TringMe announces API availability and opens up source-code of its Flash telephony widgets

TringMe opens up its platform APIs for developers to empower them to create rich web-based voice applications. TringMe’s open API will allow developers of Adobe Flex, AIR, Symbian S60 or even a pure web platform like PHP, AJAX to create web based, mobile or standalone voice enabled applications easily. For example, Social networking, Dating sites can easily integrate voice as a means of communication in innovative ways, VoIP providers can quickly deploy and offer their services using TringMe’s easy to use Adobe-Flash based web-phone or mobile devices enabled via cheap to use Mobile-VoIP, Game developers, virtual world creators can enable making phone calls from virtual world to real world and vice-versa. The platform is written from scratch to cater to the emerging needs of the internet, mobile devices and their diverse usage - in real world or virtual.

TringMe prides in abstracting the inner details of call signaling and call processing by exposing easy to use, standards based APIs for developers to essentially innovate at the applications level - be it be web based apps, apps for mobile devices or desktop based apps. Our modular structure allows us to offer APIs to be used by any kind of application and not tie us to Adobe Flex, AIR, PHP, AJAX or any such technology or platform. We are offering interface which is cross-platform and scalable on any language. Whether it’s just voice enabling a website, a social networking site (facebook, orkut, myspace etc.), integrating voice into CRM, Sales Management tool or a full-featured desktop AIR application, TringMe’s APIs will scale to your requirements.

Using the simple to use REST based APIs, developers can add telephony capabilities to their apps in a matter of couple of hours. TringMe’s APIs will allow developers to configure and utilize any number of call origination and call termination options as supported by TringSwitch (PSTN, Mobile Phones, VoIP apps, SIP URIs, IM - Gtalk, SMS-initiated calls, Web applications, Browser, Desktop widgets etc).

Developers can also create their own Adobe Flash, Flex or AIR application based on TringMe’s standards based APIs in a matter of couple of hours. Given the powerful functionality of Adobe Flash and the ease of use of TringMe’s APIs, developers will be able to produce compelling voice enabled apps using Adobe’s - Flash, Flex or AIR - technologies. For example, developers can create a fully-functional desktop phone on top of TringMe APIs using Adobe AIR technology.

Unlike some other voice API platforms/technologies/companies, TringMe does not charge for it’s platform APIs. It is completely FREE to build voice enabled applications using TringMe APIs.

To commit itself to the developer community, TringMe also opens up the source code of it’s Flash based widgets. We really want the developers to get a headstart in writing quality applications that integrate voice as a fundamental part of the internet. For e.g. if someone is interested in offering a web-based click-to-call solution based on callback technology (i.e type in your number, type in the destination number and click “call”), as offered by companies like Jajah, Jaxtr, etc. they can implement the meat of the offering in a matter of couple of hours with TringMe APIs.

TringMe’s Mobile-VoIP offering can be leveraged by developers as well. Essentially, it opens up a way by which mobile applications can interface with TringMe. Mobile VoIP customization capability is currently available to limited set of partners and will be available to all developers soon.

So let the voice enabled apps, built on a platform that’s specially optimized for telephony, begin to flow. In other words, let TringMe worry about enabling a reliable voice connection on the internet+mobile and you figure out ways to incorporate this feature in areas where it truly matters - areas like real world scenarios wherein voice can play a dominant effect - and means to creatively monetize the integration thereafter.

TringMe’s API details can be accessed at http://tringme.com/developer.php

We have exposed some more functionality through out partner-only-APIs and will make them available to everyone at a later time. If you need access to functionality besides what’s currently exposed by our platform APIs, do let us know.

We are very much interested in understanding how you intend to use TringMe’s platform. If you have something cool, we will feature it on our website. We are also putting together a place where you can show off your apps via TringMe’s website .. so stay tuned.

100,000 Registered Users & Going Strong

We are extremely pleased to announce TringMe crosses over a 100,000 users since it’s launch in Oct 2007. We are absolutely thrilled to be gaining momentum at such speed, as our service is now being used in several countries.

The word of mouth distribution, contributions from the bloggers worldwide and adoption rate of our platform is proof that people are looking for simpler to stay voice connected with each other. We are adding more features, features that we think will help innovate in this area and look forward to future successes.

Our users continue to be key to our success and we sincerely take this opportunity to thank each and everyone of you for using TringMe. TringMe’s vision is to bring Voice 2.0 to a spectrum which ranges from high-end mobile phones, web, IMs to a common man’s low cost handset, provide capabilities to applications on the web to incorporate this functionality via it’s platform and essentially make voice a fundamental part of the web. It’s been a great ride so far and we hope to cover a lot more road in the future .. Thanks again

TringMe introduces VoIP accessibility from low-end mass market mobile devices

VoIP has been a boon for long distance internet telephony for quite a while now even-though it’s mainly accessible from PCs. A key problem which hasn’t been well-attended so far is a way for a common man who doesn’t have a PC to use VoIP (popularly known as “internet telephony”) to make really cheap worldwide calls. Mobile-VoIP can be an answer to this problem since mobile penetration rate is increasing by many folds every year. In India alone, there are over 200 million mobile users compared to 5 million broadband users. However existing Mobile-VoIP solutions (including one previously introduced by TringMe) really cater to Smartphones and rely on GPRS or 2.5/3G (data network) connections, a combination that isn’t in the reach of a common man.  Statistics show that :

  1. In developing countries like India, more than 80% mobile users do not have data connection on their mobile. And for the remaining ones who have it, data connection is poor to have any effective real time communication like VoIP. We strongly believe that to make Mobile-VoIP a common-place technology, it needs to cater to the lowest-end mobile devices, devices which can just make voice-calls and do SMS. (source: TRAI)
  2. Smartphones only constituted 10% of the total mobiles sold last year (source: Symbian market share data).

So almost 90% of mobile users (which translates to millions of users) – a fairly big share of market – are devoid of using Mobile-VoIP via their existing mobile devices. To address this market, TringMe, after successfully demonstrating Mobile VoIP from a Smartphone, is now launching a new patent pending service which allows a low-end mobile phone to make VoIP based calls without installing anything. All one needs to do is send an SMS to TringMe and it will connect you to any phone number worldwide. It’s very convenient – no PC’s, no smartphone, no 3G/data connectivity and no configuration - just send a SMS containing the phone number and you are connected. Couple this convenience with TringMe’s extremely competitive low-price worldwide calling rates for a win-win combination. Infact, with this the call can terminate not only on phone but on any of the devices that TringMe terminates on. For e.g if a user has configured his TringMe profile to terminate inbound calls on IM (e.g. Gtalk), then sending an SMS with user’s tringme address will establish the call from the caller to user GTalk client.

With this feature, scheduling calls is as easy is sending an SMS with relevant details in the body. TringMe’s infrastructure takes care of establishing the call at the scheduled time.

We are very excited to demonstrate this technology thereby creating a market opportunity to deliver TringMe’s key offerings on a common man’s low-end mobile device as well.

TringMe continues to be in the forefront of the web-based telephony space with its well-rounded portfolio. It currently provides click-to-call widgets, fully web-based SIP phone, enterprise and consumer centric web-based toll-free service, Mobile-VoIP, ability to make and receive web based calls on phones, IMs and Web. TringMe’s platform – TringSwitch – is an enterprise grade scalable platform developed from scratch to provide optimum performance for web-based telephony. We are also planning to collaborate with global players including providers, retailers etc to take this service to next level. Write to us if you like to join hands.

VoIP calls from low-end mobile devices
It’s very easy to use this service. The alpha pilot is currently only available in India. You can send an SMS to 91- 9980153695 to try out this service. Please follow the instructions below:

Register
1 - Register with TringMe if you haven’t already – http://tringme.com

2- Register the mobile with TringMe from which one wants to make the low cost worldwide call. User can register their mobile with their TringMe account by sending an SMS as follows:

tringme reg <tringme username> <tringme password>

For example, “tringme reg myname@myemail.com abcdef”

A confirmation message will be received about success of the registration.

Making Calls 
Once registered, user can make worldwide calls, not only to the phones but to Gtalk, SIP URI etc by merely sending an SMS as follows:

tringme <phonenumber>

for example, to call a US number 1-(858)-555-1212, one only need to send a SMS “tringme 18585551212”

Users can also call millions of worldwide SIP users just by using SIP URI as follows:

tringme <SIP URI>

To make a call to a registered TringMe user, send an SMS as follows:

tringme <user’s email address>

This will establish a call from the originator’s mobile device to the calle’s currently configured termination device. For example, if user has chose to receive call on Gtalk, sending above SMS will connect your phone to his or her Gtalk.

Scheduling a Call
You can even schedule a call for later time, say for a business meeting or conference. TringMe understand time in plain english and you can specify absolute date and time or in relative terms. You can schedule it in one of several ways:

tringme 18585551212 next week  11:30AM
tringme 18585551212 March 17, 2008 11:30AM
tringme 18585551212 tomorrow 11:30AM

The time specified will be as per the timezone setting which you have configured in your TringMe profile.

To unscheduled a call, just send “tringme unsched <call id>” in the SMS body.

Other
One can unregister the mobile currently registered with TringMe by sending message “tringme unreg“.
To check the account balance, send message “tringme bal”.  Also, “tringme help” message will get you help on existing commands.

As mentioned above, the alpha pilot is currently only available in India. We are presently working on adding more messaging gateways and enabling this service in other countries as well. During beta, you may rarely experience minor delay in SMS processing during peak hours and we will appreciate your patience.

We really look forward to hearing your comments and feedback.

Call Worldwide using Google Talk (Gtalk)

TringMe now allows making calls from Google Talk (Gtalk). As you know, natively, Gtalk doesn’t support making phone calls. This is yet another feature which underlines TringMe’s core philosophy of not requiring any software installation for purposes of using TringMe. If you already have Gtalk installed, then with this capability, making a worldwide call to any phone or SIP URI from Gtalk is as simple as sending a message using Gtalk. Calls made from Gtalk can be terminated on all devices that TringMe currently supports.

