GTalk2VoIP starts callback

Yesterday my virtual buddy service@gtalk2voip.com started to chat me automatically when I had my GMail open. He told me about a great new service that's possible now with GTalk2VoIP: Callback.

All users of Jabber based IM chat, Google Talk, MSN/Live Messenger or Yahoo! Messenger can use GTalk2VoIP service to initiate VoIP calls using CALLBACK technique. This means, our system can make VoIP call to your phone (mobile or landline), then make a call to your destination and merge two calls (legs). Callback is initiated by a single IM message sent to service@gtalk2voip.com.

Just talk to the robot! Use your instant messenger to say "CALLBACK +1-111-2223344 +1-555-6667788" to the service@gtalk2voip.com buddy. This will initiate a call to your phone number +1-111-2223344, then to your destination +1-555-6667788. It even works on your mobile phone if you use Fring or the mobile version of Gizmo Project.

The calls cost the normal GTalk2VoIP rates or the rates of your own SIP provider which you can also use at GTalk2VoIP. Each call leg is billed separately, so if both legs are phone numbers the final cost will "double". But normally it should be no problem to use your Fring to start a free call between your friends landline and the fixed line telephone next to you.

This seems much faster and easier than Jajah to me.

What's the purpose of Lypp if GTalk2VoIP already does the same?

VoIP veteran Erik Lagerway, co-founder of softphone maker XTen (today CounterPath), sent me an invitation to participate in the beta test of his new service Lypp.

Lypp is a new calling service that uses IM and command line commands to create one-to-one calls and group calls. By sending a simple command from AIM, MSN, Yahoo, Jabber, Gtalk, or ICQ like "call 6045551212, 7035551212", users can create a quick group call. It will be launching in September. It will be Free.

Lypp uses your existing landline or mobile number, but calls are initiated using Instant Messaging. To make that possible you have to add the robot lypp@lypp.com to your Jabber/GTalk IM buddy list. Currently they support AIM / iChat, Google Talk / Jabber, MSN and Yahoo! The answer to the signup e-mail explains it more:

Once you've added the lypp@lypp.com buddy to your Jabber/Gtalk IM contact list, here's how you use the service:

1. Send commands to the Lypp buddy using the following syntax:

call 6046297990 8774730516

You can enter up to 10 phone numbers (remember we currently only support US and Canadian phone numbers).
2. Your phone will ring, the other participants' phones will ring and you'll all be connected.
3. We've kept it simple. There is no step 3.

For help is using the service just text "help" to lypp@lypp.com.

Enjoy!

The Lypp Team

PS: If you invite friends to use Lypp and if they sign up, we'll add 10 bonus minutes to your account for each friend. Refer a friend by texting "invite user@service.com" to lypp@lypp.com.

Lypp's concept sounded directly familiar too me, because I know it from the Russian company GTalk2VoIP.

Although they are located in the remote Siberian city of Tyumen GTalk2VoIP has a famous name in the VoIP industry, providing for instance the bridge to make calls from Gizmo Project to MSN, Yahoo, Jabber and Google Talk.

You just have to accept a robot called service@gtalk2voip.com or gtalk2voip@yahoo.com as buddy on MSN, Google Talk or Yahoo. Then you can make phone calls with these chat programs by texting messages like "call 1-650-253-0000" to the robot. More information can be found here.

Sounds similar to Lypp, doesn't it?

GTalk2VoIP does this already for 1,5 years, so I wonder what is the purpose of Lypp. A copycat? I already asked this question in the regarding group at Facebook, but I still have to wait for an answer.

It can't be the conference calls, because GTalk2VoIP also states on their website that "any IM user can create one or more conference rooms and invite his/her friends to join the conference".

So let's see what the beta test brings.

My answer to Jeff Pulver's "Call for More Innovation in Voice Services"

Jeff Pulver and Ken Camp are bored from what they've seen in VoIP lately. That's why Jeff startet a "challenge for innovative disruptors with regards to the voice applications industry":

Think about presence and voice and instant messaging, take a look at the APIs of twitter and Facebook and pitch me on the service that you want to create. Those who get my attention might end up with the early-early seed capital needed to turn their dream into a reality.

So what could that be? Jeff doesn’t want to hear about a service that's simply a variation on Call Forwarding and/or Voicemail. It has to be something really different. Something cool. Something that truly helps to redefine communications.

I am really courious to see the winner of this competition. I don't know why Jeff is so excited about Twitter and Facebook. To me these applications are mostly a waste of time. But what I would love to have is a "Hosted Fring with Grandcentral's filter rules and international mobile callforward over GSM".

What does that mean?

I like Fring because it connects me with just one program to my contacts at Skype, MSN messenger and Google Talk. Lately it also works as a VoIP client. But only on my Nokia mobile phone!

Why isn't there a website that does the same like Fring? Why isn't Fring a hosted service? I would love to leave my login data for all these services on their website and connect to it over SIP from my ATA. A kind of Voxalot, but extended with Skype, MSN messenger and Google Talk.

Whenever somebody contacts me, my phone should ring. Outgoing calls to Skype, MSN, Google or phone numbers should also be made with my normal phone. The server would decide automatically how to connect the call, because it has call rules for that - like Voxalot has.

Incoming calls would be filtered like at Grandcentral. Annoying people could only leave a voicemail and good friends could ring my phone day and night.

This service should of course not only work over an ATA but also over the mobile phone network. Internationally! There are more and more international MVNOs slashing roaming charges and giving local fixed line numbers to mobile phones. This means they already have an own SIP infrastructure and GSM gateways in every country. If they can give me a local fixed line number in a country, they can also deliver cheaply the described calls from Skype, MSN, Google and my home VoIP providers over GSM.

Outgoing calls should be done the Nimbuzz way:

Call your IM buddies on their mobile or on their PC. At the cost of a local call, worldwide. No credits needed.

A small application on my mobile phone would always know which cheap number to call in every country to connect to the described network.

I am sure, that the despicted layout is possible. The guys at Fring, Grandcentral, Gtalk2VoIP, Skip2PBX and Roam4Free have already pieces of it in their hands.

More coverage about the challenge:

Andy Abramson, Jon Arnold, Pat Phelan, Aswath Rao, Alec Saunders, Russell Shaw and TIA Communities.