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Ask HN: Best replacement for Skype

8 points by drallison ↗ HN
Skype just announced a significant (67%) increase in price for a SkypeIn number. The price increase together with a nearly non-functional user interface, a buggy Linux application and poor sound stability, suggests that it may be time to move on. What other suppliers have products that can be used to replace Skype?

7 comments

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black-hole
Wire. Its end-to-end encrypted and has applications for all major platforms (electron though)
indescions_2018
This actually looks pretty cool. Thanks for the link ;)

I can also recommend Cyclops for group video conferencing. Chrome only. But WebRTC based so its as easy as distributing a URL!

https://www.cyclops.io/

gesman
Since MSFT touched Skype it was a slow and accelerating downhill.

I was super impressed by sound quality and stability of Telegram app talking friend from europe over average wifi.

karma_daemon
Discord for sure

I switched and never looked back. They have pretty slick apps for desktop and mobile too.

eb0la
If you run your own voip software (asterixt, freebpx, etc), you can get a DID (Dial-In) number from $2 per month (depending on the country).

Just google {country} did number ;-)

XDASyndicate
Use http://textnow.com if you need an incoming/outgoing phone number. It's free also. If you just want calling, and you care about open-source and security, use Riot. http://riot.im/app and if you want something a little more simple I suggest ooVoo.