FriendCaller Blog

Video telephony is a term that most people are familiar with, and FriendCaller now supports video telephony. It is not easy to achieve video telephony, as it requires a significant amount of development and testing to ensure seamless functionality.

While working to integrate video telephony into FriendCaller, we asked ourselves about the origins of video calling. When did the idea first come to fruition? Let’s take a look at the early beginnings of video telephony, and follow its development path to see how it has evolved over the years.

Paul St. George's Telectroscope installation

The idea of video telephony is as old as the telephone and the television. During the last part of the 19th century, this idea was referred to as “Telectroscope“. A few decades later, the world’s first public videophone was developed in Germany. In 1938, this service was introduced between Berlin, Nuremberg and Munich. People used public television stations to call each other.

AT&T Picturephone

In the 1960s, then AT&T introduces its so-called Picturephone. However, it cost US$16 to make a three minute call, so there was very little interest in the technology because it was cost-prohibitive for the masses. In subsequent years, several countries attempted to make the video telephony accessible to a wider audience, however, voice calls remained the standard for communication, due to the high costs associated with video calling.

Due to significant technology advances, made possible by high-speed Internet, Video telephony finally came into its prime during the 21st century. It was popularized by free Internet services such as Skype, iChat and ICQ, which made video telephony more attractive to the masses, due to its cost-effectiveness.

The widespread use of smartphones has also driven the development and adoption of an increasing number of video telephony applications, including Fring and Tango, as well as Skype, which was one of the first developers to offer video telephony for iOS and Android devices. The collaboration between Skype and Facebook recently published video telephony on Facebook, but to function, Facebook’s video calling requires the user to install software, which varies based on the browser and OS combination.

Today, however, there is only one browser-based video calling solution that provides echo-free sound WITHOUT headphones, and that is FriendCaller. With FriendCaller, users benefit from the ability to make hassle free video calls to those with whom they want to stay connected. They can make face-to-face video calls, anytime or anywhere, with their FriendCaller contacts, and even with friends who are not yet registered with FriendCaller using their personal CallMe-Link.

Video calling made easy! Make your first FriendCaller video call today!

Yesterday, we received many calls when Facebook announced that it would offer Skype Video calls. For the Facebook users who called us, it was not immediately clear to them whether this new calling feature is browser-based, or supported by an installed client. However, the one thing they immediately pointed out to us was that Facebook and Skype are using Java! Everyone had noticed that the safety certificate carries a Java icon!

For the past three years, we have been pretty much alone in using Java for VoIP. And yes, even with Facebook’s news, we are still the only browser-based solution that does not require flash. To function, Facebook’s Video calling requires the user to install software, which varies based on the browser and OS combination.

Still, this announcement is significant for us because not only is it an endorsement of Java, but it also demonstrates the big players realize that Java IS the best solution for a robust and cross-platform VoIP and Video platform. Java is on its way back to the forefront, and the last minute delay to launch Java 7 will not change this. Java helped propel Android into becoming the most popular smart phone OS, and Twitter is also increasingly moving toward JVM. When it comes to performance and scalability, Java IS the technology of choice.

You really can do a lot with Java! Check out our Video calling solution today. There is nothing to install, nothing to configure, and it starts right in your browser!

Yesterday, Microsoft surprised pretty much everybody but Om by snatching Skype from the grips of Google or Facebook.

It was bit surprising, considering the background of Skype from controversial peer-to-peer file sharing and Microsoft’s old world approach to deliver “software on a disk”.

I guess the opinions are really divided, Microsoft has a long-standing reputation to kill innovation, just remember when they acquired Hotmail and one of the coolest and fasted growing browser service of its time was reduced to a rather lackluster affair.

Now some observers predict that Microsoft will charge for Skype and the integration of Skype into the virus stricken Windows environment will not create much confidence with many Skype users either. Even more since Skype actually channels VoIP traffic of other users through your own PC without telling you; they call it Supernode or Node.

The German edition of CNN, n-TV, sees in us a better alternative to Skype since our users do not have to install any software but can call straight from their browser.

