Skype Alt. - Eastern Carib

[hpeer]

My Wife has somehow hozed up her Skype account. She is horrible with passwords, just quite impossible, and it appears she has entered some security black hole. Perhaps I could dig out of this if I were stateside but not here in Grenada. I don’t want to try to fix the Skype thing ATM, I want a suggested alternative.

I have a local SIM card and I want to be able to call her when she has WIFI and I’m roaming about. Also I want her to be able to make a call to the states via the web as you would do with Skype. That’s pretty much it, just basic stuff.

Any help would be appreciated.

[boatman61]

Whatsapp.. Encrypted calls, free, can do everything Skype does..
Switched from Skype to this and much prefer it.

[JayH]

WhatsApp only works on phones. No computer or web experience that I know of. It can only call other WhatsApp users. The call quality is not as good as Skype IMO.

WhatsApp is superior for texting, but not for any technical reason. Skype is just unable to offer a compelling user experience.

If you're headed to the W. Carib, you may as well adopt WhatsApp now. It is the primary mode of communication there and included in all the data plans. You really can't get along without it.

Skype is great and I don't know of any direct replacement. WhatsApp is only a subset. The fact that WhatsApp can exist and thrive is a failure of Skype to dominate a market it created.

[john61ct]

Easy enough to just create a new free Skype account.

TextNow is a free SMS and voice app, supports most platforms

Free version, if you don't use it at all for a few weeks recycles the number. $4 a month hold the number for you without using the service.

[hpeer]

Thanks guys. I didn’t think of an additional Skype account as it seems to be tied into her USA cell number. MICROSOFT keeps requiring her to log into “alive” for some security reason, and request a verification code sent to her phone number, which never arrives but times out and says to try again in a few days.

So anyway that’s why I didn’t try a second account, still same phone number.

WhatsApp only works on phones. No computer or web experience that I know of. It can only call other WhatsApp users. The call quality is not as good as Skype IMO.

She only needs it on an iPhone so that no issue. But she needs to be able to call regular phone numbers.

[john61ct]

Install and register TextNow, it's free.

You can then use that phone number if necessary to register another Skype account.

Calling MS tech support is tedious but do-able.

But just TextNow may be enough for now.

[davenrino]

Originally Posted by hpeer

She only needs it on an iPhone so that no issue. But she needs to be able to call regular phone numbers.

Facetime if you both use iDevices. I also use Whats App and Vibr.

[hpeer]

Trying to understand TextNow.

Can I Use An Existing Phone?

You can use select Sprint, Virgin Mobile, and Boost devices with TextNow.

You can also buy SIM cards if you have a GSM OR CDMA compatible phone.

However, TextNow does recommend purchasing a TextNow phone if audio quality is important to you. The phones they sell are specifically programmed to utilize the cellular network and the data network for calls, whereas others aren't

Most importantly, phones not purchased from TextNow will not have the free unlimited 2G.

[hpeer]

Well it seems I was able to download Textnow onto my existing Verizion iPhone. We will see how this works.

Thanks for the suggestion.

[hamburking]

FaceBook Messenger. I use this with my kids. Its excellent. Works on phones and computers. Very simple to use. Allows voice or full video...voice is useful when the wifi is not so good. Highly recommended. The only downside is that you need to create a Facebook account. But it's all free.

Note, once you have a FB account, you don't need to use FB at all, just the Messenger APP on your phone or messenger.com on any PC browser.

[hpeer]

FB Messenger, I was just fooling with it. I had not realized that it also did audio. This works mostly, there are some who don’t have a FB account and I don’t see a way to simply dial a number, yet.

[john61ct]

Originally Posted by hpeer

Well it seems I was able to download Textnow onto my existing Verizion iPhone. We will see how this works.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Totally straightforward, ask if you have a question.

A pox on comms requiring social media!

[SailSonoma]

Not long ago, my phone went overboard and was lost at sea. I installed TextNow on an old back up tablet and was able to send and receive voice calls from regular phones no problem.

Great, easy, lightweight solution. However I don't think it supports video calling.

[john61ct]

No as I said old-school SMS and voice only

[bellasailor]

Originally Posted by hpeer

She only needs it on an iPhone so that no issue. But she needs to be able to call regular phone numbers.

If she needs to be able to call regular numbers (i.e. landlines OR cell phones but not over the internet) then look into Viber or Google Hangouts.

Calls to US landlines are reputedly cheaper on Viber than Skype too; https://www.chanty.com/blog/skype-al.../#VibervsSkype