VoIP Clients

Viber

Viber

Web site: www.viber.com
Category: Network
Subcategory: Instant Messenger, VoIP Clients
Platform: Android, iOS, Linux, OS X, Windows
License: Freeware
Interface: GUI
Programing language: ?
First release: ?
Rating:  star  star  star  star

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Viber – a free and multi-platform messenger for voice and video conferencing, which also allows you to send text messages and image files at the same time. Viber is an ideal alternative for the most popular voice communicator Skype.

Viber gained huge popularity in the mobile version for iOS, BlackBerry and Android, as well as Windows Phone. Viber in the desktop version allows you to perform the same tasks as the mobile version. In addition, after logging in, using your own mobile number, it can synchronize your list of contacts and all other elements along with the entire archive of conversations. It is worth adding that we can also continue the conversations started in the desktop application, for example using a smartphone, tablet or vice versa.

Using the program in the desktop version, we get the best quality of voice calls and video calls in HD, as well as the possibility of free sending of SMS messages and digital photos. Viber is also characterized by speed of operation and low consumption of memory and processor.

To be able to use the Viber communicator, you must have an Internet connection and your own mobile phone number, which is required to log in.

Ring

Ring

Web site: ring.cx
Category: Network
Subcategory: Instant Messengers, VoIP Clients
Platform: Android, Linux, OS X, Windows
License: GPL
Interface: GUI
Programing language: C, C++
First release: 2016 ?
Rating:  star  star  star  star  star

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Ring (prevoiusly: SFLphone) – a free software for universal communication which respects the freedoms and privacy of its users. It is published under the GNU General Public License 3. Ring is developed by Savoir-faire Linux with the help of a global community of users and contributors. Savoir-faire Linux is a Canadian company specialized in Linux and free software. In November 2016, it became part of the GNU Project.

The goals of Ring are:
– a telephone: a simple tool to connect, communicate and share
– a teleconferencing tool: easily join calls to create conferences with multiple participants
– a media sharing tool: Ring supports a variety of video input options, including mutliple cameras and image and video files, and the selection of audio inputs and outputs; all this is supported by multiple high quality audio and video codecs
– a messenger: send text messeges during calls or out of calls (as long as your peer is connected)
– a building block for your IoT project: re-use the universal communications technology of Ring with its portable library on your system of choice.

WhatsApp

WhatsApp

Web site: www.whatsapp.com
Category: Network
Subcategory: Instant Messenger, VoIP Clients
Platform: Android, iOS, OS X, Windows
License: Freeware
Interface: GUI
Programing language: Erlang
First release: January, 2009
Rating:  star  star  star  star

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WhatsApp Messenger – a free messaging and VoIP app available for iPhone and other smartphones, and desktop/laptops running under Windows or OS X. WhatsApp uses your phone’s Internet connection (4G/3G/2G/EDGE or Wi-Fi, as available) to let you message and call friends and family. Switch from SMS to WhatsApp to send and receive messages, calls, photos, videos, and Voice Messages.

Features:
– WhatsApp uses your phone’s Internet connection to send messages so you can avoid SMS fees.
– The group chats feature lets you share messages, photos, and videos with up to 256 people at once.
– Sync all of your chats to your computer so that you can chat on whatever device is most convenient for you.
– WhatsApp voice and video calls use your phone’s Internet connection, instead of your cell plan’s voice minutes, so you don’t have to worry about expensive calling charges.
– When end-to-end encrypted, your messages and calls are secured so only you and the person you’re communicating with can read or listen to them, and nobody in between, not even WhatsApp.
– Send photos and videos on WhatsApp instantly.
– Send PDFs, documents, spreadsheets, slideshows and more, without the hassle of email or file sharing apps (up to 100 MB).

The application is owned by Facebook.

Discord

Discord

Web site: discordapp.com
Category: Network
Subcategory: VoIP Clients, Instant Messengers
Platform: Android, iOS, Linux, OS X, Windows
License: Proprietary, Freeware
Interface: GUI
Programing language: JavaScript, React, Elixir
First release: May 13, 2015
Rating:  star  star  star  star  star

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Discord – a proprietary and free to use VoIP client designed for gaming communities, that specializes in text, video and audio communication between users in a chat channel. It is built on the Electron framework using web technologies.

