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Comment by csomar | Hacker News Reader

Great. So now the only useful feature and why I keep Skype around is removed? I need this every 1-2 months where I need to make an international phone call. I am on different country every 2-3 months and my call can go to Europe, US or Japan. Skype credit was just amazing because I'd charge a 100 bucks and consume as I needed. Sometimes I need 30 seconds and sometimes it can be a lengthy 20 minutes.

I don't understand this. Their new "plans" require that I subscribe to a full plan, for example, to call India? Does anybody have any good alternative?

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Basically, this. I use Skype to make international phone calls to deal with things like banking, tax etc in a country where I have citizenship but do not live. Exactly the same situation as you - I don't know up-front when the bank is going to randomly put a block on my credit card or when I am going to need spend 2 hours on hold with the tax office, so maintaining a monthly subscription is not appropriate. In the ideal world I would never need to make a call to a traditional phone line at all, but the occasional time that I do, I have Skype. It's very annoying that this is going to go away.

I’ve found Callcentric to be pretty great for making (international) landline calls. Their Pay Per Call rate is reasonable, though I’m not sure how it compares to Skype’s prior offering. Only downside is that there’s no official client I believe. But there’s plenty of VoiP clients out there. I’m personally using the Groundwire app on my iPhone to place international calls to distant extended family every once in a while.

Oh I had just plugged callcentric too. The rate tables are here:

https://www.callcentric.com/find/rate/

For North American use they were 0.0198 a minute .

Versus telnyx at 0.005 per minute but wants business registration.

Skype was 2.3 cents a minute and it was never great.

For anyone who had Skype because they didn’t have a voip phone , or know how to set up software: the free “Lin phone” client for Linux Mac windows and mobile can be configured with a SIP provider.

You just type in sip.callcentric.net and your login is the 1777xxxxxx account number. Password is set separately under the extensions tab.

That’s all you need and you can prepay a credit balance like you did with Skype

Thanks for callcentric/linphone - I got them subscribed and installed and can now drop skype - at last!!! I might even pull out the old Grandstream handset (that I used to use with pennytel before they closed) out of storage and use it with callcentric.

I think Viber still allows it? Although they "freeze" your credit after a while and you need to unfreeze it

Callcentric is still available for $0.00 a month and pay per minute on outbound. Any destination.

I am utilizing them for$1.99 a month inbound and pay per minute inbound too, though they have unlimited in and out I just don’t use it as much as the monthly fee. Love them.

Frankly better rates on twilio and telnyx for high volume and business use which also allow pay as you go but both now require corporate/business registration, EIN, blah blah both of which I’ve done for business use but were a headache.

There are others like voip.ms which fell in the middle rate wise but also demanded so much documentation or hassle I just said no thank you

I think Google voice still lets you do this.

I suggest Rebtel. Works great from anywhere.

WhatsApp. Completely free, and every person or business in large chunks of the world (minus a few notable exceptions like the USA) is on it.

Unfortunately, WhatsApp will not let you use it without handing them all of your contacts.

I wanted to remain in contact with a friend that had moved overseas, so local texting/calling was no longer an option. They use iMessage and WhatsApp, and I don't have an iPhone.

I can't add them as a contact, I can't get messages from them, I can't send messages to them - nothing, unless I hand over all of my contacts.

On Android I just rejected access to contacts.

Then to add a contact enter their phone number specifically and it works for me.

I reinstalled the app just now to re-check.

Click the green 'Add chat' icon.

It prompts: "To help you connect with friends and family, allow WhatsApp access to your contacts" with options for Not now, and Continue.

Not Now closes the dialogue, and returns you to the main chat list.

Continue launches the Android prompt for "Allow WhatsApp to your contacts", clicking Don't Allow returns you to the main chat list.

So, unless there's something else you need to do...

Make a Call works the same way.

I can create a community and a group chat in that, and even send messages to the group.

I can't add anyone to the group though, same "Give us your contacts" thing.

I blocked whatsapp from contacts, so it doesn't popup the prompt anymore, but I don't even get the "to help you connect ..." prompt either.

when I go to the green "add chat" icon, I just get a list with my whatsapp contacts (not system contacts) and if I add a phone number I can talk to them directly (and/or add them to the whatsapp contacts instead of system contacts).

  WhatsApp Messenger
  Version 2.24.24.77

Maybe if you already have some contacts it will let you see your contacts list and add them manually.

But I have none, and so it doesn't.

I don't know the version number, but my check above was from the version on Google Play store. The attempt I initially made was several months ago.

Grapheneos let's you trick apps into thinking they have all your contacts but you actually give them a sub list ("contact scopes")

That is not actually true, on iOS at least. They will bug you to do it, but you can use whatsapp w/o giving access to your contacts.

Unfortunately not on Android.

One of the perks of the AppStore review I guess: it is not allowed to have the app not work if the contacts permission is not granted IIRC :)

WhatsApp doesn’t work for a fixed line or a business phone number

I use my Skype credit when abroad and making local calls so this is quite painful

Try sending a WhatsApp message to the business's phone number. 9 times out of 10 it will work.

A 90% success rate isn't even acceptable for an entertainment website, so definitely not good enough for this.

Airlines, insurance, ikea, … basically everyone who redirects you to a bot menu can’t be reached by WhatsApp

In many countries that'll be ~0/10.

Not remotely a useful alternative for many uses, since it doesn’t call ordinary phone numbers (does it?).

WhatsApp is not an alternative phone. It's a popular messaging app. I don't spend a couple hundreds a year on Skype because I need a chat app but because I have a specific need to call a traditional phone number.

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