How to create Conference Calls
In this guide we will show you how to create a conference call. Please ensure you have followed our earlier guide on how to make an outbound call with Bandwidth.
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Create a conference callConferences are implicitly created the first time your application uses a conference name. For example, if you want to call a phone number and place the called person into a conference call, your application could have the following BXML in the application at the answerUrl
specified when making a call to the /calls
API.
- XML
- Java
- C#
- Ruby
- NodeJS
- Python
- PHP
This would place the call, once answered, into a conference called “important-meeting” after announcing to the called party that they will be placed in a conference. If the conference called “important-meeting” does not exist it will be created. Conversely, if you want to place an inbound call to a Programmable Voice API number into a conference, your application at the “Call initiated callback URL” could use the same BXML above to place the inbound call in a conference.
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Join a conference callJoining an existing conference call uses the same <Conference>
verb. In the example in the previous section, if the conference “important-meeting” exists, the call will be placed in the conference with the other calls already in “important-meeting”.
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Join conference call as a coachIn some cases your application may want to add a to the conference as a “coach”. In this case you will optionally specify the callId
of the call that you want to coach. In this case the “c-example-callid” calls will be able to hear the “coach” but other conference participants would not.
- XML
- Java
- C#
- Ruby
- NodeJS
- Python
- PHP
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End a conference callA conference automatically ends when all participants leave the conference. Another way to end a conference is to use the Update Conference
endpoint located here to set the conference status to completed
. This will end the conference but BXML execution will continue for the calls. For example, using the following BXML would play a message to the participants that the conference has ended (assuming they have not hung up) if the Update Conference
method is used.
- Payload
- cURL
- Java
- C#
- Ruby
- NodeJS
- Python
- PHP
The above example modifies an in-progress conference and sets its state to completed
, which finishes the conference and boots all active members.
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Where to next?Now that you have learnt to create conference calls, check out some of the available actions in the following guides: