Skype is dead. Need an alternative to make international calls to landlines. Suggestions?
I hate Google but Google voice is how I used to make international calls
Yolla seems to have similar prices. I bought some credit with them. I haven’t needed to use it yet, so I cannot vouch for the call quality. Unlike others, their credit doesn’t expire after a certain period. You can also get a good deal by searching for discount codes before buying credit.
At least here in the US, lots of mobile phone plans have free or cheap international calls, depending on the countries involved. Example. Some home landline plans also have that. So far that has been enough for me on the few occasions when I’ve wanted to make an international call. If more frequent, I’d use a VOIP provider, maybe Twilio (I’m sure there are others too, but I know Twilio supports this and has a decent API).
VOIP providers will often also sell you inbound phone numbers in the destination country, if you want the other person to be able to call you from their landline without it getting rung up as an international call for them. Those aren’t always so cheap, but there are obvious use cases.
Skype for business is still supported
Zoom phone, google voice
I use a SIP phone service now (zadarma.com). They have an app for Android, and it also works with the SIP clients on my Linux desktop. Can’t give a longtime review of them yet, as i am a Skype “victim” too, but so far so good.
I think there is another messenger called Viber that can call landlines, but it looked a little sketchy to me.
Google voice works fine for me. Requires a payment but the rates are very cheap.
Check out Jmp.chat
It’s not directly what you’re looking for, but it does offer VOIP via XMPP. Voice calls are crazy cheap, like 0.1¢/min, or something (I forget, it’s so silly cheap I just don’t care).
You can use it stand-alone, or port your phone number in and now everything (calls/sms) go through XMPP. This is how I found them, as a solution to crappy SMS being tied to a physical device. Now my (crappy) SMS is on any XMPP client I use - phone, laptop, desktop, iPad, etc. And all calls are VOIP from any device, so long as the client supports it. I don’t think there’s a Windows client that yet supports voice (Gajim is the go-to for XMPP on Windows), but there’s: Android (Cheogram), Linux (Gajim) and iOS (Snikket).
I used to use an app called WeTalk ages ago when I was calling to countries that blocked Skype.
It was kinda janky and not free but dirt cheap(1.5-2¢/minute.
Haven’t used it in years though
I mean, depending on who/why you’re calling, you can just use Discord. Just add someone as a friend and you can message/voice chat directly with them anytime you want. They have a reasonable mobile app in addition to desktop and even browser options.
This doesn’t answer the question though. They want to call landlines.
Sure, but that’s just a dumb way to do it when even in third world countries everyone is rocking at least a basic smartphone.
Tell that to someone who has an 83 year old mother who hasn’t touched a computer in at least 30 years, and has early stages of Alzheimer’s.
I eagerly await your justification.
The statistical chance of that being the case is very low, but in that case sure go find a way to call their landline.
For everyone else, they should try a modern communications tool.
Then tell that to the more general aged population that isn’t familiar with more modern technology, for no particular reason.
Your ageism is showing.
You’re saying that people who are old can’t learn or be taught how to use a modern communications tool. Who’s really being ageist here?
My 70 year old father can handle most things on his cellphone with just a few minutes of someone walking him through it.
Also, as of 2023, only 10% of the world population is over 65, so between the fact that there aren’t actually that many old people and some of them definitely CAN operate modern technology, it’s a good solution for most situations.
It would seem you deliberately ignored the “for no particular reason” part of my statement, which acts as an umbrella term specifically for those of the aged population that cannot operate or learn new technology FOR NO PARTICULAR REASON. That can be either cognitive or physical issues, or personal preference.
Nowhere did I imply in my previous statement that the majority of people of advancing years can learn how to operate said modern technology. I was merely pointing out YOUR lack of inclusiveness. Ageist.
This reads like a good old stackoverflow answer:
I want to do X, can anyone help?
X is dumb, and you shouldn’t do it. Here’s how to do Y.
Those are often right.
People frequently aren’t asking the right questions because they are thinking inside a box that doesn’t need to exist.
Sometimes there are legitimate reasons why these options don’t work, but most of the time they are the superior choice.
It can be legitimate to ask “why do you want to do X” so that you can help find a solution to the underlying problem. Saying “you shouldn’t do X” without knowing what the underlying problem is is the epitome of unhelpful and overbearing.
It’s literally a meme that devs have some obscure problem, and the only online resource they find is a forum post with one of
- nvm, I fixed it (no further explanation)
- Marked as duplicate (link to question about something different but related)
- “You shouldn’t do this, here’s how to do something else” (cannot do Y, that’s why I’m trying to do X)
Other people had already responded with answers that fit the specific question prior to me responding. I was just adding an additional possibility to consider.
Signal?
You can call land lines with Signal?
Could you call them with Skype?
Literally the whole premise of this post lol…
Yup!
Yes
Not over here.
Nope
Also, this is 2025. Who still has exclusively a land line?
The question isn’t who exclusively has a landline, or why OP needs to call a landline. They’ve stated that they need to be able to call a landline: It’s safe to assume that they are aware of the existence of smartphones and internet-based calling services, and have concluded that it doesn’t serve their needs, which is why they’re asking for help calling a landline. Responding that they don’t need to call a landline reads like the classic stackoverflow response of “you don’t need to do <thing the question asks how to do>”.
The elderly
Europeans. Fibre Internet, phone runs on the WiFi. Using mobile data is fucking expensive.
