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When I'm in Japan and want to talk with my insurance company, bank, or airline over on the other side of the world, there's just one way: A phone number. Which
by Tor3 8y ago
When I'm in Japan and want to talk with my insurance company, bank, or airline over on the other side of the world, there's just one way: A phone number. Which is the (main) reason I'm still using Skype. There are other, and sometimes better, alternatives for video/chat/group chats/photos etc. But still nothing that competes with Skype's phone support, although Skype in general has degenerated a lot since the early days.
- kingosticks 8y agoIs viber still around? I used to use that.
- Tor3 8y agoviber is still operating. But I've never used it. Their landline calling system is 'package'-based, unlike the very straight forward Skype setup. On viber's web site there's not even a simple way of listing the countries they support. You have to 'search' for a country, and then you get an offer of various packages to use. Way too much hassle, and too limited (you have to buy a 'package' for each country you want to call. Not very convenient). For ordinary chats, groups, video conversations, file / movie / photo / album sharing etc. I use Naver Line, as nearly every Japanese do as far as I can tell.
- newsbinator 8y agoVery popular in Eastern Europe.
- jackson1way 8y agoI use Google Voice For the same reason! It‘s even better: it has a free US phone number. So my insurance could call me on that number while I‘m in Japan.
- Tor3 8y agoGoogle Voice as a service is limited to the US and Canada, so if you're a North American it's a good alternative I guess. Otherwise, not so much.
- conquistadog 8y agoI find that GV is also excellent at inbound robocall and spam rejection, FWIW.
- hycaria 8y agoWhat about regular phone, landlines and stuff + email for pictures and so on ? This alternative still exists afaik. Some telecom companies even have offers for calling abroad if you move a lot.
- Tor3 8y agoInternational call rates. Recently this has been unified throughout Europe, including removing roaming charges for data, but calling from/to outside Europe is still very expensive. Even sending text messages (and receiving, which is normally free) is expensive. Thus Skype. And it's also cool to have a Skype-in number in Japan[1], which will be forwarded to your Skype account wherever you are, or to your phone if you're offline (if so configured). That's nice when you have very old family members who prefer to use a (local) phone call to get in touch. So Skype covers some use cases which I can't easily cover by other means. For the "normal" communication which doesn't involve a phone I mostly use other tools nowadays though. [1]With the restriction that Japan only allows Skype-in numbers if you're a resident.