TringMe continues to innovate in providing connectivity between heterogeneous end-points based on calle and caller’s convenience including IMs, Web, Landline and Mobile Phones.

Although this feature is currently under test and is scheduled to be commercially released by February end, it’s available for you to try it. Please note that you will need to sign up at TringMe with a gmail ID so that we can associate a TringMe account when you make a call from Gtalk (signup with TringMe using same email id as Gtalk). As you may already know, worldwide calling rates offered by TringMe are very competitive and almost half than Skype or other VoIP providers.

To make a call, all you need to do is send a message to tringme@gmail.com from Gtalk. Please note that you would have added tringme to the list of friends in Gtalk already.

In all cases, you will get an inbound call from TringMe and once you answer, the call to the intended party will be initiated. This also opens a new way for developers to integrate core TringMe functionalities using Google or Jabber APIs.

TringMe also demonstrated MobileVoIP at an even in India last month – some details are here 

Enjoy the new way of making calls. Let us know how you liked this new service. We look forward to your suggestions and feedback.

TringMe launches Toll-free Platform for Enterprises

TringMe announces availability of web-based toll-free platform for Enterprises. Key advantages of TringMe’s toll-free platform over the existing traditional (e.g. 1-800 numbers in USA) toll-free solutions are to allow enterprises to deploy toll-free services at extremely low cost and also offer worldwide reachability.

As we had mentioned in the last post, we are almost ready to release public beta of live phone widget, one of the most asked features of TringMe. In brief, live phone widget enables a user to make a phone call by merely clicking on the widget. We have been giving it to a limited set of testers so far and we are quite happy with the results.

Enterprises and call centers have shown keen interest in TringMe’s technology, especially to compliment their existing toll-free (e.g. like 1-800 numbers in USA) services by using TringMe widgets. TringMe is the easiest way to stay connected on the web, no numbers to dial – just push and talk. Leveraging this capability to implement a single click to connect to customer support can enhance the usability and value of an enterprise in the eyes of its customers. Enterprises can not only improve overall interaction with customers by providing web based toll-free access, but at the same time save drastically on telephone cost to offer such a service, a win-win situation for both the parties. In addition, unlike normal toll-free service that is limited within a geographic region, toll-free calls using TringMe can be received from worldwide users.

Advantages are obvious and easy to visualize – enterprises can setup their complete sales & support system or call center in almost no cost that replaces or complements existing toll-free service. Enterprises can also expect better response as customers do not have to dial any number neither do they have to spend on airtime if they are using cell phone (1-800 numbers are subjected to airtime charges). Imagine a customer, reading your sales pitch on your website, can merely by a press of a button talk to you at absolutely no cost, neither to you nor to customer. Enterprises can introduce custom announcements or integrate IVR with TringMe to offer a consistent and complete experience.

TringMe’s toll free platform can route calls to the existing enterprise infrastructure – SIP server, PBX that manages the enterprise wide telephony. Here are a few ways an enterprise can use TringMe to provide web-based toll-free accessibility:

TringMe route calls to enterprise SIP sever. A key benefit for the enterprise would be to offer free web based call at absolutely no cost thereby eliminating major telephony (and possibly infrastructure) costs.

If the enterprise does not have its own SIP server, TringMe offers a hosted solution. TringMe will offer dedicated or shared server for enterprise use depending on the individual requirements, thereby offering a competitive price.

Alternatively, TringMe can route the web calls to enterprise’s chosen destinations including PBX, landlines, cell phones or even Gtalk, Skype (Skype support is coming soon).

TringMe offers all necessary features for enterprise level call management, including call hunting, call queuing, resource loading, alternate call routing, etc. TringMe solution enables enterprises to create as many real and virtual extensions as required. To provide a consistent user experience, most of the features available via 1-800 toll-free lines (e.g. music on hold) are available via TringMe as well.

As always, we look forward to feedback and suggestions. Please write to us bizdev@tringme.com if you are interested in using TringMe for your enterprise.

TringMe expands reach to more countries in Asia and Europe

We are very excited to expand TringMe’s  service to several countries within Asia and Europe.  TringMe now reaches millions of users in China, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Puerto Rico, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, and UK. This is in addition to the mobile and landline support available in US and Canada since TringMe’s inception.

Apart from the above expansion, a lot more is happening at TringMe. One of the most asked feature was the live talk from the web feature (our phone widget). In brief, live talk is the ability to use TringMe’s phone widget to make a phone call. So far, we have limited the phone widget for the key testers only. Results so far are quite exciting and we will soon release the phone widget for public beta. If you are covering TringMe or intend to blog about the widget and would like to have a preview of it before launch, do write to us.

We have two more exciting features coming…any guesses ?

10,000 Calls - A significant milestone

I am happy to announce small but to us, a significant milestone…10,000 calls on TringMe’s platform. I am simply thrilled and waiting for this to happen!!!

Thanks you all for your support and look forward to more participations and feedback. We are still slow in issuing invites but things should improve going forward.