Lob Joins The Standard Webhooks Initiative

Webhooks are a popular method among top companies worldwide for sending events to users of their APIs. Lob is no exception; when using the Lob platform to automate direct mail processes, our customers use webhooks to track the status of every mailpiece we create and send.

Unfortunately, the current landscape is fragmented, with each webhook provider using different implementations with varying quality. This lack of standardization poses challenges for both providers and consumers, hindering innovation in the industry.

Lob, along with our valuable partner Svix, recognizes these challenges and has joined the Standard Webhooks initiative to address them.

Leveraging Secure, Easy, and Reliable Standards

Lob sends millions of events using Lob webhooks every month, and we understand the importance of providing a secure, easy, and reliable standard for our customers. By adopting the Standard Webhooks initiative, we aim to alleviate the pain points associated with handling webhooks.

For Lob customers who rely on our transactional APIs and use webhooks to check the status of the mail Lob creates and sends, the benefits are significant:

• With the implementation of standard webhooks, customers no longer need to handle webhooks differently, saving time and effort.
• Our adoption of the standard ensures a consistent implementation across the industry, making it easier for customers to verify webhooks and eliminating the need to navigate custom implementations.

Lob's Commitment to Pushing the Industry Forward

Lob has joined leaders from Twilio, Zapier, ngrok, and more, to form a talented technical steering team for the Standard Webhooks initiative. These individuals are committed to building tools and developing guidelines that push a usable and unified way of handling the generation and consumption of events.

Jorge Vivas, Staff Engineer at Lob says, “We understand the value of collaboration and are excited to contribute our expertise to this important cause. I believe standardizing webhooks is a critical initiative for our company. It will provide a solid foundation for our API ecosystem, making it easier for our customers to integrate and automate their processes. With a standardized approach, we can ensure consistency, reliability, and security in webhook handling, which will ultimately enhance the developer experience—not only with Lob, but in the API community on the whole.”

With the implementation of Standard Webhooks, we help promote the adoption of this industry-wide standard, and further our mission to develop tools that make it easier for businesses to send intelligent direct mail.

Resources

• You can find the Standard Webhooks specs on Github
• Webhook verification libraries
• ngrok has built-in support for Standard Webhooks
• Reusable testing tools by Svix

More on webhooks at Lob:

• Lob API docs: Webhooks
• Lob Help Center: Using webhooks
• Blog: Lob Webhooks: The Remix
• Blog: What You Can Do With Lob Webhooks