The main features of Discord application are:
– Voice chat: Join voice channels and chat with your group
– Real-time messaging: Share video, images, and text in rich chat
– Push notifications: Never miss a thing with @mentions and direct messages
– Instant Invite: Easily add friends to your voice server by sharing the Instant Invite link
– Direct messages: Send one-to-one private messages
– Multiple server support: Manage all your game chat groups in one client
– Organizable channels: Keep discussions on topic through structured communication

TeamSpeak

TeamSpeak

Web site: www.teamspeak.com
Category: Network
Subcategory: VoIP Clients
Platform: Android, FreeBSD (server), iOS, Linux, OS X, Windows
License: Freeware, Proprietary
Interface: GUI
Programing language: C++, Qt
First release: April 26, 2002
Rating:  star  star  star  star

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TeamSpeak – an internet communicator which uses the VoIP technology for voice and text communication between multiple users of a given server. The messenger is mainly used by players to quickly exchange information in multiplayer games.

The application uses advanced multimedia codecs that guarantee for users high quality of transmitted sound. It also offers useful functions for automatic microphone adjustment, an effective mechanism for eliminating all kinds of noise and echo effects, as well as support for spatial playback of the audio signal.

It also offers ability to create lists of friends and blocked contacts, establish a connection with more than one server at the same time, exchange files between users, support for the most popular control devices for players or an extensive licensing system, allowing convenient management of players within a given server.

TeamSpeak is avaiable to use as a client and a server application and can be installed on most popular platforms.

The original author of the application is Mand’alor Mech The First, and it is developed by TeamSpeak Systems GmbH.

Skype

Skype

Web site: www.skype.com
Category: Network
Subcategory: Instant Messengers, VoIP Clients
Platform: Android, HoloLens, iOS, Linux, OS X, Windows, Xbox One
License: Freemium
Interface: GUI
Programing language: C++
First release: August 29, 2003
Rating:  star  star  star  star  star

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Skype – an application which lets users to make voice or video calls and keep in touch via an instant message system. It is available for many devices and operating systems such as smartphones, tablets, PCs, Macs and Linux.

The main featureas of Skype are:
– Video calls – don’t just hear the cheers, see it. Get together your friends and family on a video call. Watch your everyone’s smiles and cries when you tell them “We’re engaged!”
– Chat – reach people instantly. Send messages to your friends, liven up conversations with emoticons and Mojis, or create a group chat to make weekend plans with up to 300 people.
– Share – share your screen, photos, videos, documents, and files with your family and friends. Unlike email, Skype will transfer up to 300MB per file.
– Voice calls – make voice calls to anyone on Skype. You can also call mobile and landlines at low rates.

Skype uses a proprietary Internet telephony (VoIP) network called the Skype protocol. The protocol has not been made publicly available by Skype, and official applications using the protocol are closed-source. Starting from 2014, Skype uses a new protocol Microsoft Notification Protocol 24.

Skype was founded in 2003 by Niklas Zennström, from Sweden, and Janus Friis, from Denmark and the software was created by Estonians Ahti Heinla, Priit Kasesalu, and Jaan Tallinn.

Twinkle

Twinkle

Web site: mfnboer.home.xs4all.nl/twinkle/
Category: Network
Subcategory: VoIP Clients
Platform: Linux
License: GPL
Interface: GUI, CLI
Programing language: C++
First release: April 27, 2005
Rating:  star  star  star  star

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Twinkle – a softphone for your voice over IP and instant messaging communcations using the SIP protocol. You can use it for direct IP phone to IP phone communication or in a network using a SIP proxy to route your calls and messages.

Twinkle features:
– 2 call appearances (lines)
– Multiple active call identities
– Custom ring tones
– Call Waiting
– Call Hold
– 3-way conference calling
– Mute
– Call redirection on demand
– Call redirection unconditional
– Call redirection when busy
– Call redirection no answer
– Reject call redirection request
– Blind call transfer
– Call transfer with consultation (attended call transfer)
– Reject call transfer request
– Call reject
– Repeat last call
– Do not disturb
– Auto answer
– Message Waiting Inidication
– Voice mail speed dial
– User defineable scripts triggered on call events
– E.g. to implement selective call reject or distinctive ringing
– RFC 2833 DTMF events
– Inband DTMF
– Out-of-band DTMF (SIP INFO)
– STUN support for NAT traversal
– Send NAT keep alive packets when using STUN
– NAT traversal through static provisioning
– Persistent TCP connections for NAT traversal
– Missed call indication
– History of call detail records for incoming, outgoing, successful and missed calls
– DNS SRV support
– Automatic failover to an alternate server if a server is unavailable
– Other programs can originate a SIP call via Twinkle, e.g. call from address book
– System tray icon
– System tray menu to quickly originate and answer calls while Twinkle stays hidden
– User defineable number conversion rules
– Simple address book
– Support for UDP and TCP as transport for SIP
– Presence
– Instant messaging
– Simple file transfer with instant message
– Instant message composition indication
– Command line interface (CLI)

It is designed for Linux operating systems and uses the Qt toolkit for its graphical user interface.