4 ms·

Show HN: Painless, free conference calls

29 points by dylanbfox 11y ago

katzz 11y ago
Hey, we've been working on this as an experiment to see how frictionless we could make phone conferences. Please give us feedback and comments here. Thanks!
shan2nell 11y ago
Simplified call
jbob2000 11y ago
I really like services that make things simpler. Each company seems to have a different process for managing conference calls, so anything to make it easier is a win in my books. That being said, the issue with conference calls has never been about the interface or the cost; people will learn and companies will pay. The issue has always been the network. Dropped calls, bad reception, bad internet, etc. I don't see anything in SwiftCall that addresses that.
- dylanbfox 11y ago
  That’s a really thoughtful point. Definitely agree that the simplicity is only half of the problem. What we think we’re seeing is a trend of more powerful networks becoming available as platforms. For developers and companies to use through things like APIs. And if that is the case, we were interested in experimenting with a simple interface to those platforms. Swiftcall, for example, is built on top of Tropo, which is a cloud communications API that has features like multi-party conferences and add advanced features including recording and SIP. We’re definitely keeping track of feedback about the quality of the calls and network performance, though. Because if that is poor, that’s a much more impactful and memorable bad user experience then the scheduling of the call in the first place. Agree with you there. Thanks for taking the time to check the project out and for your thoughts!
  - jbob2000 11y ago
    Good point about more powerful networks becoming available, that never came to mind when I wrote my critique. I guess the phrase "conference call" is a little dirty to me, so I was quick to judge. Thanks for taking the time to respond!
jjp 11y ago
Does free mean no charge to set-up the call or does free mean a toll free number for the call? Is the number that gets issued +1 only or do you offer a choice of which country the call is hosted in? How do you cater for participants from multiple nations?
- dylanbfox 11y ago
  As of now, the number that's issued is a +1 number. And it's issued for free. You have a really good idea, though. In the future we're thinking about offering the option to select the country where the call is hosted. Or to also allow people to join/call-in right from their browser. That would make it easier for international participants to join as well.
  - webwanderings 11y ago
    So is it not available for anyone outside of US? Is Canada covered?
JoeAltmaier 11y ago
No matter how far we come, we can't escape the 'phone call' experience. I've been working at Sococo for a few years. We designed a communications platform for groups that takes it to the next plane - always connected, frictionless collaboration. You don't have codes and conferences and schedules. You click in and out of zones on a map. Folks are organized in teams, in pre-authenticated groups so no passcodes ever to start talking. Connection times are in milliseconds. You can tell who's communicating with whom at a glance. You can bring someone into a meeting with a click. Alexander Graham is long dead; lets please escape the 'phone call' straightjacket!
rahimnathwani 11y ago
I like: 0) The use of a set of different phone numbers instead of different conference rooms. I don't like: 1) Why only a US number, when people are used to freeconferencecall.com, which has access numbers in many countries? 2) Why make someone visit a web site to set up a call? Isn't the user's calendar (e.g. on their mobile) the natural place for them to set up virtual meetings? 3) Why do I have to enter the PIN manually? RFC2806 defined pause and wait characters for URLs, back in the year 2000: https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2806.txt https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2806.txt Also: 4) The link on the bottom-right of the page leads to https://emerge.cisco.com/ https://emerge.cisco.com/ but that server is refusing connections on port 443. I can connect with plain http.
- dylanbfox 11y ago
  Thanks for your feedback! Right now this is product is just in a pilot phase, but we are absolutely looking into more international options in the future. To your second point, what we think about a lot is an API developers could use to build this functionality into their apps or websites. So while you're in your calendar app, or in your task management app, you could easily accomplish the same thing (quickly scheduling a call and having a number provisioned). Would love your thoughts/feedback on this. And thanks for catching that protocol mismatch!
mariawatson44 11y ago
Is it available in HongKong?
- katzz 11y ago
  Unfortunately it's only available with US conference call numbers at the moment - if we see enough interest in the product we will expand to more countries.
  - mariawatson44 11y ago
    Many thanks :)
pavornyoh 11y ago
How do you make money if it is free?
- katzz 11y ago
  We don't make money on this particular product.

