Anti-Spam Service Truecaller Adds Free Voice Calling Feature (techcrunch.com) 22
An anonymous reader shares a report: Truecaller, an app best known for helping users screen calls from strangers and spammers, is adding yet another feature to its service as it bolsters its super app status. The Stockholm-based firm said today that its app can now be used to place free VoIP-powered voice calls. The company told TechCrunch on Tuesday that it has started to roll out the free voice calling feature to its Android users. It expects the rollout to reach all Android users in the coming days. The feature, which currently only supports calls between two users, will arrive on its iOS app soon. In emerging markets such as India, where 100 million of Truecaller's 140 million users live, free voice calls has been a long-sought after feature. Until late 2016, voice calls were fairly expensive in India, with telecom operators counting revenue from traditional calls as their biggest profit generator.
Re: (Score:3)
Being that it is an anti-spam service, in essence giving spammers a cheap way to spam.
Telephone calls are already too cheap. That is why we are getting so many junk calls. It doesn't cost the caller that much to try just war dial your number, and use the outdated caller ID service to not show your number. It is too cheap, without much controls. That is why we are getting so many junk calls.
If these spammers needed to pay a lot to spam, then they would be more selective on what they are selling, and who t
FWIW (Score:1)
Hopefully, it's worth at *least* as they paid to advertise on Slashdot. I doubt that Apple, or the other handset manufacturers, will let the "free calls" part continue for long.
Say what now??? (Score:4, Informative)
I doubt that Apple, or the other handset manufacturers, will let the "free calls" part continue for long.
Wy would you doubt that?
Apple has had extensive VOIP support in iOS for years. You can make data only voice calls from Slack, Skype, or countless other apps...
Honestly why would Apple care if your calls are billed by a *telco* or not?? Apple has nothing to do with telco revenue, they don't get anything if you make a "real" phone call.
The same goes for every other handset maker. VOIP calls have been around forever.
Hell even a telco could well support data only calling, I think all of the major U.S. carriers support wi-fi calling. Why would they not? It reduces load on the cell network.
So where is Apple/handset tie-in? (Score:4, Informative)
Anything that threatens the current profit model will be resisted,
Sure the CARRIERS, i.e. TELCOS might want to resist that. But it has nothing, nada, zero to do with Apple or the handset makers - why would it? No handset maker gets money from the carrier so why would they help with any desire to "resist", answer is they would not and in fact the natural desire of the handset maker is to support as much data calling as possible as it makes it vastly more desirable to own a smart phone than some cheap voice only handset.
You are running the wrong way here, Apple and the carrier are utterly at odds in terms of data base calling, Apple wants to push it while the carriers would rather resist.
without telcos an iphone isn't worth as much.
Come on now, it's not like the carriers are going to drop the iPhone, or die entirely. The carries have no leverage AT ALL over Apple or Google or Samsung. There is no way you can make a case that they do.
Not to mention any smartphone is worth a ton even without a carrier, as you can always use WiFi which is all over the place.
Re: (Score:3)
I kind of agree but maybe the angle here is that so many people in India use this app, it will mean a huge jump in use of data-only calls (though if phone calls cost anything in India, I would have expected nearly every single person to already be using some kind of VOIP or data calling app).
Would be interesting to have more details on this.
like your cable provider is mainly for internet... (Score:2)
Anti-spam, right! (Score:2)
I used TrueCaller for a while, until the incessant ads drove me nuts and I uninstalled it!
Users in India want yet another free call app? (Score:2)
It's not like these don't exist. Skype, FaceTime, Slack, and a dozen others. I know these work in India, because I've talked and video-chatted with people in India numerous times. This seems like a PR piece from TrueCaller, more than a statement of true demand.