Google Hangout Telephone capabilities

Question

I'm looking to add telephony to my web app and I'm wondering if Google Hangout Telephone is the best choice for my requirements:

1) the API must be totally controlled via Javascript, no Google UI. The user clicks dial and hang up in my web app and this is what triggers calls. My app is online at www.somedomain.com and the Hangout functionalities can be contained inside a hidden iframe that my script interacts with.

2) I send the API a phone number and it makes phone calls via the browser (this looks like what it's about) in a way that's totally transparent to the end user

3) when the user makes a call, the caller ID is visible and shows a phone number that the user manages with Google.

4) the user is allowed to make prospecting phone calls; about 100-200 calls per day

5) the phone billing is entirely controlled by Google.

Can Google Hangout API fit my requirements?

Answer 1

To answer the question "is google hangouts API the best tool for the job"... I would say probably not. There is a small amount that you can customize about the overall UI/UX when going down this path. You could have a customized "google hangouts button" on your page that launched a hangout (see: https://developers.google.com/+/hangouts/button)... this stills fails your #1 criteria, however.

If telephony features is what you're after, I cannot urge you enough to check out Twilio. VOIP is what they do, and they are by far and away the leaders in the space when it comes to providing well documented APIs for developers. https://www.twilio.com/ The use case you're describing just screams Twilio... check it out!