Skype 12+

I’ve left several reviews, but as an American living in Italy with lots of family in the United States, paying just over $30 a year I can make unlimited phone calls to any phone number, landline, cell phone, or even toll-free number using Skype. I know there are other free services but most won’t let you call land lines or toll-free numbers. Having that subscription I also pay another $30 a year for a San Francisco phone number that anyone can call in the United States that reaches me here in Italy on my Italian cell. It’s also great because that’s the number that shows up as caller ID when I make calls. Highly recommended. And I love the fact that if you hold your finger on the icon you can bring up the dial pad and quickly paste in any phone number in the US. The subscription plan is very cheap and very good. ONE BIG TIP: if you travel outside of the United States BEFORE you go take out a United States subscription which is now either three or 3 1/2 dollars. This way you can make unlimited calls back home for a month while you’re out of the country when you’re on Wi-Fi. Yes there are many ways to make free phone calls but the subscription will let you call landlines, toll-free numbers like maybe your bank or credit card company that you can’t access with other free services. If you make only one phone call while you’re away it will pay for the service. Then just cancel it when you get back home.

Our family is in a trip for the week atone of the Hocking Hills cabins where there is no cellular service or connections but they do have WiFi. We thought we’d be able to use WiFi calling but it didn’t work. The cabin also has an internet phone but was experiencing difficulties with connecting so we had NO phone.

It wasn’t a huge deal but for safety reasons I prefer to have an emergency line to call out. I downloaded several apps that said we could make calls via WiFi and none worked. I also tried using my business line which we use a digital service provider for and it worked but only twice then kept failing. Our second day here while in my wife’s computer Skype popped up which I had forgotten about. And man was I glad it did because it worked AMAZINGLY! Outside of a lag in the call it was the ONLY things that worked which allowed us to contact the cabin staff regarding the phone and schedule some of the events we wanted to do with the kiddos.

Truly appreciate having Skype!

My girlfriend and I are long distance so we call each other on the daily until she visits. I’ve used Skype over other apps and I have to say it has it’s ups and downs.
Pros: You can expect calls to work perfectly as long as you both have good internet connections. Even when you internet slows down you can still see each other but the quality drops so you can load the video. As someone who’s used Skype for years I’ve noticed on newer phones that selecting things actually works unlike on slower phones where its stutters and takes time.
Cons: They’re pushing too much with emojis and filters and stuff. Why do I have an option to take a picture in the middle of a Skype call? I can literally just turn on my camera and show the person. I have to press speaker all the time when I first make a call and I’m constantly pressing the camera button and waiting forever just to close it. After a call I’m literally asked every time how the quality was. Stop shoving things in my face please. I just wanna call, not see every “great feature you have”. Personally I don’t use 90% of the things Skype has to offer. I just call and turn on my camera. I wish it would focus on that and keep it simple. I don’t wanna have a 1/8 of my screen covered by something I don’t use.

Please just make calling easier, it’s starting to make me think I should switch to Discord.