Chat app WhatsApp gift-wraps free yaps for Apple iPhone saps

WhatsApp is now offering free voice calls to iPhones, less than a month after the feature debuted for Android. Version 2.12.1 of the telephony app for iSO will allow Apple smartmobe users to talk over their internet connections. The "WhatsApp Calling" feature is going to be rolled out "slowly over the next several weeks" …

[Steve Davies 3]

Coming soon....

Dear Customer/Sucker,

We notice that you are making calls from your movile device that are outside the scope of your calling plan. From the 1st of the next month you will be unable to continue this activity within your current plan.

We recommend that you upgrade to the 'Super Expensive VOIP - 48 month Plan[1]' without delay.

Yours

Suckers Only Mobile Company plc

[1] To exit from this plan before the 48 month contract has expired an exit fee equal to Six Months rental will be levied.

[ratfox]

It is a service that will almost certainly upset telcos

Good.

[RainbowTrout]

Personally, I prefer Viber to call friends and family in the UK.......

[Anonymous Coward]

Not so fast..

Personally, I prefer Viber to call friends and family in the UK

Yeah, that is just as open to intercept than this will certainly be.

One of the things you ought to keep in mind is the reach of intercept. From a US alphabet-soup agency perspective, intercepting a voice call from abroad is a lot harder if you have to co-opt the telco to give you the tap on the feed, because it means you need to co-opt/blackmail/pay every telco separately, ditto for SMS.

If you convince people to use a US based service for messaging and VoIP based calls, it's not only easy, but it's also possible without having to jump through all sorts of annoying legal hoops.

They've been running that scam for quite some time. Just offer people something that appears free...

[Irongut]

So use up expensive mobile data rather than the free minutes that come with my monthly plan? No thanks. That's before even considering that they are owned by FB so I wouldn't touch them with a 10' barge pole.

[Steven Raith]

The only time I'm not within reach of fast wifi (that I'm authorised for) is a few hours a day when I'm in the car, when I ignore the phone entirely.

That said, I do recall when I used to be a roving engineer and that would be a bit trickier, but you've got to admit, it's not like wifi is a rare thing these days.

I'd rather use a SIP server over a VPN though, for less chance of being scraped, but I'm way to lazy to set one up...

Steven R

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah -- except we now have plans with unlimited data, and we are on wifi most of the time anyway -- so not really a problem.

[jonathanb]

It is generally easier to get unlimited minutes than unlimited data, so VOIP is only really useful for international calls, for use on wifi when abroad, and on wifi when you have no phone signal.

[Pen-y-gors]

Why would it upset the telcos?

Okay, they won't make money on voice calls, but remind me - doesn't VOIP need an IP connection to send VO? And who are we paying money to for a data connection? Fine if you're in WiFi range, but someone is still being paid to transmit that data...

[petur]

Re: Why would it upset the telcos?

Indeed, and if the income from voice/sms dries up, data prices will rise - somebody has to pay for the infrastructure

[Velv]

Unified communications is coming...

... But I can't help getting the feeling we're having a proliferation of diverse services that don't interconnect again before we get back to make them unified.

[Mike Flugennock]

"Facebook-owned WhatsApp..."

Oh, yeah. What could possibly go wrong?

I am so not there.

[Anonymous Coward]

Skype does not provide a E911 service, so I don't see why the other guys would have to (Viber, WhatsApp)

(FYI: Viber also identifies you by your phone number)

I think the fact that you have a phone number means that you will get your E911 services though your phone rather than a random app which does not work without it -- which is completely different from VoIP providers such as Vonage which does not require a traditional phone line.

[matjaggard]

Unfortunately the echo on this service is so bad that you hear yourself louder than the other party.

[Velv]

Are any of these services going to offer a conference facility?

Groups are a useful feature for exchanging messages between more than a pair of people, so the next logical step is voice between them

[xibby]

and whatsapp can also record and send videos - at least in Europe

just press the camera button and hold it down