With Skype disappearing into the labyrinth of Microsoft consumer and enterprise products we will even more focus on our browser-based technology. When following Google IO you will see the opposite way software is developing. Everything is going to the browser. Crunchgear writes about the way Chrome OS and Chrome become indistinguishable: “No matter your platform, every question will be answered with “in the browser.” Where’s your music? In the browser. How do I rent movies? In the browser. Where are my photos? Browser. Email? Browser.” Well we are adding another and not so insignificant component to that: Where is your phone? In the browser.

So while Microsoft buying Skype is probably not a good day for VoIP Freedom, the trend browser-based and cloud hosted services like FriendCaller make their way to any kind of device and any platform, driven by innovation, certainly is.

You can experience FriendCaller VoIP freedom today: Start using it here

Today, we removed the FriendCaller OS2 version of FriendCaller Instant VoIP from the iTunes store. We did this primarily because it no longer makes sense for us to support OS2 devices, as the number of these devices is quickly dwindling, and OS2 lacks many of the cool features that make FriendCaller so addictive. Furthermore, our latest FriendCaller iOS apps are no longer able to support OS2.

While FriendCaller Instant VoIP was pre push-notification, pre-multitask, pre-almost every cool iPhone OS feature, it was indeed a solid VoIP app. Removing it from iTunes is bittersweet for us because this version was the beginning of the FriendCaller success story. Beating Skype to the punch, FriendCaller Instant Voice was released one week prior to the Skype iPhone app. In fact, FriendCaller was responsible for helping to initiate VoIP functionality for the iPhone, as we were one of the earliest VoIP apps, if not the first full-featured app with both VoIP to VoIP calling capabilities and super cheap calls to direct dial phone numbers.

Early on, FriendCaller clearly demonstrated its capabilities to use the iPhone’s state-of-the-art audio hardware to support crystal clear calls via the Internet. This feature alone was a key selling point for our end-users, since at that time the voice quality of AT&T’s network was suffering due to the iPhone’s rapid success. Suddenly, VoIP calls over WiFi made with FriendCaller delivered much better voice quality than networks calls.

When we launched FriendCaller, we could never have anticipated that the app would become so popular, achieving millions of downloads after it was first approve for sale via the iTunes store. That was in March 2009, when a couple of hundred downloads per day were considered a huge success. If someone would have told us back then that within one year, FriendCaller would become the most successful Social Networking app on iTunes, with only four others apps (all games) grossing more than FriendCaller, we would have told you to dream on!

This dream did come true for us, and in 2010 FriendCaller ranked number five on the iTunes Store’s “Top Grossing Overall” list. Now, two major iOS updates later, it is time to say goodbye to the good old OS2 version, and send it off for a well-deserved retirement. The FriendCaller success story will continue, not only through our iPhone apps, but also through FriendCaller for Android. When searching for VoIP in the Android Market, you find that FriendCaller regularly appears on its list of top ranking apps.

FriendCaller is recognized by German’s leading weekly business magazine Wirtschaftswoche online edition. Their point of view, shared by many: Most parts of the Internet commerce is dominated by large corporations like Google, Ebay or Amazon and newcomers have to create new categories like Facebook or Twitter did or have to take on the giants by providing better and cheaper service, superior user experience or delivering an establish service idea with a special twist like C2Call with FriendCaller.

In their point of view Michael Knecht, C2Call CTO and me, C2Call CEO, started out backed by Ex-Skype Investor Bill Draper to attack Skype by pioneering browser based VoIP: Much easier to use, nothing to install and enabling really spontaneous conversation through a simple mouse-click.

I find this article well written, Matthias Hohensee is well known for his excellent silicon valley reports. However, in our point of view we do not compete with Skype, they have pioneered VoIP for home use, we simply take Internet Telephony one step further and make it even easier and more spontaneous to use. Our browser based technology creates new application through more open social interactions through the click-to-call approach, something a closed user system like Skype can not do. There it is a must that both parties first install and configure skype, get an user ID, exchange these ID and confirm their online relationship before calling.

The click-to-call (C2Call) FriendCaller approach is simple, only one party has to be a FriendCaller user, the Internet call with the other party is established through a link that can be send via email, IM, posted on a blog or anywhere else on the internet. You can start using it here: FriendCaller.com.

Martin Feuerhahn