TermText

A terminal messaging application

This project provides a terminal user interface for the popular Twilio messaging service.

Application Features:

• Terminal User Interface that populates a list with the user's Twilio SMS message conversations.
• Users can send, receive, and view their Twilio SMS messages.
• Users can add a new phone number to send a message to.
• Users can switch to different conversations using shortkeys/arrowkeys.
• Uses Twilio's API to read in and send SMS conversations.
• Users can use this application directly though their terminal, no Graphial User Interface required!

Technologies/Frameworks Used:

• Python 3
• Twilio REST API (sending, reading messages & contacts)
• Ncurses Library for displaying information for user interaction
• Vim Text Editor for creating and editing the program.

Inspiration

• We wanted to be able to send SMS text messages from the command line, using a VoIP backed solution.

How we built it

• We used critical thinking and problem solving skills. We used python as the language and Twilio as the backend API. Vim was the text editor used.

Challenges we ran into

• We had a bug of duplicating messages in the conversation window. It was fixed after talking with a mentor. We also ran into some layout issues, that were fixed after looking at our working examples.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• We created a working application. We can now send and receive SMS text messages from the terminal. Creating a viable ncurses interface.

What we learned

• How to create ncurses environments for terminal applications.

What's next for TermText

• We want to add the functionality to add number to the "phone book".