Fring review

Fring is now available on the App Store making it easy for anyone to use fring on the original iPhone, iPhone 3G or iPod touch. After you install the free fring iPhone app you can make free calls with other fringsters or via fring using Skype, Skype-out or any SIP providers you choose.

You will have one searchable contact list with all your instant messaging buddies from Skype, MSN Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ, Twitter, Yahoo! and AIM so you can easily see whose available and where they can be reached before dialing or starting a live chat session. In short, you can finally interact with all your favorite internet applications, services and communities from your iPhone.

You can make video phone calls from your Skype account to another Skype user. If you don’t have a Skype account, you are responsible for signing up for your own SIP account from various SIP providers, outside of the Fring app.

Update: Fring has just been updated and has added 2-way video calling on the iPhone 4 over 3G. This is great because FaceTime only works on WiFi, and now with Fring you can call your friends who are not using an iPhone 4 also, and plus with Android support this means you can even video call friends not on an iPhone as well.

Put it all together, and it means you can use Fring to call or video call your friend on an iPhone 3Gs or even someone on an HTC Evo not using ATT.

Update: As you might have heard, Fring has been blocked by Skype. Here is the email sent out by Fring to its users today explaining the issue:

As you may have noticed, Skype has blocked fring. We are very sorry for any inconvenience this Skype policy has unfairly caused you.

As loyal fring users, you deserve an explanation: Last week, following the surge in fring video calling traffic, fring service to Skype was temporarily reduced . Unfortunately, Skype and their legal team demanded not to restore your connectivity to Skype via fring.

Needless to say, we are very disappointed that Skype is now trying to muzzle competition, even at the expense of its own users.

While we regret Skype’s decision to block fring, we are committed to continuing to provide you with market-leading innovation, to keep you in touch with your friends, wherever they are.

On fring you can freely use the best mobile over internet communication like video calling, calls and chat anywhere (3G/4G/WiFi) on any advanced Smartphone.

Here is a video demo of the Fring app on the iPhone

AppSafari Rating: 4/5

AppSafari review of Fring was written by Joe Seifi on July 8th, 2010 and categorized under App Store, Phone, Utilities, VOIP. Page viewed 10334 times, 2 so far today. Need help on using these apps? Please read the Help Page.