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Bot Framework Telephony Channel

Telephony channel is a channel in Microsoft Bot Framework that enables the bot to interact with users over the phone. It leverages the power of Microsoft Bot Framework combined with the Azure Communication Services and the Azure Speech Services. The Telephony Channel is currently in Public Preview, however is not taking new customers at this time. If you have general questions about Public Preview, you can reach us at [email protected].

Please note: This is a Beta (preview) version of software, and as with any preview software, there may be initial risks and limitations you run into, such as a need to integrate with your existing IVR, etc. The Telephony Channel and Azure Communication Service are in-preview and should not be used for production deployments. We are working on and supporting this product and are here to help you in case you run into any issues. Submit an issue here.

Disclaimer: The latest update includes samples demonstrating call recording functionality. Call recording is temporarily available through the Telephony Channel public preview at no charge. Be aware that Azure billing for Call Recording will begin in April, at a rate of $0.01/minute of recorded content. Services in public preview are subject to future pricing changes.

Please note: Many countries and states have laws and regulations that apply to the recording of PSTN, voice, and video calls, which often require that users consent to the recording of their communications. It is your responsibility to use the call recording capabilities in compliance with the law. You must obtain consent from the parties of recorded communications in a manner that complies with the laws applicable to each participant.

Documentation and samples

• Getting started. Are you ready to build a bot that answers phone calls? Follow these four easy steps:

  • Step 1: Create a new bot. You can skip this step if you already have a working bot. Enable web sockets on the App Service and in your bot code.

  • Step 2: Get an Azure Communication Services Resource and acquire a phone number in it.

  • Step 3: Create a Cognitive Services Resource. You need an instance of the Speech Service to convert speech to text (for messages received by the bot) and text to speech (for messages sent by the bot). Please note that Telephony channel is currently supported in WestUS2 and EastUS.

  • Step 4: Configure the Telephony channel. This step connects it all together.

  Once setup, you should be able to dial the acquired phone number using any phone and hear your bot echo your voice. If you hear that, congratulations! You're ready for dive deeper for more advanced features.

• Telephony features. Explore how to build advanced bots that take advantage of advanced telephony features.

• Roadmap. Explore what's coming up next.

• Samples. Learn from our samples.

Feedback

File a bug or suggestion in GitHub Issues.

Limitations

Currently, Telephony channel has some regional and capabilities limitations.

• Azure Communications Service is currently supported for US billed customers to acquire US phone numbers.
• Azure Communications Service currently does not support free, trial or Visual Studio benefits subscriptions.
• Telephony Speech is currently available in WestUS2 and EastUS, and so, please create your Cognitive Services key in one of those regions.

We working to remove these limitations as soon as possible. For feature roadmap, please refer to Roadmap.

Contributing

This project welcomes contributions and suggestions. Most contributions require you to agree to a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) declaring that you have the right to, and actually do, grant us the rights to use your contribution. For details, visit https://cla.microsoft.com.

When you submit a pull request, a CLA-bot will automatically determine whether you need to provide a CLA and decorate the PR appropriately (e.g., label, comment). Simply follow the instructions provided by the bot. You will only need to do this once across all repos using our CLA.

This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct. For more information see the Code of Conduct FAQ or contact [email protected] with any additional questions or comments.

Reporting Security Issues

Security issues and bugs should be reported privately, via email, to the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) at [email protected]. You should receive a response within 24 hours. If for some reason you do not, please follow up via email to ensure we received your original message. Further information, including the MSRC PGP key, can be found in the Security TechCenter.

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