29 points by dylanbfox 11y ago

katzz 11y ago

Hey, we've been working on this as an experiment to see how frictionless we could make phone conferences. Please give us feedback and comments here. Thanks!

shan2nell 11y ago

Simplified call

jbob2000 11y ago

I really like services that make things simpler. Each company seems to have a different process for managing conference calls, so anything to make it easier is a win in my books. That being said, the issue with conference calls has never been about the interface or the cost; people will learn and companies will pay. The issue has always been the network. Dropped calls, bad reception, bad internet, etc. I don't see anything in SwiftCall that addresses that.

dylanbfox 11y ago
That’s a really thoughtful point. Definitely agree that the simplicity is only half of the problem. What we think we’re seeing is a trend of more powerful networks becoming available as platforms. For developers and companies to use through things like APIs. And if that is the case, we were interested in experimenting with a simple interface to those platforms. Swiftcall, for example, is built on top of Tropo, which is a cloud communications API that has features like multi-party conferences and add advanced features including recording and SIP. We’re definitely keeping track of feedback about the quality of the calls and network performance, though. Because if that is poor, that’s a much more impactful and memorable bad user experience then the scheduling of the call in the first place. Agree with you there. Thanks for taking the time to check the project out and for your thoughts!
- jbob2000 11y ago
  Good point about more powerful networks becoming available, that never came to mind when I wrote my critique. I guess the phrase "conference call" is a little dirty to me, so I was quick to judge. Thanks for taking the time to respond!

jjp 11y ago

Does free mean no charge to set-up the call or does free mean a toll free number for the call? Is the number that gets issued +1 only or do you offer a choice of which country the call is hosted in? How do you cater for participants from multiple nations?

dylanbfox 11y ago
As of now, the number that's issued is a +1 number. And it's issued for free. You have a really good idea, though. In the future we're thinking about offering the option to select the country where the call is hosted. Or to also allow people to join/call-in right from their browser. That would make it easier for international participants to join as well.
- webwanderings 11y ago
  So is it not available for anyone outside of US? Is Canada covered?

JoeAltmaier 11y ago

No matter how far we come, we can't escape the 'phone call' experience. I've been working at Sococo for a few years. We designed a communications platform for groups that takes it to the next plane - always connected, frictionless collaboration. You don't have codes and conferences and schedules. You click in and out of zones on a map. Folks are organized in teams, in pre-authenticated groups so no passcodes ever to start talking. Connection times are in milliseconds. You can tell who's communicating with whom at a glance. You can bring someone into a meeting with a click. Alexander Graham is long dead; lets please escape the 'phone call' straightjacket!

rahimnathwani 11y ago

I like: 0) The use of a set of different phone numbers instead of different conference rooms. I don't like: 1) Why only a US number, when people are used to freeconferencecall.com, which has access numbers in many countries? 2) Why make someone visit a web site to set up a call? Isn't the user's calendar (e.g. on their mobile) the natural place for them to set up virtual meetings? 3) Why do I have to enter the PIN manually? RFC2806 defined pause and wait characters for URLs, back in the year 2000: https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2806.txt https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2806.txt Also: 4) The link on the bottom-right of the page leads to https://emerge.cisco.com/ https://emerge.cisco.com/ but that server is refusing connections on port 443. I can connect with plain http.

dylanbfox 11y ago
Thanks for your feedback! Right now this is product is just in a pilot phase, but we are absolutely looking into more international options in the future. To your second point, what we think about a lot is an API developers could use to build this functionality into their apps or websites. So while you're in your calendar app, or in your task management app, you could easily accomplish the same thing (quickly scheduling a call and having a number provisioned). Would love your thoughts/feedback on this. And thanks for catching that protocol mismatch!

mariawatson44 11y ago

Is it available in HongKong?

katzz 11y ago
Unfortunately it's only available with US conference call numbers at the moment - if we see enough interest in the product we will expand to more countries.
- mariawatson44 11y ago
  Many thanks :)

pavornyoh 11y ago

How do you make money if it is free?

katzz 11y ago
We don't make money on this particular product.