Fring: Cutting Edge IM/VOIP on Various Mobile Platforms
By: Hillel Fuld
One of the very first apps I installed when first opening my new iPod Touch was Fring. Fring is a mobile app that supports multiple platforms including iPhone, Symbian, Windows Mobile, and even Java. The app enables you first and foremost to make VOIP calls on your mobile device, cutting your costs significantly. Until recently, Fring only worked over Wifi, which meant if you were not located in a Wifi hotspot, you could not take advantage of Fring’s VOIP capabilities. As of this week, Apple and AT&T approved the ability to make VOIP calls over 3G, giving apps like Fring even more of an edge for its users.
When I think Fring, the first words that come to mind are “lightweight”, “user-friendly”, and “viral marketing”. Fring, as opposed to some of the other VOIP/IM apps out there starts up in seconds and already has you IMing, tweeting, or VOIPing in less than 5 seconds. The app is extremely zippy and as easy to use as the iPhone itself. In addition to making VOIP calls, Fring also supports instant messaging on all the major IM networks. This includes AIM, MSN, Yahoo, Gtalk, ICQ, and Skype. The app also offers a full fledged Twitter client, which gives Fring a serious advantage over its competition, especially with the growing buzz about Twitter.
With the iPhone now supporting push technology, Fring, is of course up to date on that too, with push notifications on Skype, MSN, Gtalk, ICQ, SIP, Twitter, Yahoo and AIM. What that means, if you are unfamiliar, is that you can close Fring on your iPhone/iPod Touch and still not have to worry about missing any messages from your friends. This is actually one of the big complaints people have with the iPhone as opposed to other platforms such as BlackBerry, Symbian, or Android. People do not want to leave apps running and taking up screen real estate. They want to have their favorite apps running in the background. Although the iPhone does not officially support background apps (besides the core apps like Music), push technology pretty much solves this issue, and Fring has it implemented with perfection.
So all in all Fring is a pretty cool app, but as much as I love the app, the company is what impresses me most. I can safely say that Fring, out of all the companies I have encountered, have done the best job with their branding strategy and their online reputation. They are always on the edge of technology and on top of the latest trends. Take their latest video for example. Interactive video is, in my opinion, where online video is going, and Fring is already there. Check out the video they released last week, and I would recommend spending a few minutes clicking through the different options. What you will notice right away, is that the video is not a promotional video or an advertisement in any way, it is just a cool entertaining video that raises awareness of a company called Fring. I like it.
Fring also has a strong social presence on social networks such as Twitter, on which they pay close attention to any mention of their brand and reply to users promptly, other companies have a lot to learn from Fring when it comes to social media. In addition, while Fring is extremely popular among mobile users, and has won countless awards, that does not stop the team from developing new and improved apps. In fact, just 3 days ago, Fring released a new iPhone app, which adds some new modern features such as user profiles, which include avatars, mood messages, and nickname. The new iPhone app also includes voice enhancements, the use of the new copy/paste functionality, and the ability to disable push notifications for Twitter, something that can be very overwhelming for people with a lot of followers. Another cool feature supported by the new Fring is VoiceOver for the visually impaired, seems like they just thought of everything.
In conclusion, I would strongly recommend mobile users download this app and test out the cutting edge IM and VOIP features supported by Fring. If not for anything else, the way Fring conducts itself both in terms of their free download policy, as well as the way they use the various online tools should be encouraged and hopefully adopted by other mobile development companies.
Our Rating: 5/5
Developer: Fring
