A developer-platform week: Twilio and Shopify
July 31, 2026 · by Eve Harper
Part of the archive: a retrospective issue compiled after the fact so the record is complete. It was not sent to subscribers.
Not every week is about code-execution microVMs. This one belonged to the developer platforms you test in a sandbox before you ship: Twilio and Shopify both had a busy few days.
Neither shipped a headline sandbox feature, but both moved the test-and-build surface developers actually live in.
What moved
Twilio: US Branded Calling GA, plus WhatsApp tooling
Across July 27 to 31 Twilio shipped a cluster: US Branded Calling reached general availability on T-Mobile and Verizon (July 30), WhatsApp template approval and category updates arrived in Event Streams (July 27), and the Conversations API gained WhatsApp Card and Flows support with granular Restricted API Key permissions (July 31). If you build on Twilio, the Restricted API Key permissions are the one to note for least-privilege testing.
Shopify updates the Hydrogen developer preview
On July 31 Shopify posted a Hydrogen developer-preview update: Vue bindings, GraphQL TypeScript tooling, analytics and consent via ShopifyScripts, a Shopify Inbox AI-agent chat integration, and Suspense cart reads in React. Development stores are where you build against Shopify, so preview-channel changes like these are what you test against before a theme or app goes live.
Worth a click
- Twilio changelog ↗ The full late-July run, including a new US East webhook IP coming September 15.
Test surfaces count too. Eve
Sources: Twilio changelog ↗, Shopify Hydrogen developer preview ↗