Voxeo today launched its Tropo cloud communications API. Tropo extends Web applications to drive communications via Twitter, telephone, text messaging (SMS) and instant messaging (IM).

Service providers can write a Web application enabling customers tocheck account balances, and use Tropo to extend the application to let customers check the same balance by phone, Twitter, SMS or IM.

Tropo is the first real-time API with Twitter support and the only such platform available worldwide. Using Tropo's single API, developers can add Twitter, telephone, and IM communications features to any new or existing Web application. Tropo supports any Web programming language, including Groovy, Java, JavaScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, and.Net. Before Tropo, such services included only voice and SMS communications, were limited to North America, and required XML bloat not favored by modern Web developers.

Tropo features both direct-API and JSON-based development interfaces and is always free for development. Users pay only when applications are deployed in a production capacity.

New Tropo features include:

• Twitter support - Assign a Twitter name to an application and users can interact with ;the application by sending a Twitter message to that name. The app will see all messages to the Twitter account and can take action on messages that are received. Applications can be set up to do customer support over Twitter, and Web applications can be enabled to service Twitter users.
• SMS support - The exact same phone number developers use to call their application can also be used to receive inbound SMS messages. Plus, the application can generate outbound SMS messages, connecting the application to millions of mobile users.
• IM/Chat - Add IM accounts to an application and communicate via AOL's AIM, Yahoo!Messenger, Microsoft's Live Messenger, GoogleTalk or any XMPP or Jabber IM service.
• International Phone Access - No longer are developers limited to phone numbers in North America. Tropo now supports calls from and to anywhere in the world. Local phone numbers are now available in more than 30 countries.
• International Speech Output – Tropo now supports extremely natural voice synthesis (text-to-speech) in eight languages, including U.S. English, U.K. English, Dutch, French, ;German, Italian, Mexican Spanish, or Castilian Spanish.
• International Speech Input – Tropo now supports highly accurate voice recognition (speech-to-text) in the same eight languages, so callers can use either their voice or touch-tone keys to interact with Tropo applications.
• One-click deployment - After developing an application it is literally one click to move it into production. Simply go into the Web management interface and flip the switch.
• New REST/JSON Web API - Beyond the hosted scripting Tropo has always offered, now host the application on your own Web server, write it in whatever language you choose, and communicate through our RESTful Web API using JSON.