Calling for free on the cell phone is not exactly something new in the mobile industry. Most of the VoIP apps can be accomplished with WI-FI connection. Nevertheless, it would be unfair to deny the growing interest in the market to these apps as they are usage-friendly, cheap or totally free. In this article, we will list top VoIP apps and the ways to protect them from being monitored by the third party.
- Viber. Viber cannot be exactly called the best VoIP app but it is quite impressive. The biggest advantage of this is the voice over internet protocol application is its ability to connect the users on the edge of connection. According to the recent poll by Free Internet users, Viber got the first place because of its connection abilities. Viber’s biggest disadvantage comes from annoying ads and spamming that happened years ago when installing the app for the first time.
- Phone Power. Easy to set up and easy to use. The biggest advantages of the app are voice mail and number blocking. Replaces home and office phones and saves your budget on interstate calls. International calls are also available with monthly plans that are 70% cheaper than the competition.
- Magic Jack. A comparably old app may seem a waste of time with the appearance of new technologies. Nevertheless, it still holds its advantage of calling directly to the cell phone number within the United States for free. The disadvantage is that it is usually connected to the device that you should previously buy and install. If using over the device, you won’t get text messages, video or file exchange.
- Google Hangouts. Just like any other product by Google, Hangouts are at an interesting stage of developing when one can get a great number of advantages completely out of charge. For example, at a recent moment, some people call for free, while others don’t. Google Hangouts will surely gain one of the top places among VoIP products because of the customer loyalty of the company and the team creativity itself. By now you can call another Google Hangout user completely out of charge, as for domestic and international calls you will be charged a rate that starts with $2/minute.
- Vonage mobile. This app works both good on IOS and Android, its biggest advances come from unlimited calls within the user and domestic calls over the USA for free. International calls are also available at the lowest rates, you will have to sign up for Vonage credits or better, invite friends to receive the credits for international calls. The service allows you to use your own number when placing calls over data or wireless connection.
- Skype. Although this app is a little bit out there, we cannot omit it in the list of top VoIP apps. Usual benefits like video calls, texts and file exchange and most importantly its popularity among users making it one of the most usable VoIP apps. Unfortunately, it is losing its top place because of the recent quality reducing and the appearance of new apps in the market. In addition, Skype rates for domestic and international calls are the highest in the market right now.
Although these apps save significantly your budget and increase your social possibilities, there are factors to consider. As with any apps, these may be easy to be monitored/tracked. Consider that every new day it is estimated 82,000 new malware apps are created. Chances are, at some point we have been victims of it. Tracking apps can monitor your Text messages, calls, surrounding noises, and GPS location. Some apps can also track your internet behavior, email, contact list, and social media. Also, some apps may promote themselves as doing one thing, such as enabling free calling while in the background doing many others.
In order to stay safe, avoid and/or take extra caution when performing these operations:
- Performing jailbreak on iPhone and root on Android. These operations change your software that allows the third party to install the app on your phone.
- Beware to constant outgoing messages.
- Beware of unusually short(er) battery life spam.
- And finally, do not install any kind of application without understanding the permissions it’s asking for.
In case your phone is already rooted you shall consider installing anti-spying apps such as “anti-spy mobile”. It works very much like the desktop PC cousin anti-malware. It detects, quarantines and/or removes spyware apps from your cell phone. You can upgrade the app to use advanced detection, scanner, and notifications. The app is free to download on Google Play.