Fring is a new native application launched today as a ‘pre-release’ version, that provides (WiFi) VOIP and IM capabilities on the iPhone. The app will work with, and grab your contact lists from: Skype, MSN, Google Talk, ICQ, Twitter, Yahoo, and AIM.
The Fring service – as a whole, not just the iPhone piece – is described as:
… a mobile internet community and service that enables its users to talk, chat and interact with other fringsters and their internet communities from their mobile phones.
It’s also completely free – no subscription costs or anything like that – it just makes use of whatever other VOIP services you have setup via Skype or other providers.
I’ve been testing out the Fring iPhone app a little today, and it works quite well, especially for such an early version. I let it subscribe to my Skype and Google Talk accounts and it grabbed my buddy lists without any hassle. I’ve tested it with Skype Out and had reasonable results. As in, calls featured a little delay and a little variation in clarity of call – as I expected after seeing TUAW’s live blog on it ealier, but were easily good enough to live with.
Fring could easily become a real killer app for the iPhone. VOIP over WiFi and via a native app will have a big appeal of course. Throw in a more than solid IM client, and you really have something to talk about – and the IM client looks very good so far. It seems to be fully running in the background without a hitch – trilling at me whenever a new message comes in and incrementing the number of new messages via the standard little red number on its icon. If you’re not keen on that level of background operation (which is probably a battery killer), you just need to use the app’s Exit button to leave it, rather than just tapping the Home button.
Fring is available now on Installer. You’ll need to add their source to see it (under the Fring category) – which is:
http://fring.com/iphone.xml
Tags: Fring, VOIP, iPhone VOIP app, native VOIP app, iPhone instant messaging client, iPhone IM app, iPhone native apps
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