Fed Up With Skype? Here Are 6 Of The Best Free AlternativesSeptember 7, 2012, By Joel Lee
Five years ago, if you would’ve asked me for recommendations on a
VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) program, there was only one program
available: Skype. For the past few years, Skype sat at #1 in VoIP
software. And if the Internet has taught me anything, it’s that nothing
ever stays at the top for very long.
In 2011, Microsoft made a somewhat surprising move when it
bought Skype for $8.5 billion. Soon after, bloggers all over the Internet began to
question Microsoft’s ability to maintain the project’s quality. Was Skype now doomed to fail or would Microsoft improve it? What about the
issue of privacy? Or
advertisements during calls?
If for whatever reason you no longer want to use Skype, then rest
assured in knowing that there are plenty of alternative programs out
there. They may not be as polished or prevalent as Skype, but they
certainly get the job done. And best of all, every program on this list
is absolutely free!
Google
It’s almost expected that Google would have some sort of competition
in the area of VoIP and Internet chatting. But behold–Google actually
has
three different programs that you can use as alternatives to Skype. It all depends on what you were using Skype for.
If you need a quick and easy way to set up group video conferences, look no further than
Google Hangouts.
Not only are video chat sessions free, you can add up to 8 other
participants for a total of 10. The calls are high quality and
intuitively designed. Find out
why Google Hangouts are cool than Skype for video chats.
If you just need a service that lets you call other people over the Internet, then
Google Voice
is your solution. Assign yourself a Voice-provided phone number that
you can use for everything no matter what your phone or service provider
is. Through Google Voice, you can make free calls to anywhere in the
U.S. or Canada; everywhere else has extremely low rates.
If it’s instant messaging that you need, use
Google Talk.
As a bonus, you can use Google Talk to initiate private video chat
sessions; all you need to do is install a plugin. Google Talk interfaces
with Gchat (on Gmail), iGoogle, and Orkut.
Jitsi
Jitsi is a powerful piece of
software that specializes in VoIP. Not only can it perform audio calls
and video chats, but it can also stream and share desktops over the
Internet, record calls, encrypt calls, and instant message. It even has a
few neat features like echo cancellation and noise suppression (for
those with poor quality mics or noisy rooms).
Jitsi supports a wide number of Internet chatting protocols,
including: SIP, XMPP (Jabber, Google Talk, Facebook), MSN, AIM, Yahoo!,
ICQ, and Bonjour. Jitsi is available on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
VoxOx
With
VoxOx, you can easily make
audio or video calls to your friends. VoxOx-to-VoxOx calls are entirely
free, so if your friends all use VoxOx, then you’ll all benefit.
However, VoxOx can still be used to call real telephone numbers and send
text messages at
cheap rates.
On their
overview page,
it’s immediately apparent that VoxOx really likes their free features.
Here’s what you get for free: personal phone number, voicemail, inbound
calls/texts/faxes, conference calls, chat and social features, file
sharing, and more. VoxOx is available on Windows and Mac.
goober
With
goober, you can call your
fellow goober buddies through audio or video calling. The VoIP feature
is free if you’re calling another goober user, else it will cost low
rates depending on the location of the receiver. Video calls are free
but can only occur goober-to-goober. Conference calls are all free;
audio conferences can hold an unlimited number of participants but video
conferences are limited to 6.
From the looks of it, it seems like goober wants to be more of a
social networking tool. The built-in instant messenger can communicate
with AIM, MSN, ICQ, Jabber, Google Talk, Yahoo! and more. You can link
and interact with Facebook and Twitter straight through goober, too.
goober is available on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Ekiga
Ekiga is an open-source program
that specializes in VoIP, video calling, and instant messaging. Right
out of the box, it supports high quality audio and high-definition video
at DVD quality. The user interface is easy to learn and simple to use.
Audio and video calls are free over the Internet; calls to phones will
cost low rates.
Ekiga is available for Windows and Linux.
ooVoo
If you really only use Skype for its video chatting features, then
ooVoo
may be the replacement for you. Video calls are extremely simple to set
up and conferences can hold up to 12 participants. For the times you
don’t need video, you can instant message. ooVoo supports calling to
phones but you’ll need to purchase ooVoo credits first.
ooVoo has a Premium upgrade available that enables desktop sharing
between users in a call and removes advertisements. Yes, ooVoo’s free
version is supported by ads. ooVoo is available for Windows, Mac,
Android, iPhone, and Facebook.
Conclusion
Skype was once the top dog in the world of free video conferencing
and VoIP, but that throne has a lot of contesting kings now. It doesn’t
matter where you live or what operating system you use, there is always a
Skype alternative available. It’s not like Skype is completely off the
table right now, but if it doesn’t please you anymore, these will get
the job done.
Are there any that I’ve missed? Free video conferencing / VoIP tools
are hard to come by, so if you know of any others, please share them in
the comments. Or just let us know your experiences with the ones already
on this list!
Source:
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/fed-up-with-skype-here-are-6-of-the-best-free-alternatives/
