FooTalk has upgraded its smartphone calling app to allow users to call their Facebook friends anywhere in the world for free, providing they have the app too.
Android and iOS users can download the free FooTalk app from the Google Play or App Store, which will seamlessly sync all their Facebook contacts with the service.
Within the app interface, FooTalk stores the Facebook contacts in a separate tab of the address book. Friends that are available to chat are clearly identified, as are contacts that already have the FooTalk app.
If a Facebook contact also has the FooTalk app, the user can call them for free without having their number. If both contacts don’t have the app, the FooTalk app user can still call them on any international phone number for a low rate, which FooTalk claims to be lower than Skype or other VoIP competitors.
“With Facebook now connecting over 680 million mobile users, we want to offer people the chance to take this connection over and above simply sharing status updates and images,” said co-founder of FooTalk, Graeme Hutchinson.
“We believe this is the next step in how we will use social media to communicate and have made this functionality as simple and easy to use as possible, ensuring that even the least technical Facebook users can connect with each other on a call as well as in the usual way.”
If the selected Facebook friend isn’t free to chat, the FooTalk app allows the user to leave a message on their wall.
“FooTalk has always aimed to be a customer-centric service. Our app is built around the needs or our users and developing this update was no different.”
In terms of privacy, the FooTalk app only retrieves the name and ID of each Facebook contact, which can be deleted at will from the app. The app will also never create Facebook posts without the consent of the user, useful when there are so many apps that request Facebook access and leave a trail on a user’s Facebook feed.
“Where we’ve introduced functions to quickly invite and notify Facebook friends from within the app, we’ve also ensured these are always subject to the user choosing to do so, rather than anything happening automatically or behind-the-scenes. This way, users are in complete control of FooTalk and how they use it with Facebook.”
Have you tried the FooTalk app previously? What do you think of the rates offered by the app? Drop us a line at the TrustedReviews Facebook and Twitter feeds or use the comment boxes below.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
