We’ve been fans of Vox.io for a year here at The Next Web, ever since we covered its launch a year ago. Back then, it was probably the easiest way of making very cheap phone calls from your browser, using your existing number. Now the San Francisco startup with Slovenian roots has brought this same user experience to the iPhone.
The Vox.io iPhone app interacts seamlessly with your both your user account and your phone’s address book. With a clean and simple UI, the price-per-minute of each call is displayed on the screen next to each contact so you know exactly how much you’ll be paying. That’s generally not much, and free if you’re calling another Vox.io user who is currently online. You can top up your credit directly from the app
When you make a call, your own phone number is displayed to the person at the other end, meaning that the fact you’re using VoIP should be completely invisible. In terms of call quality, we found that we could make perfectly clear calls over WiFi but found distortion problems over 3G – that may just have been our signal quality though.
Vox.io for iPhone is so well designed that you barely think about the interface – everything is easy to find and painless to use. While currently iOS-only, other operating systems are planned for the future. Video calls, currently possible in the browser-based version, will also be added in the future.
Vox.io has recently passed the 100,000 user mark, and the browser-based version recently had a group calling feature introduced. If you find Skype cumbersome, Vox.io is well worth a try.
The Vox.io iPhone app is a free download and available now.
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