TMCnews Featured Article

C2Call, the company that brought us FriendCaller, is launching more mobile apps and web products that will see FriendCaller, the Skype (News - Alert) alternative, support 7-way group chats simultaneously. Earlier this year, the company made another expansion into multi-port audio-video conferencing. In addition, up to 20 audio-only chat support will be possible with the new apps. FriendCaller (News - Alert) will continue to offer free services to users of FriendCaller but charge for calls going to external phones, which is similar to Skype.

The mobile chat apps will offer support for Caller ID, text/SMS and calling over Wi-Fi and other networks among other features. These features come at no expense to resource use for both the client and the cloud servers. The apps are being offered as separate downloads on the iTunes App Store and will appear as new apps on the Google Play Store. The apps will offer support for Facebook (News - Alert) or email address sign-ups according to preference.

The earlier FriendCaller iOS app has a rating of 4, seemingly due to users having a difficult time trying to figure out what is free and what is not. It also includes a few negative comments that reflect this confusion. On Google (News - Alert) Play Store, the app has a 4.1 rating with many positive comments most of which seem to praise the apps great video calling resolution. When making in-network calls, users can do this for free. Premium features include the ability to dial external lines or having a “real” phone number affiliated to your account. Text messaging is currently offered for free but for a limited amount of time.

Users can also earn credits by watching videos or downloading apps via an “offer wall.”  A pay-per-download scheme has been set up and runs a banner as part of monetization. The app is available as an Android (News - Alert), iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad download for free.