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Using KooKoo to build a number masking system

By C Chaitanya
One line solution to setup number masking in KooKoo:

Lets assume you want to mask the customer number to your delivery guy. Setup a button in your app and when the delivery guy clicks the button just make a http request as follows:

http://www.kookoo.in/outbound/outbound.php?phone_no={delivery_guys_number}&caller_id={masked_virtual_number}&api_key=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX &outbound_version=2&extra_data=<response><dial>{customer_number}</dial></response>

That's it! Done! You can have a simple mapping array to map the customer_number to the masked_virtual_number and the system becomes completely automated.

The solution in long form:

Number masking solutions have suddenly picked up in the Indian cloud telephony market. Companies like Ola, Uber and others are using number masking solutions to provide privacy to their customers and driver partners.

Setting up a number masking solution is really easy in KooKoo. Developers have been using number masking in KooKoo since 4 years back. In this blog post, I will just provide a step by step approach to set up a number masking solution in KooKoo.

  1. Register for KooKoo and sign up for a paid account.
  2. Buy additional virtual numbers from the dashboard. Buy as many numbers as you want to mask.
  3. Setup your application URL in the dashboard. So, when a call comes in, KooKoo intimates this application URL and provides the cid(caller id) and called_number parameters.
  4. The called_number is your virtual number. Use that and apply your business logic(maybe do a database query to fetch the real number associated with the virtual number)
  5. Use <dial> tag to dial the real number.
Done. You have a full featured number masking solution. Since the logic is yours, you control which virtual number is mapped to which real number and can protect the privacy of your users. You can use the record attribute in the dial tag to record the conversation.

Another way in which number masking can be achieved is through setting up an extension for the real number. This way,you will not need to buy a lot many virtual numbers. If you are interested, please send us an email at sales@ozonetel.com and we will get in touch with you.

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