The new integrated messaging feature basically divorces Verizon’s SMS service from the device it’s attached to, virtualizing the customer’s messaging client in an Android tablet or iPad app or within a web browser. In the PC, you can activate the service in the My Messaging tab once logged into the Verizon’s customer portal. So long as the messaging portal remains open, messages will start popping up in your PC (Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer and Firefox are supported, though Explorer won’t receive pop-up notifications). On the tablet, the service works like any other messaging apps, spawning push notifications whenever a new SMS or MMS is received.

The service works very similar to many SMS forwarding and cloud-based SMS applications we’ve seen from messaging outfits like MightyText, Zipwhip or DeskSMS. The difference between, say, a MightyText and Verizon Messaging, is that Verizon isn’t intercepting messages as they reach the phone. They’re coming straight from Verizon SMS infrastructure, and require no phone client. You can utilize the service no matter what kind of mobile phone you use or whether the phone is even turned on or connected.

As over-the-top messaging services like WhatsApp, Pinger, TextMe and TextPlus start to attract users, as well as platform-specific apps like Apple’s iMessage and BlackBerry Messenger, carriers are starting to see more messaging traffic move off their traditional SMS networks. Operators like Rogers in Canada, AT&T – and now Verizon — have been trying to combat that trend by expanding their communications capabilities (and the phone number associated with them) beyond the phone.

It will be interesting to see if Verizon uses this as a building block for more cloud communications services. It could start virtualizing the phone’s voice capabilities in the browser or tablet, turning it into a mobile carrier version of Skype or Google Voice.

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Session initiation protocol (SIP) is the signaling system used to manage IP-based voice and video calls and messaging capabilities in many carrier and enterprise networks, but it’s a protocol foreign to most developers. “What’s exciting about this news to the common geek is that Twilio is further establishing itself as the bridge between disparate forms of communication,” Twilio director of product management Thomas Schiavone told GigaOM.

Schiavone readily admits that no developer currently unfamiliar with the arcane ways of SIP is likely to pursue the protocol, but there are plenty of enterprises and enterprise developers that do, and they’re looking for easy ways to link their insular business networks to A broader range of public and private communications tools.

The idea is that Twilio can perform the complex translation of different kind of calls or messages in the cloud. A regular phone call from a landline, a VoIP call from softphone client or a WebRTC call from a browser could all pass through Twilio’s application programming interfaces (APIs) and connect as a SIP-based call on an office extension. “Twilio sits in the middle, allowing you to mix and match all these forms of communication,” Schiavone said.

Twilio’s SIP service, which launched as beta in October, aims to become more than just a translation service. Twilio claims that by connecting its cloud platform directly to legacy PBXs, companies can move the application logic of their communications platform into the cloud, where they can build new features without having to upgrade or reconfigure their hardware.

Feature image courtesy of Flickr user 2 Much Caffeine

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Called Advanced Communications Suite (ACS), the platform is both a developer tool as well as an enterprise app store of sorts. AT&T is populating ACS with bunch of business communications apps already built by Twilio customers. They range from appointment reminder services; mobile polling and surveying software; ad hoc workgroup communications clients and geo-tagged messaging apps. What they all have in common is they tap into AT&T’s network APIs.

AT&T business customers can buy those apps through the ACS portal, but more tech-savvy customers can build their own using Twilio’s tools. For instance a large enterprise developing its own internal sales force collaboration tool could use the APIs to allow work group members to immediately initiate voice calls to each other with a touch of a button. Or a corporate calendar app could generate automated company-wide SMS alerts for important events.

The biggest problem with these carrier network API programs is fragmentation. AT&T’s APIs and policies could be completely different than Verizon’s, making cross-carrier development difficult if not impossible. By targeting the enterprise, AT&T greases the wheels a bit for developers since many businesses select a single or small subset of carriers to work with.

AT&T also solves the cross-carrier problem in part by working with Twilio, which has built its business model on developing a common development platform bridging all carriers’ networks. To get its SMS services to work, Twilio hooked into the SMS APIs of more 1000 operators in 150 different countries.

AT&T claims ACS will be network neutral. “ACS will offer cross-carrier enablement, meaning apps from the ACS portfolio are free to run on virtually any network,” AT&T said in its announcement. It didn’t offer more details, but that could mean Ma Bell and Twilio are striking up deals with other operators. Or it could have a far more revolutionary implication: AT&T could become an over-the-top provider on its competitors’ networks. There’s certainly a precedent for this. T-Mobile offers its own VoIP service, Bobsled, to anyone with a smartphone.

AT&T also plans to make more APIs available through ACS, starting with video. It’s already started offering access to its Watson voice recognition APIs through a separate program. If voice commands and natural language understanding become part of the ACS toolkit, developers could build some very powerful apps.

The company has been promoting Watson’s capabilities heavily in recent months as it tries to draw interest away from speech-recognition titan Nuance Communications. On Wednesday AT&T also launched its iPhone and iPad remote control app, which uses voice commands to search for programs and channels as well control basic set-top box and DVR functions.

Image courtesy Flickr user Horia Varlan.

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