Exclusive: Microsoft is finally shutting down Skype in May
Exclusive: Microsoft is finally shutting down Skype in May
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I’ve been using Skype for cheaper international calls to family that still relies on phones instead of video calls etc. I’ll need to check what happens with my credit. Any recommendations for an alternative?
I'm not a fan of Meta, but all of my international family rely heavily on WhatsApp.
It also seems that Signal supports VoIP calling, but I have not tried it.
Well, I have family that is old enough not to manage to use WhatsApp. They have a smartphone. WhatsApp is set up. I can never reach them on it.
But they use Skype?
No, but Skype allows to make calls to landlines (and mobile phones).
Google Voice is good. I use it to call from the USA to Australia which is only $0.01/minute and doesn't have any monthly fees. You can see the rates here: https://voice.google.com/rates
I've got an Android phone and you can configure Google Voice so that it's automatically used whenever you make an international call from your phone's regular dialer.
It's a little contentious, but Discord is a solid video chat app. It's good for hop in/hop out for multiple users and you can have a dedicated family chat room on the server too. Very device compatible and resource friendly, and totally free.
I only have to use this occasionally, but on my android I use the app "Talkatone" to make free calls to phones. They have paid plans to keep your number, but I tend to just use new ones whenever one expires.
It might not suit your needs, but it's worked pretty reliably for me for the past 10 years or so.
I made a comment about this on another thread, see this comment.
Wire has calling voice and video calling.