's and general website design throughout this hackathon. We also learned the importance of networking as it led us to make new mentor friends and establish connections. We learned how to use Mixmax and Twilio API's to a certain extent and combine them with a website.

What's next for Snail Mail Speedup

Next steps would be for allowing for email text to speech and speech to text, which would be delivered to a person through a phone call or a website. We hope to implement maybe even machine learning into our program one day, teaching machines to summarize large bodies of text into a small 140 character text. One day, we hope that this will be used in situations like while driving, people can respond to their emails after it is read out to them and they simply talk back to it.