[Discuss] Skype alternatives

[Murray Strome]

The trouble with Hangout is that I have not been able to get it to work 
well with my Android tablet. So far, I have been unable to find anything 
for the Android equivalent to the gmail application (with the Google 
Talk plug-in) which allows you to make phone calls to regular telephones 
in Canada and the US without charge.
Murray
On 14-08-29 12:38 PM, John Blomfield wrote:
> Several of my family now have Apple products and FaceTime. It would be 
> nice to be able to run FaceTime on Linux. It shouldn't be that hard to 
> for someone to do that but I guess Apple doesn’t want it.
>
> I am thinking of encouraging my family members, near and far, to 
> switch to Google's Hangout since most people use Chrome these days.
>
> John
>
> On 08/29/2014 03:13 AM, Patrick wrote:
>> Since Microsoft bought Skype, I've been skeptical about its
>> continued reliability.  This was confirmed recently, in a minor
>> way [the latest version won't work without PulseAudio, but the
>> Skype package does not depend on it; it just silently fails to
>> work [silence being the operative word, here].  Previous
>> versions of Skype are no longer allowed to connect, btw].
>>
>> That's only a minor setback, but I expect things to get worse,
>> not better over time.  After all, they're more interested in
>> putting Windows on smart-phones than maintaining a free [as in
>> beer] online calling service.
>>
>> So I've been looking at Linphone.  Does anyone know of a good
>> SIP trunk provider?  Eg, something I could use to call normal
>> phones.  That's what I've mainly used Skype for anyway; I don't
>> have a long-distance plan, and until now wasn't inclined to get
>> one.
>>
>> Cheap, worldwide, reliable -- pick any two?  Or can you get all
>> three?
>>
>> Actually, it doesn't even need to be worldwide; decent North
>> American coverage would be plenty.
>>
>> Something cell providers generally treat as a *local* incoming
>> would also be nice.  Seems unlikely, but it would be nice.
>>
>> And if I can take incoming phone-calls on my laptop, I might drop
>> Telus altogether.  Not essential, but that would be even nicer.
>>
>> If this works out, I might even get an Android phone -- if only
>> to install Linphone on it.  ;-)
>>
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Patrick.
>
>