iCall Free VoIP (Free)
Version – 1.2.5
REVIEW – “Bad reception at home? iCall to the rescue!”
One of the things that I had to compromise a while back when I got my first iPhone was my cell phone service. Now don’t get me wrong, AT&T has very fast 3G service, and I don’t have any more problems in most areas with reception than I did with my previous carrier. The problem is that my house seems to be a dead zone! Since I don’t have a home phone this made it difficult for people to get ahold of sometimes. That is until I started using iCall Free VoIP!
I’ve tried a variety of different VoIP calling services in the past, but most of them are either difficult to set up or didn’t offer some of the features that I wanted to have like an incoming call 
number. The greatest feature of this app in my opinion is in the ease of use factor which was definitely refreshing!
When you open iCall for the first time you will need to set up what kind of plan you’ll be using. If all you want to do is be able to make phone calls one of the options is completely free! The setup for this kind of account consists of making a phone call to a number to confirm what your cell phone number is. Once you’ve done that all you have to do is dial any number to call out over WiFi or the cell network. The great thing is that you can start a call at home on WiFi and then continue it when you leave the house on 3G or EDGE!
But what if you’re like me and you need people to be able to get ahold of you 
at home as well as be able to call out over WiFi? Well for just $10 a month you can get unlimited outgoing and incoming calls to your own private number! There are a variety of area codes to select numbers from, although I was disappointed to see that there were not any local numbers to my area. With that said, there are a variety of area codes available and they are constantly adding more!
Now I’m sure you’re probably wondering how you can receive calls with no cell connection. Well as long as your home WiFi is set up properly you will receive a push notification over WiFi that will let you know when you have an incoming call! When you receive the message all you have to do is touch answer to open up iCall and answer the call immediately!
One of the most important things with a service like this is always going to be call quality. I was very pleased with the quality of calls using my 3GS phone. I made and received several calls to both local and long-distance numbers and didn’t seem to have any problems. With that said, my wife seemed to have problems with choppy audio on her iPhone 3G. It didn’t happen all the time though so it’s possible that it had more to due to some of the memory problems that the 3G has.
This app also offers a decent array of features that you would expect. It allows you to use your iPhone 
contacts list from directly within the app, it shows you a list of calls that you’ve made recently and it also offers a voice mail box that is particularly useful if you decide to pay for a personal incoming number.
While this app is really great I did have a few things that I would really like to see added in the future. The first is that it could use a “speakerphone” feature. As of now there is no way to put a call on speakerphone which is particularly annoying if you are trying to use a touchtone menu on a company’s answering machine. The
second thing that would be really nice is if there was an incoming call list. It’s great that you can see what phone calls you’ve made in the past, but more often what I want to check is who I’ve received calls from.
Overall, this app is definitely a winner in my book. The best part is there is that the basic service works well and its cheap. Some of the little things within the app should be easy to add/fix and make this app even more amazing. If you’ve been debating on getting a home phone number because of reception problems, I simply cannot recommend this app enough. The ability to make sure your phone calls have a strong signal and don’t get dropped while at home is worth a lot more than the cheap $10 a month that they are charging people! So what are you waiting for? See what all the fuss is about and try out the outgoing call feature of iCall today!
- David H.
Download Now!
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Developer – iCall, Inc.
URL: http://www.icall.com/iphone/
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{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
I have an iPhone 3g that I never signed up to AT&T or TMobile. I just use my home wireless and hotspots around town. I have never been able to use my iPhone as a phone. Will this app allow me to use my iPhone as a phone even though I don’t have a phone number? I have an old sim card in there from previous service, but it’s not active.
That I don’t know the answer for sure. When I used it on my 3GS I had service already. With that said it does say for iPhone or iPod Touch on their website so I would assume that it would work. But you know what they say out of people that “assume”
. Anyway the app is free to try out so just go ahead and download it and give it a shot!
i am strongly considering purchasing the 10 dollar/month service. but will i be able to maintain my original iphone number for the icall number or will i have to tell people that i have another number? how will people know which number to call me at if i have two numbers? let me know how you dealt with this issue, i’m very curious.
Unfortunately you won’t be able to use your phone’s number to make and receive calls in the app. What I have done is use this as a replacement for my home phone because we don’t get great service there. I tell people to call my “home” number if I don’t answer my cell. But anyway, you will have to give people a new number for them to be able to call you via iCall.
I will tell you though that the call quality is good and the push notifications work like a charm even over Wifi!
I couldn’t tell from the video but was there a sound when the call came in? Will the phone ring? If not how do you know when to answer?
Yes there is sound when a call comes in. If the app is not open you get a push notification with sound. Unfortunately there is no way to set a “ring tone” on this, but at least it does make sound! If the app was open I don’t know if it would make a sound, but if you’re using the app then you would see it.
i can’t seem to open up icall
like it just sticks at finding the server and i’ve tried reinstalling it many times. What do u suggest?
Thanks for the review. I have an android phone right now and the only reason I haven’t gotten an iphone is because there is literally no ATT signal in my house. In fact T-Mobile is the only signal we get. I have been doing research trying to figure out a way to migrate over to the iphone and think this is my solution. Thank God I started using a Google Voice account a while back so even though I have to get a new number for the iphone everyone calls me on my Google voice number anyway. Brian (the poster on April 13th might be able to use the Google voice option. Curious, is how seamless is the transition when you receive calls over wifi at your home? Is there a delay when you dial out using icall/wifi?
Thanks,
Ken
Thank for your comment! As far as receiving calls on iCall, there is a slight delay obviously to load the app up. Because of this you do have to answer the phone pretty quickly to make sure you’re able to pick it up. Once the app itself gets loaded up though it’s very fast. Dialing out works great, although I did have a little bit of trouble on my wife’s iPhone 3G. It works amazing though on both my iPhone 3GS and iPad. Obviously this might depend some on the speed of the wifi that you are connected to, but I have tested on my home wifi, work wifi, and even public wifi and not really had any major problems.
So here’s a question for you…
I have an international cell phone (it’s a Japanese iPhone) with this app. I signed up for the 10/month plan and everything…yet people can’t call me using the iCall number. Correction: they can, but it immediately hangs up.
Is this just because I have an international phone?
This usually has to do with you not quite answering it soon enough. when you open up the app from a push notification to answer a phone call it actually has to call in and then connect you to the call so there is a little bit of a delay.
Hello friends
this is icall is one of the shit application released by iphone applications
This is worst application i never seen in iphone
when ever i try to open this fucking application hangs at finding server.
I’m not sure what device you are trying to use this app with, or if maybe you’re jailbroken and that may be causing some problems, but I use this app quite regularly on my iPad and it works just fine for me…